A better mantra?
At the Moscow conference on 50 years of nuclear power, scientists and policy makers were firm in their belief that nuclear energy was the "only available antidote' to climate change. "There are perceived biases against nuclear energy. But we have to tackle the problem of climate change and sustainability of other sources,' said Anil Kakodkar, chairperson of India's Atomic Energy Commission.
Abandoning nuclear energy, it was argued, meant abandoning the Kyoto initiative. Figures were bandied: if the world's 442 nuclear power plants shut down, replaced by a proportionate mix of non-nuclear sources, carbon in the atmosphere would increase by 600 million tonnes annually. Or, twice the amount of carbon the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce by 2010, and approximately eight per cent of current global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The US, which by 2012 must reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 18 per cent of its 1990 level, was the strongest advocate of this view. "We are facing a carbon wall. Nuclear power, being emission-free, would be the future energy,' said Larry Brown, a senior advisor with the US department of energy. "By 2020 we need new reactors connected to the grid. That is essential.' "The [US] government's commitment for nuclear energy is already loudly pronounced,' said Eric K Knox, senior policy advisor to the same department and a key advisor to President George Bush.
India, too, views nuclear energy as clean. "We not only need a huge amount of energy, but also have to see that future sources don't emit GHGs. Nuclear energy is just the way out and there is no escape from it,' said Kakodkar. India justifies its ambitious nuclear programme post 2008-2012 by pointing to its Kyoto Protocol commitments. Developing countries may emit more GHGs than industrialised countries after 2030. Nuclear energy is supposed to prevent that. India, in 2003, generated only 3.3 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power. Between now and 2012, it plans to produce 25 per cent of its power from reactors. "For India to become a developed country, its energy demand would have to grow eight times. Nuclear energy will be the most reliable source,' said R Chidambaram, scientific advisor to the Prime Minister.