Atom Kraft? Nein Danke, as the stickers said on crumbling 2CVs. My parents drove a VW, but they were dedicated anti-nuclear campaigners who refused to differentiate between civil and military uses of nuclear power. We were doomed either way. I inherited much of their instinctive prejudice against all things nuclear.
But the energy equation has altered with climate change. Many who opposed nuclear power have changed their minds. Even The Guardian’s outspoken environmentalist, George Monbiot, has reconsidered its use in the climate “emergency”.
Atomic fission generates three-quarters of the world’s clean energy. The International Energy Agency, which monitors progress to net zero, says nuclear power will play “a major role” in global decarbonisation.
The Scottish Government disagrees and, like Germany, is busy phasing out nuclear stations in the next few years. This, even though it generates the 20 per cent of so-called “base load” energy that’s needed when the wind doesn’t blow.
It means Scotland will very likely find itself relying on imported nuclear energy from England – a kind of fissile Barnett Formula. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/20899524.iain-macwhirter-nuclear-worst-possible-way-back-wind-power—except-others/
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