Sir, – Further to the letter “Meeting Ireland’s energy needs” through nuclear energy (February 26th), Project Drawdown, the gold-standard catalogue of climate solutions devised by expert multidisciplinary global teams, classifies nuclear energy as a “regrets” industry best phased out. High complexity; major water extraction and spoilage; no methods yet invented to safely recycle or store core reactor waste products (some emitting toxic radiation for up to millions of years, with effects compounded by each addition); and mainstreaming of better alternatives are among reasons given: all justifying the Carnsore protesters 45 years ago.
Our World in Data shows that the cost of producing electricity from nuclear operations has been rising steadily year on year. In contrast, the price for solar power declined by 89 per cent between 2009 and 2019, and continues to drop, as for wind energy.
Boondoggles like Hinkley Point in the UK are investment magnets for public funds better spent on public services. Budget overruns, delays and breakdowns plague nuclear plants everywhere.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) have been promised since the 1950s but the only one under construction in the US was cancelled in 2023 due to skyrocketing costs and, not counting just two prototypes under test, one each in Russia and China, no SMRs are in commercial use yet in the world.
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Advocates for nuclear in the clean energy transition have sprung up since, after a very close 2022 vote, the European Parliament approved amended EU taxonomy rules labelling investments in gas and nuclear power plants as climate-friendly, despite objections by many environmentalists who decried this hijacking of the EU’s key instrument of green policy as “openly accomplished through a campaign of misinformation conducted by the nuclear lobby”. – Yours, etc,
CAROLINE HURLEY,
Cloughjordan,
Co Tipperary.