Nuclear power can be boon in fighting climate change: DG IAEA

VIENNA: In the first-ever International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power held on October 7, brought together some 550 participants from 79 countries, and 18 international organisations, to exchange science-based information, and hold objective discussions on the role of nuclear power in mitigating the climate crisis.

Cornel Feruta, the acting Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the opening of the event said, “without significantly increasing the use of nuclear power worldwide, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of reducing harmful emissions and fighting climate change”.

However, the agency also accepted that there are varied public concerns about nuclear threats to health and the environment caused by radioactive waste from nuclear plants. Feruta said, “That advances concerning the disposal of such material may alleviate fears about the long-term sustainability of the energy source”.

Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General for Department Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), while speaking at the conference echoed Feruta’s remarks, and said that the problem of radioactive waste is an “unresolved issue” that needs to be addressed.

Mr Zhenmin, pointed at the large up-front costs of nuclear power plants, while other renewable energies such as solar and wind, are continuing to drop in price, becoming increasingly competitive with conventional, fossil-fuel based sources. Meeting the capital costs of building nuclear plants will require government commitments and public acceptance.

Zhenmin also outlined some of the benefits of nuclear power, such as monitoring pollution, and assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers and other major diseases, and pointed out that radiation technology helps prevent food from spoiling and to create new crop varieties, which supports climate change adaptation.

Both Feruta and Zhenmin referred to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body tasked with providing scientific reports on the changing climate, which has shown that far-reaching changes to the way we produce energy must occur if we are to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

In its various models for a sustainable energy future, the IPCC has included significant increases in nuclear power generation by 2050, ranging from a 59 per cent increase, to a 501 per cent rise.