Review

International Persepectives on Energy Policy and the Role of Nuclear Power, Edited by Lutz Mez, Mycle Schneider & Steve Thomas, Multi-Science Publishing. 2009

Reviewed by David Lowry

In International Perspectives on Energy Policy and the Role of Nuclear Power (Multi-Science Publishing, UK), the three international editors -based respectively in Berlin, London and Paris argue convincingly that the proposed list of reactors in the pipeline is an impossible fantasy to realise.

They  convincingly demonstrate to just replace current global nuclear power generation capacity over the next decade, based on generous assumptions of lifetime extensions for existing  nuclear plants, that “in addition to the (nuclear reactor) units under construction with a scheduled start up date, 70 reactors (of 40,000 MW capacity) would have to be planned, built and started up by 2015 - one every month and a half- and an additional 192 units (168,000MW) over the following 10 year period - one every 18 days.”

Nuclear power is  close to an irrelevance in combatting climate change, making only a marginal impact on  power generation globally.

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