Analysis: Can Nuclear Power Deliver? 

Europe's increasing dependency on a few external suppliers and the growing impact of global warming have restarted the debate on the need for a European energy policy.  On 10 January 2007, the Commission will present a Strategic Energy Review that will analyse the advantages and drawbacks of each source of energy.

In this article, the authors point out that the ‘nuclear option' does not represent merely a single option. Rather, European countries have adopted a series of options including:

• Building additional reactors; 
• a moratorium (no new reactors); 
• a phaseout (reduce existing reactors); 
• building new types of reactors, and; 
• waste-processing and R&D expenditure.

The authors further state that only a diverse energy mix can meet today’s needs since neither renewables nor fusion are mature enough to replace fossil fuels on a sufficiently large scale. Although nuclear energy currently lacks public confidence due to safety concerns, they argue that further investment in R&D can overcome these problems and is crucial if nuclear energy is to be accepted as a viable alternative energy source.

Moreover, those who argue against the use of nuclear have yet to produce a plan that could accommodate its loss, the authors continue. They suggest that this may be due to the fact that the numbers simply do not add up without nuclear energy. Thus, the paper concludes, we cannot afford to ignore the nuclear option.