There is a delightful irony in the fact that, even as the sun sets slowly on
the era of fossil fuels, two of the countries with oil and gas reserves that
have powered the global economy for decades are now at the cutting edge of the
nuclear-power renaissance.
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The United Arab Emirates is already generating
electricity at its Barakah nuclear plant. When all four of its reactors come
online, the plant will provide a quarter of the UAE’s power.
Saudi Arabia — blessed not only with the great gift
of oil that transformed its fortunes, but also with vast reserves of the
uranium required for nuclear generation — is also planning its first reactor in
collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Oil and gas will continue to flow from the region
for years to come. But what both countries understand – and what those calling
for an immediate halt to production and consumption of fossil fuels refuse to
acknowledge — is that without the revenues from fossil fuels, the expensive
transition to renewable energy simply cannot be accomplished.
“Renaissance” might seem an odd term for a
technology that lit its first light bulbs almost 70 years ago. But over the
years of fossil-fuel plenty, nuclear power has had plenty of bad press.
Partly this is because the technology has been
tainted by association with the atomic bombing of Japan at the end of World War
II, which is about as logical as refusing to drink water because people have
been known to drown in it.
Others point to the potential for disaster. The
latest example of such anti-nuclear propaganda is the book “Atoms and Ashes”,
by Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy.
Plokhy romps gleefully through the well-thumbed
catalogue of nuclear accidents — Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima
are the headliners. But, as one science commentator has pointed out, these
examples “do not adequately support his ultimate conclusion that nuclear energy
isn’t a safe choice for powering our future”.
Mistakes were undoubtedly made, and corners surely
cut in the early years of reactor design. But lessons have been learned and
modern reactors are extremely safe. The thorny issue of spent fuel disposal is
also being solved.
More to the point, despite the widespread
science-fiction hysteria about nuclear energy, there have been only two major
accidents — Three Mile Island was a partial reactor meltdown with no casualties
— the consequences of which were far less severe than many have been led to
believe.
Compare these nuclear disasters with the toll of fossil fuels — for a start, the estimated 8.7 million people who die each year because of related air pollution, to say nothing of the countless lives that have been lost to coal mining.
To date, 46 deaths have been directly attributed to
the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, although the overall number of fatalities
linked to the accident is widely disputed along with the scale of the health
impact from the radiation. Either way, the accident was the result of a flawed
Soviet-era reactor being operated by badly trained personnel.
The plant at Fukushima was damaged in 2011 by a
tsunami, triggered by the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan. No
one died.
Compare these nuclear disasters with the toll of
fossil fuels — for a start, the estimated 8.7 million people who die each year
because of related air pollution, to say nothing of the countless lives that
have been lost to coal mining.
No form of mass energy production is without risk.
In 1975, the collapse of the Banqiao hydroelectric dam in China killed more
than 170,000 people. But did the world abandon hydroelectric power? No.
Yet, after Fukushima, nations that really should
have known better were panicked into abandoning nuclear power for purely
political reasons. Germany, faced with nationwide anti-nuclear protests and
pressure from the green vote, pulled the plug on nuclear generation virtually
overnight.
Until 2011, 25 percent of the country’s energy came
from 17 nuclear reactors. Today, the three that remain operational are marked
for shutdown by the end of this year. Meanwhile, Germany is reopening shuttered
coal-powered plants.
The reality is that nuclear power is the ultimate
clean, reliable energy source. Wind, solar, and hydropower are great, but when
the wind does not blow, the sun does not shine, and water does not flow, there
are only two options — fossil fuels or nuclear.
This is recognized and embraced by the UAE and Saudi
Arabia, countries where major decisions can be taken and acted upon swiftly,
and whose leadership in the nuclear field bodes well for all our futures.
In working with the IAEA, the two Gulf states are
showing what can be achieved in a remarkably short time and encouraging the
global nuclear industry to develop ever more compact and affordable nuclear
reactors. This in turn is paving the way for other nations, further down the
development ladder, to follow suit.
Whenever world leaders gather for climate-change
conferences, much of the debate centers sanctimoniously on the need for
developing countries to curb their appetites for fossil fuels. Coming from
European nations such as the United Kingdom, which launched the fossil fuel era
and powered the growth of their economies with coal and oil, this is laughably
hypocritical.
The West should stand up to the perversely
disruptive green lobby, embrace nuclear energy as the planet-saving technology
it is and, instead of suggesting that developing countries kick the fossil
habit and hamper their economic growth, support them with the funding and
know-how they need to embrace nuclear power.
Without it, the world could well be doomed. In 2005,
66.5 percent of global electricity was generated by burning fossil fuels. In
2019, it was 63 percent. In 14 years, we have made almost no progress.
The solution, as the UAE and Saudi Arabia recognize,
is nuclear power. It is time for the world to grow up, ditch the irrational
attitude toward nuclear energy, and follow their leadership.
Jonathan Gornall is a British journalist, formerly with The Times, who has lived and
worked in the Middle East and is now based in the UK. Syndication Bureau.
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