NUCLEAR reactors don鈥檛 emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. That
means they should qualify for subsidies under an international scheme for
combating global warming.
So says the nuclear industry鈥攁nd at first glance it seems to have a
clear-cut case. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is due to be
finalised this year, will let industrialised countries relax their targets for
reducing carbon emissions by paying for 鈥渃lean鈥� technologies in developing
countries. The capital cost of those technologies will be subsidised by up to 40
per cent.
Nuclear companies in the US, Britain and France want to sell reactors, while
China, India and South Korea are interested in buying. But the deals hinge on
whether other governments agree to include nuclear power in the CDM.
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Britain鈥檚 Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, says denying developing
countries the nuclear option would be neo-colonialist. In fact the reverse is true
(see 鈥淧ower Struggle鈥�).
Most industrialised countries have lost faith in nuclear power,
so why are they offering it to others?
The US, Britain and France began civil nuclear programmes with subsidies from
the military. This has warped the economics of the sector, and left the
countries struggling with nuclear waste and a plutonium glut. We mustn鈥檛 send
developing nations down this path.