Chapter 17 - Conclusions: Yours and mine

The aim of this website, as stated at the start, is to provide viewers with the means to form their own conclusions on the nuclear issues. However, I would be remiss if I failed to declare explicitly my own conclusions. I therefore end with a summary of these.

• The global demand for energy will increase greatly in the 21st century. Most of this will occur in developing countries with huge populations, especially China and India, but industrialized countries, including Canada, will also see increased demand. Increased emphasis on energy efficiency and conservation will slow the increase but an increase is still expected. Electricity will be required to satisfy much of the increase. Solar-based energy sources can provide only a small fraction of the demand. Most of the increased demand for electricity will have to be supplied by coal and nuclear energy, with natural gas, where available, used largely for peak power as its price rises. (Chapter6)
• Most of the concerns over nuclear energy can be traced to a fear of the health effects of radiation, either as a result of an accident at a nuclear plant or of releases from the wastes. The amounts of radiation to which members of the public are exposed from the production of nuclear electricity is a small fraction, less than one per cent, of the radiation to which we are all exposed every day. (Chapter 7)
• No human activity is risk free but the risk of a reactor accident in Canada serious enough to require evacuation of the surrounding population is considered to be extremely remote by independent inquiries. With nuclear energy already providing 16 per cent of the world's electricity it has caused far fewer deaths than the conventional sources. In Canada, no deaths or injuries to workers or the public have been attributed to the operation of nuclear-power reactors. The harmful effects of the Chernobyl accident, grossly exaggerated by the media, were due to design weaknesses and operating errors that could not occur in the Canadian regime. (Chapter 8)
• There are available means for the disposal of nuclear wastes that rely on proven technologies. These have been endorsed as safe by independent inquiries and the Canadian Federal Government has authorized nuclear utilities to implement an Adaptive Phased Management program for the used fuel wastes that cause most public concerns. Releases, if any, from the fuel wastes would not occur until after many thousands of years, by which time the wastes would be no more hazardous than the ore body from which they were derived. (Chapter 9)
• Measures that protect human health generally protect the environment, with most exceptions taken care of at the plant-siting stage. The remaining environmental effects of nuclear energy, specifically air and water pollution, land use and disturbance of flora and fauna, are less than those of burning fossil fuels, exploiting hydroelectric sites or even using some other solar-based energy sources. Nuclear energy is the only available major source of electricity that emits none of the "greenhouse gases" blamed by some for global warming. (Chapter 10)
• Costs, in strictly dollar terms, of nuclear-electric plants are broadly competitive with those of hydroelectric and coal-fuelled plants for satisfying base-load across Canada. Just which is most economic in a particular instance depends on local circumstances. If health and environmental costs, currently not charged to the electricity production, were to be included, nuclear electricity and hydroelectricity would be clearly favoured. (Chapter 11)
• While there are some technologies common to the production of nuclear electricity and nuclear weapons there are several not in common. Abolishing all the peaceful applications would not prevent weapons being produced. The technologies used in civilian programs are actually beneficial in the control of proliferation of nuclear weapons. Rogue states have easier means than power reactors to acquire nuclear weapons: terrorists have more attractive targets, and easier sources for their weapons, than the nuclear industry. (Chapter 12)
• From an ethical standpoint, in selecting an energy source one should consider the available alternatives then assess the costs and benefits of each, quantitatively where possible. This does not exclude consideration of qualitative and non-technical factors in the final decision. (Chapter 13)

The foregoing explains why I believe that nuclear energy is the energy source of choice in many applications.

Abbreviations

Technical Terms