Posted: 13th March 2022
Paul Dorfman, George Monbiot / Germany
Letter Paul Dorfman: Agreed, Russian gas bad – but George Monbiot’s attack on Germany, Europe’s largest economy, seems deeply misplaced (It’s not too late to free ourselves from this idiotic addiction to Russian gas, 9 March). The German energy transition is all about replacing conventional power plants, fissile as well as fossil fuel, with renewables. Looking at both short- and mid-term energy scenarios, Germany decided that the costs and risks of keeping nuclear outweighed the limited benefits.Meanwhile, worldwide, renewables are exponentially ramping up, and nuclear declining. Global renewable electricity capacity is forecast to increase by over 60% between 2020 and 2026, reaching more than 4,800GW. This is equivalent to the current global power capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear combined. And here’s the killer: Russia produces about 35% of the world’s enriched uranium for nuclear reactors, and the EU’s uranium imports from Russia equal those from Niger, at 2,545 tonnes. The Fukushima disaster made Monbiot pro-nuclear and now military attack on nuclear in Ukraine makes him even more so. Good luck with that. Guardian 10th March 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/10/nuclear-option-is-not-the-best-for-energy-transition-away-from-russian-fuels
Rae Street, George Monbiot / Germany
Letter Rae Street: What on earth does George Monbiot mean when he refers to small modular reactors as “kinder nuclear technologies”? SMRs are still vulnerable to accidents and attack (think of what happened in Ukraine); they still produce more nuclear waste per unit of electricity than conventional reactors; and there is still no safe, long-term solution for radioactive waste. Additionally, these reactors will remain dependent on uranium for fuel – when we know that uranium mining has caused suffering and death to mainly indigenous people across the world. Guardian 10th March 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/10/nuclear-option-is-not-the-best-for-energy-transition-away-from-russian-fuels