Madam, - Among the various government and semi-State bodies concerned with energy problems it seems to be received wisdom that Ireland's electricity grid is too small to accommodate a nuclear power reactor. This dictum appears to have been founded on the unlikely assumption that the power of such a reactor would be 1,000 MW. This was enunciated by the ESRI in 2004 and 2005, and was referred to in the recent report from Forfás. However, the Forfás did envisage the possibility that a smaller reactor might make nuclear power a more realistic option.
Smaller reactors are indeed available today. For example, a CANDU reactor has a power of 700 MW, which would be a reasonable proportion of Ireland's current capacity of 5,500 MW, which will increase with new plants coming on stream, and when the interconnector with the UK is completed. Furthermore, a CANDU reactor can be installed in the amazingly short time of 40 months.
In a few years' time even smaller units will be available, such as the latest model of the pebble-bed reactor (170 MW); this has the additional ability to produce environmentally-friendly hydrogen gas for use as fuel.
The Minister for the Environment has put forward a different argument against nuclear power, namely that of the cost of eventual decommissioning.
He supports this argument by referring to the high cost of decommissioning the Calder Hall reactor in Cumbria. However, it should be recalled that Calder Hall was built primarily to produce plutonium for the UK nuclear weapons programme. What is more, when Calder Hall was installed 50 years ago, little or no thought was given to future decommissioning. It is therefore not surprising that this particular operation is so expensive. This is not the case with modern reactors, for which decommissioning is taken into account at the planning stage.
The arguments against nuclear power referred to above do not hold up with the newer types of reactor that would be available if a decision were taken to use nuclear power as one of a number of sources of our energy. This country needs to be more independent for its energy supplies. Therefore, a decision about the use of nuclear power, based on sound technical advice, must be taken at an early opportunity. - Yours, etc,
DAVID SOWBY, Knocksinna Crescent, Dublin 18.