Nuclear Denial Is Fatally Dangerous
We are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Here is a question, is nuclear power unsafe? Should we stop using it? There are differing opinions on this across the entire political spectrum. As such, many governments have been hesitant to move forward with nuclear plans. Germany even went as far as to completely phase them out. But sadly, the statistics are crystal clear. Nuclear power is not only one of the cleanest, most environmentally safe forms of energy we have but also one of the safest. In fact, it is so safe that new reports are emerging that German governmental figures had to lie about the safety of their nuclear power plants to force their shutdown, and the knock-on effects are literally deadly. Let me explain.
There are calls for an investigation into German vice chancellor and Green party member Robert Habeck after the German press found evidence that a covert network of ecologist technocrats manipulated the nuclear plant safety data with the aid of two Green-ran German ministries rather than consulting actual experts. The reports based on this data were crucial in the controversial decision to either shut down the country’s last remaining nuclear power plants during the 2022 energy crisis rather than reopen recently closed plants and continue using the already operational ones to ease the crisis. This morally questionable fudging of figures meant this crucial report concluded that lifetime extension was unfeasible, citing “reasons of nuclear safety”. As such, the nuclear power plants were shut down, and the energy crisis deepened.
So, what do non-fudged figures look like? Well, according to the internationally renowned Our World In Data, nuclear causes 0.03 deaths per TWh of energy. That is just a smidge more than the safest energy source, solar, which sits at 0.02 deaths per TWh, and slightly less than wind, which sits at 0.04 deaths per TWh. By comparison, natural gas causes 2.83, and coal causes 24.63 deaths per TWh! You see, despite what pop culture might tell you, modern nuclear power plants are so refined and nuclear waste management is so secure that the risk per unit of energy is utterly minimal! Hence why, it is nearly 100 times less fatally dangerous than natural gas!
Not only that, but the UN recently found that the average emissions per kWh from nuclear power plants are only 5.1g of carbon dioxide. That is less than half the emissions per kWh of solar and wind, which are 12g, and significantly less than gas, which is 430g per kWh.
This is why this book cooking was incredibly obvious! Not only did shutting them down make no sense climate-wise, but it will also statistically kill more people than keeping them running.
While Germany has one of the largest wind and solar capacities in the world, it can’t yet rely on it. There simply isn’t enough capacity, and its energy grid doesn’t have enough battery storage to see it through cloudy, windless days. As such, it needs on-demand energy to top up the energy supply and fill in the gaps. This used to be nuclear power, but ever since it shut down, Germany has had to turn to coal and natural gas power…
In fact, the German government recently commissioned four new natural gas power plants that can together produce 80 TWh of power each year, roughly the same energy output as Germany’s nuclear power plants did in 2011, to replace their new-found nuclear shortfall. This means that each year, these gas plants will kill 226.4 people, mainly through debilitating respiratory diseases, while the nuclear plants will only kill 2.4, mainly through mining accidents. These gas plants will also produce 35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly, or around 86 times more than the nuclear fleet would have produced at 408,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
It’s no wonder these ministers had to manipulate the safety figures to get the nuclear plants shut down. They would have to be insanely mismanaged to be less safe than the alternative! It is also no surprise that the German government is trying to spin this decision with blatant greenwashing, claiming that these gas power plants can be easily converted to run on carbon-neutral green hydrogen. However, creating green hydrogen is so inefficient and uses so much renewable energy that such a move is simply unfeasible.
So, corruption issues aside, why did these German ministers, who are ironically part of the Green Party, push so hard to close down these incredibly safe and climate-friendly power plants? Well, there is rampant disinformation out there as to the safety of nuclear power. This has partly come from the fossil fuel industry to drive business their way, and then amplified by pop culture. But there are also massive hang-ups from the nuclear disarmament movement, which deeply implanted the idea that nuclear power is perilous in the minds of millions of well-meaning people. Breaking through such deep-set beliefs is so hard that many would rather ignore or fudge the data to affirm their point of view. Sadly, this denial is literally killing people and holding back our climate progress.
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Sources: The Telegraph, Euractiv, TEC, Will Lockett, Will Lockett, Our World In Data, UNECE