Time to consider nuclear option

Councillors Dearey and Carr (Letters, May 24) take issue with your editorial of May 22 in which you suggest that it is time to consider nuclear power in Ireland.

In doing so, the councillors propose that Ireland puts its political will into a wide renewable energy mix, energy efficiency and micro-generation and that this would “fix our energy needs”.

Perhaps the councillors are not aware that their proposed plan is actually being implemented but the claimed solution is not happening? Ireland has universal political support for our National Renewable Energy Action Plans in electricity, heat and transport; this is supported by successive energy policy White Papers while the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland is tasked with the promotion of renewable energy.

Unfortunately, even if we implement all our current and proposed renewable energy plans, the Environmental Protection Agency predicts that Ireland will emit many millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases in excess of our national targets by 2020, with the situation deteriorating year-on-year beyond that date. The ESRI estimates that the cost of such exceedances could be around €27 per tonne by the mid-2020s, representing a penalty of around €240m each year.

The inconvenient truth of the matter is that the current plan, while welcome, is just not enough. With the type of small reactor now being designed for small countries, Ireland could take advantage of electricity that has low and stable cost, with near-zero emissions and is safer than any other significant technology. The extraordinary thing about small reactors is that they will produce electricity at a lower price than their more popular big brothers as they are easier and faster to build and hence have lower financing costs. These would be ideal as a replacement for Moneypoint station in west Clare.

Many of our children have already emigrated to countries with substantial quantities of nuclear power without a further thought on the matter. Nuclear power could be a very helpful component in our strategy to retain and maintain competitiveness in Ireland in an environmentally friendly manner, helping to maintain jobs and higher living standards at home.

But we will never know if we continue to bury our heads in the sand on the matter. Let us at least have a look at what nuclear power can do for Ireland.

Denis Duff

Greystones

Co Wicklow