Ukraine War doesn't mean more Oil, Coal and Gas

and build more nuclear power plants – Dr Richard Dixon. The terrible war
in Ukraine is being used by opponents of green energy to promote more oil
and gas, new nuclear and even fracking. None of which makes the slightest
sense. Boris Johnson is rumoured to be considering all of these for his
energy security strategy. The real answers are energy efficiency and
replacing gas heating with heat pumps for homes and commercial buildings,
as well as accelerating the deployment of renewable energy. And these
measures would immediately and permanently reduce energy bills, meaning
that households would no longer be at the mercy of international fossil
fuel prices. But, never one to waste a good crisis, the oil industry tells
us that the answer to rising prices caused by fossil fuels is to produce
yet more fossil fuels. Nuclear enthusiasts have also jumped on the
bandwagon. Which is ironic because the new Olkiluoto reactor in Finland
started operating this week, after 17 years of construction, opening 13
years later than originally planned. It has also cost three or four times
the original price. The UK’s own Hinkley Point C reactors were approved
in 1990 and were supposed to be online in 2017 but 2026 is the latest
estimate. Some point to the newer idea of (not so) small modular reactors
but their proponents admit that, even if things went smoothly (which they
wouldn’t) they would not be with us until the mid-2030s. And of course,
nuclear fusion is still 30 years away, as it has been for the last 70
years. The only sensible answer is to massively accelerate the things we
are already doing that can make a difference quickly, and that is improving
energy efficiency, swapping out gas-fired heating for heat pumps and
building more renewables.

Scotsman 17th March 2022 

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/why-ukraine-russia-war-does-not-mean-we-should-produce-more-oil-and-gas-and-build-more-nuclear-power-plants-dr-richard-dixon-3613500