During Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to the United Kingdom this month, overshadowed by the British media’s obsession with the French president’s glamorous new wife, the French and the British governments not only decided to usher in a new era with the declaration of an “Entente Formidable” but also underlined their desire to cooperate on a whole host of issues, in particular a new generation of nuclear power plants by sharing information on safety, security and waste disposal. Sarkozy emphasised that both Britain and France “understand that nuclear energy is the energy of the future”.France, of course, is the world leader when it comes to nuclear technology. Around 79 per cent of France’s energy requirements are met by nuclear energy. But Britain is also gradually moving towards nuclear energy in a big way with a significant expansion in its nuclear power industry. Currently, Britain has 23 nuclear reactors that provide around 20 per cent of the nation’s electricity. The British government is now calling for the creation of a £20 billion industry with 100,000 new jobs and wants to make the UK “the gateway to a new nuclear renaissance across Europe.” It has already approved plans to replace its ageing nuclear plants and emerged as a priority market for the nuclear power industry.After decades of being ostracised by policymakers, nuclear energy is coming back to the mainstream and with a bang. Faced with rising oil process and growing concerns about climate change, nations are giving the nuclear energy option a serious consideration. There is a new enthusiasm for nuclear energy at a time when concerns about curbing global warming and energy security have become paramount. Even in Germany, there are attempts to have a rethink on nuclear policy as it finds itself caught between its pledge to eliminate nuclear power and its pledge to slash carbon emissions. Nuclear power continues to have a public relations problem as its mere mention raises the spectre of another Chernobyl and the Three Mile Island, not to mention proliferation and dirty bombs. But things are rapidly changing with previous staunch opponents such as Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, now joining the bandwagon, convinced by the growing evidence that nuclear power is the most efficient energy source around today. There is a growing list of environmentalists who are openly advocating nuclear power today. The “father” of the contemporary global environmental movement, James Lovelock, is now claiming that the challenges of global warming can only be tackled by nuclear energy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasised in its report last year that countries could use more nuclear power as part of a shift away from fossil fuels in order to blunt global warming. An unforeseen consequence of the anti-nuclear movement of the ’60s and ’70s in the West was that it impeded the growth of nuclear power, which, though risky, is the most environment-friendly of energy resources, even as it boosted coal and oil-sourced electricity generation which, it now turns out, has damaged the environment probably beyond repair. Now, the US is planning to construct more than 20 new nuclear plants after a 20-year moratorium. With oil and gas prices at an all-time high and political opposition to the construction of new coal-burning power plants rising, many feel that nuclear power can fill the vacuum efficiently. By replacing fossil-fuel power plants for generating electricity, nuclear energy is seen as an effective means of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute heavily to global warming. The economies of China and India remain heavily reliant on coal and oil and nuclear energy will make for an attractive option. China, in fact, wants to construct more than 60 nuclear reactors in the next few years. It has already signed the largest deal in the history of the nuclear power industry with Areva, the French nuclear power giant.So if nuclear power is affordable, cheap, dependable, safe and environment-friendly, why does its embrace continue to be half-hearted? While some critical issues remain to be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction such as the management of the radioactive waste and the spill-over effect of civilian nuclear technology into weapon programmes, it is the exorbitant costs of building the nuclear power plants that continue to prevent this source from being exploited to its full potential. Despite this, nuclear power is increasingly being seen as a viable solution to the energy problem that confronts the world today. It is time India joined the world in recognising that nuclear power is “the least worst solution to our urgent need for carbon-free fuel source”, and finalising the Indo-US nuclear deal at the earliest will be a small, albeit significant, step in that direction.The writer teaches at King’s College Londonharsh.pant@kcl.ac.uk
