Close Old Nuclear Power Plants Now?

20 February 2007

BRUSSELS — The 155 clean energy projects existing today produce a total of almost 10,500 gigawatt hours per year. According to Greenpeace, another hundred projects will be launched within four years, allowing for an additional 26,000 gigawatt hours.

This means that by 2011, about 80 percent of Belgian electricity needs will be covered by clean energy sources, which justifies a quicker shut-down of the nuclear power plants, Greenpeace says.

Professor Jacques De Ruyck, specialist in renewable energy, disagrees with the reasoning that Greenpeace puts forward to encourage the closing of the old nuclear power plants. The oldest nuclear power plants are producing just a small share of the electric energy we use, he says. Meanwhile, Greenpeace is not taking the rising demand for electricity into account. Instead, they estimate that the consumer will cut down on usage by 2.5 to 3 percent a year. “That gigantic percentage is unrealistic”, De Ruyck says.

If we try to both decrease our CO2 production and close the nuclear plants, we may face serious shortages. Electricity will become five times more expensive, De Ruyck says.

Subject: Belgian news