Friday, 8 May 2020

Greens Go Nuclear?

Yesterday during an interview with Pat Kenny, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, said he was not opposed to importing nuclear energy. He made the very valid point that "you can't differentiate one electron from the other". But this begs the question, why the obsession with renewable targets, when in reality it's not possible to separate an electron that came from coal with one that came from wind. Given that a certain amount of baseload conventional plant will always be required to keep the electricity system operating, so that electrons can flow at all, is it reasonable to state on your electricity bill that X amount of your electricity came from X sources?

As for nuclear energy , how can a politician advocate importing nuclear energy while at the same time opposing the building of a nuclear power station in Ireland? 

He also admitted he doesn't drive an electric car, instead he drives an old diesel. 

Ryan has obviously not thought through his beliefs, he has an a la carte approach to his philosophy, which requires much more scrutiny before he once again enters government. Pat Kenny is one of those rare interviewers left in Ireland who is capable of doing just that.

Link to interview here, the part about nuclear is at 13 minutes, the part about not driving an electric car is towards the end :

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