Nuclear Renaissance Requires Nuclear Enlightenment

Abstract

Despite this author having considered previously the prospects for a Nuclear Renaissance in Europe and North America (Nuttall, 2005a), it is important from the start of this chapter to concur with others in this volume and to concede that nuclear power cannot yet be regarded as sustainable in a formal sense. Rothwell and van der Zwann have examined the sustainability of current light water reactor (LWR) systems in some detail and they conclude that while LWR systems are consistent with the intermediate form of sustainability over the foreseeable future when one considers environmental externalities and social externalities associated with health and safety, LWRs fail in respect of non-renewable resource depletion, a lack of effective institutions to restrict proliferation and the capital-intensive economics of new build (Rothwell and van der Zwaan, 2003). The failings identified by Rothwell and van der Zwann might be overcome in time as new nuclear reactor technologies are deployed, novel (e.g. thorium-based) fuel cycles are developed and financial and regulatory structures improve. Rothwell and van der Zwann, neglect however to consider one of the greatest challenges to the social sustainability of nuclear power – social acceptance.