Nuclear Monitor #919

Ramana Review

 Prof MV Ramana’s new book, ‘Nuclear is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change’ is a tour de force.

Underpinned by Ramana’s significant reputation, experience and expertise; step by step, the book analyses sets of nuclear issues and arguments in an accessible and understandable way. Importantly, Ramana unviels the logic behind the powerful groups with vested interests involved in the maintenance of the nuclear status quo, currently working hard to greenwash a spectacularly dirty industry.

Climate Risk

The key finding is that nuclear energy, whether large Generation III reactors or small modular reactors (SMRs), cannot resolve the climate crisis. New nuclear is just too late and too costly. Even a limited expansion would significantly accelerate environmental, ecological, and military proliferation risks – whilst taking valuable resources from the roll-out of more flexible, safe, and cost-effective renewable, storage, and energy efficiency technologies.

Even beyond the horrific implications of meltdown and the intractable problem of radioactive waste, new nuclear is just not practicable at scale. Ramana suggests that any appraisal of future energy technology depends on two important parameters: cost and time – with nuclear failing on both counts. This is because nuclear is far more costly than its renewable competitors wind and solar, and given the need for rapid transformation, it’s just too slow. Construction of only one nuclear plant takes an average of ten years. Including regulatory and planning permits and fundraising adds on yet another decade.

Ramana notes that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other international bodies have warned that to mitigate irreversible damage from climate change, CO2 emissions have to be reduced drastically by 2030. Given the very slow roll-out of new nuclear, the inevitable conclusion is that it cannot even begin to contribute within that time-frame.

In other words, new nuclear energy simply cannot be scaled fast enough to match the rate at which the world needs to lower carbon emissions to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius, or even 2 degrees. Here, the high cost and the very slow rate of reactor deployment largely explain why the share of global electricity produced by nuclear has been steadily declining.

Small Modular Reactor (SMRs)

When times get tough, the nuclear industry always diverts attention to new technologies it claims will solve the problems of existing designs. The latest magic bullet is SMRs. Even though no commercial order is even close to being placed, SMRs are presented in the press as quick, cheap, safe, and under construction.

However Ramana, a noted academic expert on the SMR issue, explains why these reactors are not commercially viable and why they will never resolve the undesirable consequences of building nuclear – including high costs, safety, security and accident risks, radioactive waste production, and nuclear weapon proliferation. Indeed, as he says, most SMR designs are merely theoretical concepts, and will take decades to commercialise, even if people were willing to pay the much higher costs involved.

Sustainability

Whereas nuclear advocates argue that the technology is clean and green, Ramana draws our attention to the inevitable negative externalities associated with nuclear power production, not least uranium mining, which has been responsible for contaminating land and water around the world, especially in areas occupied by Indigenous communities. Given these inevitable impacts, nuclear power seems neither clean nor sustainable.

Investment Drivers

The book also addresses a key paradox: Despite all its intractable problems, why do governments and private corporations continue to fund new nuclear power?
Ramana explains that large and financially powerful organizations have profited from building and operating nuclear plants by making the public pay for their high costs through either electricity bills or taxes. The public also will have to pay the long-term expenses associated with dealing with the multiple forms of radioactive waste and the subsidies aimed at inducing private companies to invest in nuclear power. Here, Ramana turns to the socio-technological work of Chomsky, noting the underlying systemic socialisation of cost and risk allied to the privatisation of profit.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ramana suggests that the key alliance for the nuclear industry is the one with the government, explaining why government support is critical to nuclear power, describing the many ways in which the nuclear enterprise is supported by subsidies and the skewing of the electricity market – adding that a central driver is the close connection between the production of civil nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

Renewable Evolution

Not only is nuclear slow and expensive, it’s also far too inflexible to keep going up and down with the swings of electricity demand. In contrast, the variability of wind and solar technologies can be more easily integrated into evolving, flexible electricity grids capable of adjusting output to fluctuating demand, providing stable power.

In this context, Ramana discusses the evolution of the electricity system and how it could change to accommodate the continuing increase in energy supplied by wind and solar plants. Importantly, he notes that matching the varying outputs of wind and solar necessitates enhanced flexible responses – but that goes against the economic logic guiding the corporate organisations that operate nuclear and large fossil fuel plants.

Nuclear Politics

Ramana underlines the political nature of nuclear power and how it functions best only under a social and economic system oriented toward unrestrained material expansion – the underlying cause of the climate crisis. As he concludes, ‘talking about nuclear power from new reactors serves to delay dealing with the climate crisis. Procrastination might be the thief of time, but it is good business strategy for companies that profit from the current system.’ A hard lesson we should all learn, and the quicker the better.

Dr Paul Dorfman
Visiting Fellow, Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex Energy Group, University of Sussex.
Member, Irish Govt Radiation Protection Advisory Committee.
Chair, Nuclear Consulting Group.