I have just been reading about Namibia and how Uranium production is booming and creating jobs in this developing African nation and I thought it was about time I revisited the nuclear power debate after a 3 year break.
With the main UK political parties wanting to create thousands of new green jobs over the next ten years it will be interesting to see how we aim to become a market leader in green technology which is where China are currently the world leader. India is aiming to be a solar country within 10 years as it deals with decreasing fossil fuels and population growth that is gulping petrol and oil at an unprecedented rate.
The effects of climate change seem to be taking second place against cold hard cash and the lack of it as a result of the global recession. Global concerns on security are leading to countries wanting to become less dependent on others for energy which is essential for economies to grow and prosper. There is also the threat that countries considered rouge by the West are developing nuclear power for other purposes than for power.
Once a country develops nuclear power it is less dependent on others and nuclear is definitely needed in countries which are not blessed with the sun for solar power. On the flip side there is the never ending question of what to do with nuclear waste and this has not been resolved to date with all the modern technology that we have at our disposal.
The Conservative Party and Lib Dems have recently been voted in in the UK and they want to spend two hundred billion pounds investing in nuclear and renewable energy in the UK while cutting carbon emissions. These are honourable intentions but I am not sure where the money will come from as we deal with the biggest budget deficit since World War 2. Any increased target of increasing the amount of energy produced from renewable energy is the way forward as it reduces the pollution and environmental damage from fossil fuels.
News announced in May 2010 are that a proposed 40 million solar power development is being discussed in Cornwall which would triple the UKs solar capacity. This money is being raised from private investors which is great to see. Only when solar becomes profitable will we see the wide scale use but these schemes should be subsidised by the tax payer when it makes sense to do so. The use of energy created by sea waves are also expanding in the UK which is logical considering we are an island and more money should be invested in research and development. In parts of the country where there is little wildlife or threat of ecological damage then these are the areas where renewable energy should be concentrated as jobs will be created as a result also.
On a more smaller scale homeowners with surplus solar power are being encouraged to feed this back into the national grid for which they will be paid for.
As a summary it appears that nuclear energy has not been promoted as much as in recent times which is likely to be due to the recession and reduction in energy needs. As the demand for energy increases in the developed world as we come out of recession then im sure this article will be very different in the future.
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