[SystemSafety] nuclear energy - disparate policies?

[Andrew Rae]

Rene',
A fascinating question. Sir Mark Walport, the UK Chief Scientific Advisor,
is on record as saying "And nuclear power remains central to tackling
sustainably the world’s energy problems. Equally, it has the potential for
global destruction on an unprecedented scale."

I think this is fairly clear support for nuclear power, even whilst
recognising the risks. Note the context here - he was talking about
dual-use technology, so I think he was emphasising the risks of nuclear
weapons, not nuclear power per se, which makes it even clearer support for
nuclear power.

The role of Chief Scientific Advisor doesn't have any formal power, and
scientific advisors can end up in head-to-head conflict with the
government, but I think it would be fair to say that Walport reflects a
substantial body of scientific opinion that has the ear of the UK
government on energy policy. As a general rule, anywhere that you don't
have a major difference in policy between the three main parties it can
indicate that the behind-the-scenes public servants are pushing a strong
and consistent message.

The UK certainly has its share of anti-nuclear scientific opinion. If you
search specifically for pro or anti nuclear published papers, you'll find
more anti. That may be because the "pro" side holds more political
influence though, and so has less need to advocate. (The pro articles tend
to push for particular technologies rather than for nuclear power more
generally).

Drew


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On 21 October 2013 18:44, René Senden <rene.senden at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Today I learned from BBC World News that the UK will be developing another
> nuclear facility for the purpose of generating energy.
> It was also said that UK’s PM indicated that (and I paraphrase).. “it will
> be one of hopefully many to come”.
> Although this hardly needs to be said on this list, please correct me
> if/where (deemed) necessary. I pretty much typed this posting within
> 2 minutes after hearing the news…
>
> There have been quite different, at times even opposite, political
> (re)considerations w.r.t. nuclear energy in the aftermath of the tragic
> accident in Japan, which happened not so long ago. A very pronounced
> difference in policy is, of course, Germany vs.. well.. most other
> countries…
>
> Is it strictly a matter of (inter)national politics or do the different
> national policies also reflect different opinions of the corresponding
> (relevant) experts and  scientists serving those countries (whose expert
> judgement I assume to influence the policies set out by the politicians
> they
> advise) ?
>
> I am very interested in your thoughts on this.
>
> Rene
>
>
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> systemsafety at TechFak.Uni-Bielefeld.DE
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