Advantages of nuclear-generated power

Klaus Vella Bardon (November 8) joins the ranting and raving against nuclear-generated electricity. He seems unaware that apart from the poorly designed Chernobyl reactor, no other French or American designed nuclear power plant has been responsible for human loss of life unlike, for example, culprits like vehicles, aircraft and even ships. I'm sure he'll recall that most deaths are due to arterial disease and cancer, and that these two major determinants of longevity have a lot to do with what we choose to eat and how we choose to live. The cigarette alone has killed far more people than the badly designed Chernobyl plant. Most things in life are a compromise between their pros and cons - in spite of the fact that electricity is a potentially lethal commodity (by electrocution), we have all got so used to its merits that we can't do without it.

Nuclear is the only zero-emissions energy source that can reliably meet massive electricity demands, and will be the main electricity generator when oil and gas run out. France recognised this in the early '70s with the first post-war shock to oil prices, and decided to go nuclear. It now has unrivalled experience in designing safe nuclear power plants, its own electricity generation is 80% nuclear (so it has energy security, unlike many other European countries), it supplies electricity to most of southern England, and is in the process of supplying newest design nuclear plants to various countries around the world. The bulk of uranium deposits are in Western democratic countries (unlike oil and gas), and there is enough of it to supply global electricity for the next few centuries.

Warren Buffet, one of the shrewdest and most successful investor of all times, has just bought three American nuclear power plants plus half the company which will build the next generation of US nuclear plants, and which will use the latest French design. The French have also acquired unsurpassed experience in nuclear fuel reprocessing. The negative statements quoted by Dr Vella Bardon and expressed in fundamentalist language, such as "Satanic" (is he trying to remind us of the Inquisition?), sound very much like sour grapes by those overtaken by the French in the crucial strategy of zero-emissions, abundant and dependable electricity generation. Instead of trying to frighten the ignorant, he should contact Professor Rosvall, and this Swedish visiting teacher of conservation at our University will enlighten him on the latest developments in secure disposal of spent reprocessed nuclear fuel.