RDS lecture on Nuclear Energy Thursday 18th February

Brendan Burgess

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Historically the Irish Government’s policy has been firmly opposed to nuclear energy on the grounds of the risks it poses, yet some argue that nuclear energy is one of the cleanest, safest and economic forms of energy available to mankind today. Nuclear power has been employed successfully over the past 50 years by many countries yet Ireland continues to reject it.

Three members of the BENE (Better Environment with Nuclear Energy) group; Professor Philip Walton, Professor Ian McAulay & Mr Denis Duff will explain why this is the case and also put forward their reasons why they believe Ireland should adopt nuclear energy as an important part of our energy mix.

Philip Walton is Emeritus Professor at NUI Galway. Up until his retirement in 2005 he was Professor of Applied Physics at the University. He has served for seven years on the Board of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland and has also served as Radiological Protection Officer at NUI Galway.

Professor Ian McAulay has a background in health physics and has been extensively involved in measurements of radioactivity in the environment and in radiation protection. He was heavily involved in the nuclear debate thirty years ago and at that time was one of the Irish scientists trying to correct imbalances in the media coverage.

Mr Denis Duff is a mechanical engineer currently working in the power generation sector. He has wide experience of different electrical generation systems both in Ireland and abroad. These include a wind turbine generation evaluation project as well as solid fuel, oil and gas-fired thermal stations.


Date: Thursday February 18, 2010
Venue: Minerva Suite
Opening Hours:
6.00pm - 8.00pm


Organiser's Contact Details:
Farrelly, Paul
Industry and Commerce
RDS Foundation Department
Ballsbridge
Dublin 4
Tel: +353 (0)1 668 0866
Email: industry@rds.ie
 
yet some argue that nuclear energy is one of the cleanest, safest and economic forms of energy available to mankind today.
Quite simply, it is none of the above.
- It's not clean. There is still no long term solution for the disposal of radioactive waste. This is a huge problem. (For more info, Mayak, Yukka mountain and Sellafield)
- It's not clean, part two. When someone has cleaned up Chernobyl and Mayak, maybe that claim can be made.
- It's not safe. There are still accidents happening in nuclear power stations. As NPPs get ever more complex and numerous, the accidents will increase. (http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radevents/index.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents)
- It's certainly not cheap! Uranium ore is a limited resource, just like coal, oil or gas is. It costs an absolute fortune to decommission a NPP. Over £70Billion, and rising, over 100 years for the UK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Decommissioning_Authority)

Nuclear power really is the last thing Ireland needs. I'd rather see more investment in off-shore wind farms.