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A Walk in Nuclear Woods

Energy - and how to provide it in a way that doesn’t choke our children or maim the whales - is the major issue of our day.

Energy - and how to provide it in a way that doesn’t choke our children or maim the whales - is the major issue of our day. Sitting in the middle of this debate, like some kind of benign but potentially evil troll, is nuclear power. The industry was once a byword for Stalinist secrecy, both in the Soviet Union and in the western world. This secrecy was blown apart in the east by the Chernobyl disaster and in the west by the catastrophe at Three Mile Island in the United States. Workers at Chernobyl had been told that the disaster in the US was a result of capitalist contempt for “the human factor”, so they probably felt a little bit let down by the Socialist dream when they realised that Soviet care for “the human factor” involved enduring an apocalyptic meltdown before you died of cancer.

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Unsurprisingly, public and political support for nuclear power cooled a little. But nuclear power is sustainable and its carbon emissions are relatively low, so when governments finally started to take note of climate change, our once maligned friend squirmed its way back on to the agenda. With renewable energy targets to meet (or try and get anywhere near), Nuclear has marketed itself as the efficient way forward. “You could have Wind power, but it’s unreliable and no-one likes the sight or sound of the turbines”, says Nuclear, a hand on your shoulder, a reasonable tone wafting into your ear. “Of course there’s Solar power”, it adds, “but when is it ever sunny in Britain, plus it’s for fags.” Tidal power? “Don’t even know what you’re talking about mate.”

So now Obama and Brown are behind nuclear power and new stations are to be built in the US and the UK. We don’t know where the waste will go, but maybe nuclear will be our drooling, unpleasant but ultimately effective saviour. With that in mind I headed out to Sizewell, in Suffolk, already host to a working nuclear power station and likely to be host to one more, which will be run by French company EDF.