A renegade against green peace

Other than hydroelectric energy, nuclear is the only technology besides fossil fuels available as a large-scale continuous power source, and one you can rely on to be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, says Patrick Moore, one of the cofounders of Greenpeace and now a critic of the environmental movement.

The idea that nuclear power is not cost competitive is simply not true, says Moore:

France, which produces 80 per cent of its electricity with nuclear, does not have high energy costs.

Sweden, which produces 50 per cent of its energy with nuclear and 50 per cent with hydro, has very reasonable energy costs.

The cost of production of electricity among the 104 nuclear plants operating in the United States is 1.68 cents per kilowatt-hour; the cost of production of electricity from nuclear is very low and competitive with coal.

Gas costs three times as much as nuclear, at least.

Wind costs five times as much and solar costs 10 times as much.

Moore also advocates establishing a recycling industry for nuclear fuel, which would reduce the amount of waste to less than 10 per cent of what it would be without recycling:

Half of the nuclear energy being produced in the United States is now coming from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads

The environmental movement is going on about how terrible it will be if someone does something destructive with these materials.

Actually the opposite is occurring; all over the world, people are using former nuclear-weapons material for peaceful purposes.

Source: Fareed Zakaria, A Renegade Against Greenpeace, Newsweek, April 12, 2008.

For text: http://www.newsweek.com/id/131753

For more on Nuclear Energy: http://eteam.ncpa.org/issues/?c=nuclear-energy

For more on Energy Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=22

FMF Policy Bulletin/ 22 April 2008