A new report, headed by Dr Mike Weightman, the UK’s chief nuclear inspector has concluded that there is no reason why the government’s plans to build new nuclear reactors should not be allowed to continue. The report was commissioned by the government as a response to the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
The report states that the UK’s nuclear industry is one of the safest in the world, but that safety improvements should continue to be made wherever possible. The reason we need the new reactors is to meet the UK’s carbon reduction targets, mentioned in my previous post. Without the energy produced by the new nuclear power stations, the UK would find it very difficult to meet its target of halving its carbon dioxide emissions by 2025.
In the longer term, I hope that renewable energy will provide the bulk of the UK’s energy requirements, but that’s still a way off at the moment and nuclear energy has the potential to fill the gap whilst not producing CO2 emissions.
However, as the Fukushima accident has shown, systems can fail and if that were to happen in the UK, the results would be long lasting and possibly disastrous in scale. I don’t want more nuclear power for the UK, but I don’t want our CO2 emissions to grow either. So, nuclear power possibly the best short term solution we’ve got if we want to avoid energy shortages, but it shouldn’t be the long term one. Renewables have to be given the investment and prominence they need in order to become our main energy source of the future.
UK nuclear programme to go ahead
A new report, headed by Dr Mike Weightman, the UK’s chief nuclear inspector has concluded that there is no reason why the government’s plans to build new nuclear reactors should not be allowed to continue. The report was commissioned by the government as a response to the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
The report states that the UK’s nuclear industry is one of the safest in the world, but that safety improvements should continue to be made wherever possible. The reason we need the new reactors is to meet the UK’s carbon reduction targets, mentioned in my previous post. Without the energy produced by the new nuclear power stations, the UK would find it very difficult to meet its target of halving its carbon dioxide emissions by 2025.
In the longer term, I hope that renewable energy will provide the bulk of the UK’s energy requirements, but that’s still a way off at the moment and nuclear energy has the potential to fill the gap whilst not producing CO2 emissions.
However, as the Fukushima accident has shown, systems can fail and if that were to happen in the UK, the results would be long lasting and possibly disastrous in scale. I don’t want more nuclear power for the UK, but I don’t want our CO2 emissions to grow either. So, nuclear power possibly the best short term solution we’ve got if we want to avoid energy shortages, but it shouldn’t be the long term one. Renewables have to be given the investment and prominence they need in order to become our main energy source of the future.