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Blair's Nuclear Dream(Host intro) Energy security will also be on the G-8 agenda this weekend. Russian President Putin and George Bush have urged endorsement of nuclear power. Earlier this week, Britain‘s Tony Blair also came out for nuclear. But commentator Mark Hertsgaard says there‘s a big catch in Blair‘s nuclear plan, one that could settle the question of whether nuclear makes sense as a response to global warming. ... (Mark Hertsgaard) ... The catch is that Britain will not subsidize nuclear power. Private investors alone must pay to build and eventually dismantle any new nuclear plants. They also must help pay to dispose of radioactive waste. This no-subsidy pledge amounts to a revolution in nuclear economics. Not one of the 440 nuclear plants now operating worldwide was built without sizable public subsidies. Governments have subsidized nukes both directly—through R&D funding and cheap insurance—and indirectly, by allowing electric companies to pass billion dollar cost overruns onto consumers. The US government has historically spent ten times more on nuclear subsidies than it has for solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. Nevertheless, nuclear power remains forbiddingly expensive. A recent MIT study calculated that in the U.S. nuclear costs fifty percent more per kilowatt hour than natural gas. And nuclear costs vastly more than the least polluting form of electricity, energy efficiency. Investors know this. That‘s why nuclear power survives today only in countries like Russia, China and France, where state-controlled electricity systems can ignore market forces. If G8 leaders want to honor last year‘s pledge to fight climate change, they need to understand that going nuclear would actually make things worse. Because nuclear power is so expensive, it delivers seven times fewer greenhouse reductions per dollar invested than boosting energy efficiency does. Some say, why not have both? But in the real world, capital is scarce. To divert it to nuclear power when efficiency can work so much faster would delay our transition to a low-carbon economy when in fact we need to accelerate it. It‘s hard to believe Blair doesn‘t know this. In any case, he‘s in for a big surprise if he truly expects any nuclear plants will be built anywhere, without continued subsidies from the public purse. Mark Hertsgaard is the environmental correspondent for The Nation. His article on global warming, While Washington Slept, appeared in Vanity Fair's May 2006 "green issue". |
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