PoliGazette » Britain Goes Nuclear

Britain Goes Nuclear

Filed under: Britain, Energy, Europe, France, Nuclear Energy, The Netherlands, United States — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on January 10, 2008 @ 5:00 pm CET

Ed Morrissey reports, linking to this article at Yahoo news, that Britain ” has endorsed nuclear power as a solution to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. They will encourage new facility construction with an eye to having the next generation of stations on line by 2020.”

As Ed points out, this isn’t exactly the solution the environmental lobby was looking for, but the fact of the matter is that nuclear energy is quite safe and that we don’t have to worry too much about the effect it will have on the environment: in fact, it will probably be good for the environment.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace couldn’t care less, however, and said: “We need energy efficiency, cleaner use of fossil fuels, renewables and state of the art decentralized power stations like those in Scandinavia. That’s the way to defeat climate change and ensure energy security.”

As Ed rightfully points out, “[t]he problem with the Greenpeace approach is that it won’t generate the energy levels we already have now, let alone what we’ll need in 2020 and beyond.”

Without nuclear power the West has a problem. With nuclear power, however, we don’t. The solution to the energy problem really is simple: we’ve got to use to nuclear power. Now, those who oppose it will try to make citizens afraid of nuclear power (plants) by using the horrible events of Chernobyl as an example of what’ll happen if Western countries, in this case Britain, go nuclear, but the reality is that much has been improved over time and that there’s virtually no chance that we’ll see a Chernobyl II.

In the Netherlands we use the nuclear energy France produces: that way our politicians can pretend that they keep their hands clean. The reality is, however, that they don’t and that they shouldn’t. Nuclear energy isn’t just a perfect solution for Britain, but it’s also a great solution for the United States and the Netherlands.

France is nuclear, Britain goes nuclear, the rest of the West should follow suit. Quickly.

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