person would agree to continue with nuclear energy if there was evidence of a strong likelihood that this would prove dangerous to
substantial numbers of human beings. Certainly no person with young children or grandchildren would agree to continue with such a
danger, but looking at the safety record of the nuclear industry
there is no such evidence. It is correct to question the impact of
nuclear energy on generations yet to come, but we must also ask
ourselves about the impact of the abandonment of nuclear power
generations to come.
for
THE IMPENDING CHALLENGE
On any projection of world energy needs, there is no way of meeting those needs in the coming decades without the emergence of a
substantial contribution from nuclear power. If that contribution
is not forthcoming, it will be the wealthier and richer countries of
the world that will pay the high prices required for what remains of the finite energy resources. As those resources disappear the price
will soar to higher levels. It will be the poorer countries of the
world that will suffer the most. Nobody can argue a passionate and
moral belief for the emergence of higher living standards in the
third world and argue that they will take the gamble of creating the
most massive energy crisis yet known to man in the early decades of
the next century.
A number of nations with substantial finite
resources of energy will benefit, but any examination of third world
needs shows that the majority of the world's population would
suffer.
The Western world took for granted until 1973 that cheap energy
supplies would be available to create manufacturing strength upon
which new standards of living would be achieved. The shock of 1973
taught the western world that severe recession and unemployment on a
massive scale could be achieved by a major adjustment in the price
of one form of energy upon which it was dependent. That recession has been nothing compared with the recessions that could be created
if we moved into the coming decades eradicating the nuclear
alternative as a form of our energy supplies.
For those who want enhanced standards of living in western Europe,
such enhancement would be impossible. For those who purely want to maintain the existing high living standards that we enjoy, the
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