Time for a fresh economic appraisal of all Ireland’s power generation options

Sir, – John FitzGerald’s opinion that nuclear energy is not fit for Ireland raises a number of contentious issues, not least because it appears to reflect a reality that applied over 40 years ago, the last time nuclear energy was properly assessed in Ireland (“Nuclear power plants are simply too big to be viable in Ireland”, Business, Opinion, February 10th). John FitzGerald correctly acknowledges the safety of nuclear and the expense of providing energy storage to assure supply at all times, but the remaining arguments are absent one critical component, recent research into nuclear energy appropriate to Ireland. For example, Estonia, an EU country of similar size to Ireland, is targeting its first small nuclear reactor (SMR) to be in service in 2031 on the back of full environmental and economic assessments. It intends to use the same SMR that will be running in Canada in 2028 and is being planned for the US and Poland shortly afterwards. These SMRs are now being licensed for use, as they are already designed, unlike the offshore wind turbines that will absorb the vast majority of Ireland’s multibillion euro spend on renewable energy over the coming decade.

Such SMRs are faster and cheaper to build than older designs and supply the most reliable and affordable clean energy of all power generation technologies. While energy storage is very expensive, much more storage is needed in a system dominated by wind than in one that includes nuclear energy, especially if a small number of small reactors replace existing fossil-fuel power stations. This is especially important as the required storage technology is not yet proven at scale and is very unlikely to be competitive with modern nuclear energy.

The overall contention that nuclear is a poor economic fit for Ireland appears to be based on reasons that are not as pertinent as they once were. It is well past time for a fresh economic appraisal of all Ireland’s power generation options to supply clean, reliable energy.

There is little to be lost by examining the case for and against modern nuclear energy, but so much to lose if, when the facts change, we recklessly neglect to review our opinion. – Yours, etc,