Has our Planet had enough?

Is Mother Earth grinding her teeth, or rather, her tectonic plates at us?

There are always more such questions than answers when cataclysmic disaster strikes as it has in Japan, the latest victim in a world-ranging series of earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, and landslides.

Is the mythical goddess Gaia reminding us puny humans that although we've been pretty good at causing death, destruction and despair throughout a history of racial, religious and political warfare and extremism, she can leave us for dead … literally?

Or is it the theoretical Gaia, the self-regulating, self-maintaining single organism that we call the Earth, warning us that if we take too much for granted, and mess with her too much, the price will be heavy?

It is hard to resist being weighed down by the images of tragedy on such a scale. Thousands swept to their deaths; and by the unimaginable anguish of those who have lost everything but their lives and now have to face the sinister perils of radioactivity, all this in bitter cold.

One question jumps right out at me from all this. Why did Japan go so enthusiastically down the road of nuclear power when it is so earthquake-prone?

And what now in South Africa, where the debate about resorting to “clean energy” nuclear power was just beginning to pick up a little steam?

The Fukushima disaster will probably put the issue on the back burner, which is where it should stay unless and until concerns about safe operation, and disposal of radioactive waste, are convincingly resolved.

For South Africans, another question arises from the reminder that nuclear power generation is no green bullet. Why have we been so slow to embrace the greatest, safest energy source of all?

Why, with our wealth of sunshine and open space, and with the chronically under-utilised skills of home-grown scientists, engineers and other professionals who often become unwilling expats, do we not lead the world in the utilisation of solar energy?

I wondered why Africa, is not the solar energy capital of the World.

Because of the cost, perhaps? I'm more concerned about the cost if we don't go boldly down the solar road instead of bickering about the best way to reduce Global Warming.

Nuclear Industry Shows Their True Green Cards

by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 04.10.11

The fallout from Fukushima has had ripple effects in the nuclear industry across the world, but nowhere outside of Japan has the impact been so significant as in Germany. Here the ensuing frenzy has resulted in a moratorium on nuclear power plant permit extensions and the closure of seven nuclear plants. Now the nuclear power plant operators have fired a shot across the political bow: they have stopped supporting green energy. Why is the German nuclear industry investing in green power? And why are they stopping now?

The story starts in 2005, when the German conservative party, the CDU, promised to overturn a law by the socialist-green coalition to close down all nuclear power by 2021. The CDU won the national elections. To calm public protest, they negotiated a deal with the nuclear industry: The nuclear operators would invest a good percentage of the windfall profits from extending nuclear power plant permits in funds for the expansion of alternative energy. The nuclear investment was expected to boost green energy funds by €16.9 billion (US$24 billion) in total, approximately 300 million euros in 2011-2012 alone.

On Saturday 9 April, all four nuclear operators -- RWE, EnBW, Vattenfall and E.ON -- announced that they were stopping payments into the green energy fund. It is particularly interesting that the nuclear operators are not keeping a low profile during what was announced as merely a three month moratorium to review the planned permit extensions.

On the one hand, the nuclear operators are within their rights. The windfall profits expected from permit extensions (subject to extensive safety reviews) have turned into sudden, unanticipated red ink as power plants have undergone politically ordered shutdowns. Thus, the monies earmarked for the green energy fund do not exist. (It should be noted that the nuclear operators intend to put the agreed payments into a collateral account until resolution of the issue.)

But the strategy may backfire. The peremptory and unilateral cessation of payments makes the investment fund look more like a political bargaining chip than ever. What was arguably a reasonable political strategy to use nuclear plants as a bridge to greener energy now lays in tattered disarray, exposed as politics pure rather than logical risk management and strategic energy planning.

IAEA Warns Africa about Nuclear Ambitions

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Director-General Yukiya Amano has issued a warning to Africa about nuclear power while urging renewable energy like wind, solar, and hydropower. Amano addressed the Japanese nuclear situation (Fukushima) in Nairobi where he said that nuclear energy development is reliant upon strong regulatory and environmental safeguards.

“Nuclear power should be availed to developing countries; however, this is a complicated venture that requires extensive training, safety assessment, and other regulatory concerns”, said Amano. He said that it would be in these countries’ best interest to place renewable energy like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower as a priority over nuclear power exploration.

Nigeria has potentially squashed nuclear power plans as its Minister of State for Power Nuhu Wya said recently at a power conference in Lagos that the safety of the alternative power was in question. "Why do we have to be talking about using nuclear power? If we have so many other sources of energy that are untapped, why do we have to be talking of one that is not readily available and is a long-term development plan?" Wya said.