• Question: Do you oppose or support Nuclear power and why ?

    Asked by granturismo to Becky, Carrie, Kelly, Robin, Usaid on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Usaid Rauf

      Usaid Rauf answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      I support nuclear power (because I work for a nuclear operator) 😛

      Seriously though, I support nuclear because it can provide lots of power, it’s reliable and it’s low carbon. It is the only form of electricity generation that can match demand, which will continue to grow.

    • Photo: Robin Stafford Allen

      Robin Stafford Allen answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Naturally I am in favour of moving away from using Fossil fuels and into nuclear power.
      · There is an expression that “necessity is the mother of invention” and this means that all the energy source we know of are finite, but there are many sources waiting to be discovered and developed. Your grandfathers did not know that nuclear energy could exist, and relied on coal. We are now in the situation that gas and oil that we are able to extract will run short before the middle of the century. Prices are already rising because it is getting more difficult to find oil and gas, which is why we are looking at drilling in deep sea, and in the artic. However there are hundreds of years of coal underground all over the world, but releasing all that carbon into the atmosphere may make the global warming worse. However we may find a way of getting the energy we need without releasing all that carbon from the coal. ·
      The JET machine is a test machine toward the design of a fusion reactor which will make lots of heat energy for making electricity. All electricity in power stations is made by steam driving generators round and round. The steam can come from boilers burning gas, coal or oil, or from a nuclear reactor. Fusion is a new and better form of reactor using nuclear fusion which is the process keeping the sun hot. This is “changing” by fusion all the hydrogen into helium in the sun which will go on for millions of years yet.
      Regards Robin.

    • Photo: Becky Selwyn

      Becky Selwyn answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I think nuclear power will be an important step in moving away from fossil fuelled power stations and protecting the planet. But although it is predictable and provides a lot of power, fission power stations (the ones that are in use now) produce nuclear waste and I don’t think we can ignore the impact that storing the waste will have on the environment. So I think eventually we will have to move past nuclear fission, maybe on to nuclear fusion (which could produce less dangerous waste), but also on to renewable energy in a bigger way. Not all renewable energies are reliable, so we need some back up power for when they aren’t producing power, and I think energy storage will grow in the future. If we can store the excess energy from renewables for when we want to use it, then there is no reason why we couldn’t get rid of nuclear power completely.

    • Photo: Caroline Roberts Haritonov

      Caroline Roberts Haritonov answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      I think nuclear power is a necessary part of a balanced approach to energy. I think we are already beginning to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and invest more in developing effective alternatives – solar, wind, marine renewables, but these are not always predictable (except tidal) and often are still not efficient enough. The technology will get there eventually. However, Nuclear energy provides a consistent and predictable source of non-fossil fuel based energy. I think moving forward though we have to take full responsibility of our decisions on energy use and the consequences of those. For years, gas was flared at sea, because it was cheaper than piping it back to shore – it was a huge was and had unneccessary consequences. In the past ignorance, laziness and greed has meant wasting resources, unsafe power plants, and ignoring future consequences. Now we know how bad that has been, we can not ignore our responsibilities anymore.

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