By: Indiann Davinos
I have just been reading about Namibia and how Uranium production is
booming and creating jobs in this developing African nation and I thought
it was about time I revisited the nuclear power debate after a 3 year
break.
With the main UK political parties wanting to create thousands of new
green jobs over the next ten years it will be interesting to see how we
aim to become a market leader in green technology which is where China are
currently the world leader. India is aiming to be a solar country within
10 years as it deals with decreasing fossil fuels and population growth
that is gulping petrol and oil at an unprecedented rate.
The effects of climate change seem to be taking second place against cold
hard cash and the lack of it as a result of the global recession. Global
concerns on security are leading to countries wanting to become less
dependent on others for energy which is essential for economies to grow
and prosper. There is also the threat that countries considered rouge by
the West are developing nuclear power for other purposes than for power.
Once a country develops nuclear power it is less dependent on others and
nuclear is definitely needed in countries which are not blessed with the
sun for solar power. On the flip side there is the never ending question
of what to do with nuclear waste and this has not been resolved to date
with all the modern technology that we have at our disposal.
The Conservative Party and Lib Dems have recently been voted in in the UK
and they want to spend two hundred billion pounds investing in nuclear and
renewable energy in the UK while cutting carbon emissions. These are
honourable intentions but I am not sure where the money will come from as
we deal with the biggest budget deficit since World War 2. Any increased
target of increasing the amount of energy produced from renewable energy
is the way forward as it reduces the pollution and environmental damage
from fossil fuels.
News announced in May 2010 are that a proposed 40 million solar power
development is being discussed in Cornwall which would triple the UKs
solar capacity. This money is being raised from private investors which is
great to see. Only when solar becomes profitable will we see the wide
scale use but these schemes should be subsidised by the tax payer when it
makes sense to do so. The use of energy created by sea waves are also
expanding in the UK which is logical considering we are an island and more
money should be invested in research and development. In parts of the
country where there is little wildlife or threat of ecological damage then
these are the areas where renewable energy should be concentrated as jobs
will be created as a result also.
On a more smaller scale homeowners with surplus solar power are being
encouraged to feed this back into the national grid for which they will be
paid for.
As a summary it appears that nuclear energy has not been promoted as much
as in recent times which is likely to be due to the recession and
reduction in energy needs. As the demand for energy increases in the
developed world as we come out of recession then im sure this article will
be very different in the future.
