All That Matters

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants is a real tragedy. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated around the plants, many of which continue to live in shelters with little comfort and privacy. And even worse, there are more than 27,000 people that are either dead or declared missing as a consequence of the earthquake and the tsunami.

The stream of media reporting on the status of the Fukushima plants is continuing, although ironically we are now in a situation where although the continuing release of radiation into the plant’s immediate environment is accumulating to radiation levels that are worryingly high, the broader interest on the issue outside of Japan appears to have ebbed away. And that despite the fact that these problems will be with us for months, if not years.

What is still going strong in the media, however, is the debate on the future of nuclear energy. Some see the accident as a sign that we should stop all nuclear power plants – immediately – whereas others such as George Monbiot see the fact that the implications of this accident so far seem geographically limited as a sign to support nuclear power. Unfortunately, this pro/contra nuclear is where the debate stops, and there appears little movement on either side.

It’s about our energy future

What I am missing in this entire debate is the vision for our energy future. That’s because a sustainable energy supply is a complex issue, where broad brush strokes such as pro or contra nuclear unfortunately don’t help. Take the German government’s decision to shut down seven of its oldest nuclear reactors: unlike the shutdown of nuclear reactors in Japan this hasn’t led to power cuts in Germany. So where does the missing energy come from? This power is bought on the international market. So who can offer spare capacities of around seven gigawatts power or more? My guess is that most likely it’s nuclear energy from elsewhere….

But short-term politics and Fukushima-related knee-jerk reactions aside, how do we envision our energy future? […]