Forbes: Venezuela interested in developing nuclear energy for civil use - Chavez
CARACAS (AFX) - President Hugo Chavez said that his government is interested in developing nuclear energy, stressing that his government has no intention of making bombs.
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Chavez said Venezuela would cooperate with other Latin American countries and seek support from countries such as Iran.
Posted on May 23rd, 2005 at 9:51 pm
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Filed under All around the world, Science and progress |
It’s probably a good idea for lots of countries to develop nuclear power, even if they are doing it for dubious reasons, because it will reduce carbon emissions.
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Phil — What do you make of Jim Bliss’ claim that nuclear power has no future?
I’d like to believe that creating more infrastructure for nuclear power generation is a good idea but if uranium stocks will only last about 50 years, there doesn’t seem to be any point in investing in the technology.
(The previous comment by me was only deleted because a formatting error, by the way.)
I’m planning on writing something a bit more thorough and well-reasoned than the short diatribe you linked to, Rowan. It’s just finding the time!
But I must say that I strongly disagree with Phil’s suggestion that:
>
> It’s probably a good idea for lots
> of countries to develop nuclear
> power… because it will reduce
> carbon emissions.
>
I have no dogmatic objection to nuclear energy. Indeed I spent 2 months helping to carry out a systems analysis on a new nuclear powerplant design (as part of a group dedicated to replacing fossil fuels with alternatives; I donated my time for free).
So my problem with the nuclear option isn’t a philosophical one, it’s a very long series of practical ones. And I think it would be an absolute disaster were we to expand production of nuclear plants.
Incidentally, even though I’m bound by confidentiality not to discuss any specifics (no, not even under a pseudonym) I can safely say that the energy accounting done by the energy industry as a whole is shoddy as hell, but it disintegrates into farce when you get to nuclear stations.
So every time I see yet another vast swathe of public money being sunk into nuclear power subsidies, I start to wonder if some of my more speculative conculsions about current nuclear technology being an energy sink and not an actual resource at all might not be true!
If nuclear power was a genuine alternative to fossil fuels, then I would be the first campaigning for expansion. But it’s not. And it does have genuine long-term problems and risks which simply aren’t worth the energy to mitigate unless we’re getting a genuine solution, and not a short-term sticking-plaster.
PS: I think Chavez is just saying this to freak out the Americans.
>> I think Chavez is just saying this to freak out the Americans.
I agree. Chavez has a puckish sense of humour to say the least. The trouble is, the Bush Administration don’t. Hugo could find himself on the naughty end of a CIA-backed death squad.