Ahern ‘totally opposed’ to nuclear power
Speaking after an address to a conference of engineers in Dublin yesterday, Mr Ahern said he had never believed in the use of nuclear energy for Ireland.
"I have never believed in the merits of it, from an environmental point of view and from an energy point of view," he said.
Reasoning that a national poll would back up his opinion on the issue, Mr Ahern said other avenues of energy generation, including biofuel methods, would have to be explored further.
Mr Ahern added that with the population expected to reach six million people in 30 years' time, there was enormous work to be done in meeting the country's future energy, health and transport needs.
"As our economy has grown over the past decade, so, naturally, has our overall energy requirement," he said.
"In a global context, we are facing into major issues such as energy costs and security of supply. Protecting our environment and managing our waste continue to be a major concern."
Mr Ahern was speaking after a report from State enterprise agency FÁS this month concluded that Ireland should not rule out nuclear energy in order to lessen the country's dependence on oil.
According to the report, Ireland is the third-highest consumer of oil per capita in the EU a level of usage that will threaten the entire economy when cheap oil supplies disappear.
In a week that also marked the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the Green Party yesterday said nuclear power would never be the answer to Ireland's energy needs as it would prove too expensive.
Energy spokesman Eamon Ryan said yesterday's conference had heard from Dr Alessandro Clerici of the World Energy Council that the nuclear option was not suitable for a small country like Ireland.
"Dr Alessandro Clerici of the World Energy Council made it clear that new nuclear power plants will only be economic if they are built to produce at least 1,000 mega watts of electricity.
"While such a large plant could provide a fifth of our peak time demand, the problem is that our electricity grid operator would always need the same amount of back up power in reserve to cover the frequent occasions when these large plants trip out and break down.
"The cost of this back up power is so prohibitively expensive in a small market the size of Ireland that nuclear power is never going to make economic sense here," he said.
