Madam, – Following your ill-timed Editorial plugging a debate on nuclear power in Ireland (March 11th), the day before Japan’s earthquake, I note you have now engaged two “experts” to give weight to your arguments (Opinion, March 29th).
Once again, they fail to address some of the main reasons why nuclear energy is a non-starter for a small country like Ireland. These reasons include the prohibitive costs: with upfront construction costs running into billions of euro, and liability and decommissioning costs borne by the taxpayer. They also include the fact that we would have to import the fuel, the technology and the expertise to run any reactor, as well as exporting the radioactive waste (for which there is no long-term solution), moving us a step further away from energy independence.
Your experts also ignore the long lead time which, coupled with Ireland’s protracted planning system, would mean that, even if this Government were to pursue a nuclear policy, we would have no generating capacity until close to 2030.
On the other hand, if Ireland pushes ahead with the development of renewable energy and invests in the necessary grid upgrades, many scenarios suggest that Ireland could be close to energy independence by tapping the true potential of this indigenous energy source.
All of this is not to play down the very real safety concerns, as your experts seek to do. Twenty-five years on from Chernobyl and with the Japanese government today announcing a nuclear “maximum alert”, the events have Fukushima have again underlined that we simply cannot trust the nuclear industry on safety.
Please, let us not waste time debating the nuclear straw man. – Yours, etc,