Why is nuclear power in the news again?
Because Taoiseach Micheál Martin has now said it is something the country “should look [at] and examine seriously”. Speaking at a European leaders’ summit in Armenia on Monday, he noted advances in the technology.
Fianna Fáil TD James O’Connor has already called on the Government to lift the ban on nuclear power, which was introduced in 1999.
O’Connor (28), one of the youngest TDs in the Dáil, has brought forward the Electricity Regulation (Removal of Nuclear Fission Prohibitions) Bill 2026 to be debated in the Dáil. This would lift a prohibition on building nuclear power plants in the State.
Why is this significant?
Nuclear power was first proposed for the State as far back as 1968, when the ESB stated that it wished to build a reactor within 10 years.
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After the oil crisis of 1973, the ESB renewed its plans and chose a location at Carnsore Point in Co Wexford.
The plans were derailed by a mass popular movement against nuclear power, which culminated in a big concert at Carnsore Point in 1978. Protesters were further emboldened by the Three Mile Island 1979 incident in Pennsylvania, the first significant incident at a nuclear power plant since the 1957 fire at the Windscale (later Sellafield) plant in Cumbria.
The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 further solidified opposition to nuclear power and any proposal for it went into abeyance. In 1999, the Bertie Ahern government brought in the Electricity Regulation Act banning nuclear power in Ireland.
What has changed?
The spike in energy prices, which followed the war in Ukraine and now in Iran, has once again exposed the State’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The Republic has made strides in terms of renewable energy, with 40 per cent of electricity now generated from renewable sources but the target is 80 per cent by 2030.
Despite having an abundance of potential energy from offshore wind farms, only one, the Arklow Bank, has been built.
The State is already badly off course for a 51 per cent reduction in total greenhouse gases by 2030. It could incur fines of up to €4.4 billion annually for missing targets.
With a growing population and thriving economy, including the huge amount of energy used by data centres, the Government will struggle to meet its targets without either a step change in renewable energy or the nuclear option, literally and figuratively.
Why is Ireland so averse to nuclear power?
Actually, it isn’t. The Republic is happy to use nuclear power as long as it is not generated at home. The State already uses imported energy via nuclear from the United Kingdom and the Celtic Interconnector with France means that percentage will rise as France is one of the leading proponents of nuclear energy in the world.
Why now?
Opponents of nuclear power here have said the market is too small to justify a traditional nuclear reactor.
But the nuclear industry is developing small modular reactors, which are more cost-efficient than traditional nuclear plants.
The lobby group, Better Environment with Nuclear Energy (Bene), says the Republic would suit a NuScale 50 MW3 modular reactor, available from about 2030. Situated underwater in a large water tank, it needs no electricity to remain passively safe indefinitely.
Groups of 12 modules would form 600 megawatt (MW) units, and these would be ideal replacements for the coal-burning Moneypoint power station, claims Bene. These could supply more than 25 per cent of our electricity needs.
Economist John FitzGerald is sceptical of such claims. Writing last month in The Irish Times, he stated: “While the technology for smaller reactors is being developed, it could be 2040 before they become readily available. That’s too late to meet our climate targets or reduce our vulnerability to energy shocks.”
Instead, he suggested the State needs to electrify transport and accelerate investment in renewables if it wants energy security.
