Nuclear switch over ‘within 50 years’

ESB chairman Tadhg O’Donoghue said yesterday he foresaw the day when Ireland would go nuclear.

As rising energy costs continue to impact on people’s incomes, Mr O’Donoghue said this would increase the chance of this country embracing the nuclear option at some stage.

For that to happen would require a change in the law, because it is currently forbidden to build nuclear power plants here.

Mr O’Donoghue thought that at the end of the day price would win the nuclear argument.

In the case of France, energy costs have risen very little despite the massive price hikes in the cost of fossil fuels over the last three years.

This is because France generates 90% of its energy needs from nuclear and hydroelectric power stations. Of that, 60% is nuclear with fossil fuel accounting for the remaining 10%. Mr O’Donoghue stressed he was expressing a personal opinion on the issue and was not speaking as ESB chairman.

However, when pressed on the issue he said that if he were to live for another 50 years, he would expect that Ireland would by then have gone for the nuclear option.

Recently the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources said that Ireland had to initiate the debate on going nuclear.

It made its recommendation o the basis that fossil fuels are running out and that oil supplies will be non-existent by 2060.