More Nuclear Plants for the UK?

Setting up a new nuclear power plant may not be a strictly technical decision but based on several factors such as political opposition, environmental concerns and so forth. This argument is a common feature amongst most parts of the world including the countries of Europe. One of the questions facing a leading European economy is – does the UK need more nuclear power plants? Well I will not give any definite opinion here but present you with both sides of the argument so that you can decide for yourself.

UK depends significantly on nuclear power as a source of energy. Look at the pie-chart shown in the figure below and that would give you an idea about the percentage of energy mix in the UK. You can see that roughly one-fourths of the energy needs of UK are satisfied through nuclear power plants. Yet there is lot of opposition to built new nuclear plants in the UK. The reasons cited by the opponents as well as the clarifications given by the supporters are given in the next section.

Given below are the arguments for and against the setting up of nuclear power plants listed side by side.

• Opponents: There is not sufficient uranium in the UK and its mining is extremely costly
• Supporters: The quantity of uranium is nearly 600 times that of gold and equal to that of tin

• Opponents: it is not a clean option though it is advertised as no-carbon-emission alternative but its leads to huge greenhouse effects indirectly
• Supporters: greenhouse effects are lower than wind, solar and hydroelectric generation units

• Opponents: nuclear technology is not safe for humans and environment. After all who can forget what occurred in Chernobyl.
• Supporters: that was an unfortunate accident otherwise nuclear power is quite safe.

• Opponents: nuclear power is expensive when all costs are taken into account. Only running costs are lower
• Supporters: Once it is built it is one of the cheapest options, and this difference will further increase as oil prices rise higher

• Opponents: terrorists and fundamental groups can use as targets for attack to harm huge number of people
• Supporters: highly powerful and directed multiple attacks are required to pierce the thick shield of concrete and steel that surround a nuclear reactors. Buildings such as twin towers are much easier targets

• Opponents: waste generated by nuclear plants is highly toxic, radioactive and difficult to dispose off?
• Supporters: even for the next three decades the total highly radioactive that would be generated in the UK could fit in a trench which is few tens of a meter across on each side

So the Winner Is?

Of course the arguments given above are not specifically for UK but could fit any other region or nation of the world. I would simply conclude the article by stating that like any other technology nuclear energy is a two edged sword and needs to be included in the energy mix of any nation but the label – Handle with Care – should always be remembered.