Nuclear energy discussion evening

Friday 8 October saw the discussion evening on nuclear power. Gerard Brinkman of the environmental organisation WISE told us more about WISE's views on nuclear energy. WISE takes action against nuclear power and wants to achieve a sustainable world through clean energy (solar, wind, hydro and biomass).

During the discussion evening, both the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power were discussed. Advantages of nuclear power include low CO2 emissions, the limited space occupied by a nuclear power plant compared to, say, a wind farm, the continuous availability of nuclear power and the low cost of energy production.

This does have its drawbacks. Although energy production is cheap, building a nuclear power plant and storing radioactive waste is very expensive. Producing nuclear energy produces few CO2 emissions, but the construction of nuclear power plants and the extraction and transport of the raw material uranium do release CO2. Moreover, nuclear energy creates radioactive waste, for which no proper solution has yet been found. The waste continues to give off radioactive radiation for a long time, with risks to health. There also remains the risk of a serious accident, as in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Another major drawback is that nuclear power is not a short-term solution, as building a nuclear power plant takes a very long time. Building a nuclear power plant is often used as a ‘distraction’ in the political debate, while action is needed now.

After listing the pros and cons, a few members asked critical questions of Gerard. The questions included how other countries deal with nuclear power and an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report.

The conclusion of the evening is that the essential question is whether nuclear power is actually needed to combat climate change.

The discussion evening was very interesting and gave us a better understanding of the pros and cons of nuclear power.

Want to read more about WISE's views on nuclear power? Then click here.

Political programme DWARS

Currently, the following text appears in DWARS's political programme:

“DWARS is not against nuclear power on principle. However, we do oppose the construction of new nuclear power plants: the costs are higher than those of renewables, it takes too much time to build a nuclear power plant and it does not improve the stability of the power grid. Current power plants are 14 only shut down early if fossil fuels are no longer used to produce electricity on the same grid.”

Do you have a (different) opinion on nuclear power and would like to express it in DWARS's political programme? To Wednesday 20 October you can here submit an amendment proposal.