The world can’t shun nuclear power
Tackling climate change using all the technologies we have will be hard enough. Trying to do it while swearing off nuclear power would be plainly ridiculous. That’s the lesson from Taiwan, a densely packed island state with few natural resources and a rising aversion to reactors.
Taiwan “cannot really be picky about energy,” President Ma Ying-jeou told me in an interview this week. But the Taiwanese behave as though they can. Taiwan faces many constraints, some natural, some self-imposed, explained Chien You-hsin, a former environmental minister: Most people understand that greenhouse-gas emissions warm the planet, but they fear nuclear power, refuse to live near onshore wind turbines, insist that offshore wind platforms not disturb aquatic habitats and lack wide-open spaces for solar generation.… Seguir leyendo »