Nuclear power not rational: UN meeting
By T. Sima Gunawan
ISTANBUL, Turkey (JP): The United Nation Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) said yesterday that many countries have virtually scrapped the use of nuclear energy for reasons of profitability and safety.
B. Der-Petrossian, an officer of the Conference's Building and Infrastructure Technology Section, Research and Development Division, told a symposium that the use of nuclear power as an alternative energy resource has been hotly debated in recent years.
"Although new reactors have been designed, opinion is sharply divided on whether the new designs represent so significant an advance as to make nuclear power an environmentally attractive alternative to fossil fuels," he added.
He said that nuclear power is not competitive and has a big environmental impact.
Noting that biomass is one of the key renewable energy resources of the future, he said that it already supplies 14 percent of the world's energy needs.
Der-Petrosian said that, on average, biomass produces 38 percent of the primary energy in developing countries. He predicted that biomass energy is likely to remain an important global energy source in developing countries well into the next century.
He said the United States derives four percent of its total energy from biomass, Sweden 14 percent, and Austria 10 percent.
"Biomass is generally wrongly seen as a low-status fuel, and it rarely finds its way into energy statistics. Nevertheless, it offers considerable flexibility of fuel supply due to the range and diversity of fuels which can be produced," he said.
He said biomass-energy systems can increase the energy available for economic development without contributing to the greenhouse effect, as biomass is not a net emitter of CO2 when produced and used sustainably,
He said that most developing countries, however, find it difficult to apply renewable-energy technologies because the technologies applied in industrialized countries are not often compatible with the level of managerial and manufacturing skills available in developing countries.
The attitudes of key-policy makers towards renewable-energy technologies, which range from caution to skepticism, make them afford renewable energy a low priority in energy planning, he said. Other constraints include lack of information about technology and lack of money.
Vice President of the Commission of Climatology, at the World Metrological Organization, Yadowsun Boodhoo, warned that bad energy planning could endanger the environment.
He said yesterday that despite the urgent energy needs of two billion people worldwide, especially in developing countries, energy production should be carefully managed so as not to jeopardize the environment or risk human life.