Nuclear energy hailed as effective source of electricity

Representatives of 195 countries met in Paris on 2 December to approve the climate agreement that provides for holding the increase in the global air temperature at 1.5C. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the Paris climate agreement as an ambitious and respected document with long-term goals in mind. In order to reach the goals stipulated by the Paris Climate Agreement the signatories will have to develop strategies conducive to investments in low-carbon energy generation, particularly nuclear energy industry, stated Agneta Rising, Director General of the World Nuclear Association (WNA). “In order to successfully fight the climate change, we are going to need 1,000GW of electricity from nuclear energy installations by 2050,” Agneta Rising believes. In the last 50 years peaceful uses of nuclear energy have prevented the release of over 60 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to Agneta Rising, France has demonstrated that a low-carbon energy budget is possible if nuclear energy is involved.

Valery Yazev, First Deputy Chairman of the Natural Resources, Nature Management and Ecology Committee of the State Duma, told media that the approval of the Paris Climate Agreement is a welcome move. It means that the dialogue between countries, including developed and developing ones, continues. It means they are discussing how the serious problem of the climate change can be resolved through common effort. The descendants should not be the ones to inherit the problem because it gets worse every decade.

The transition to carbon-free energy generation is believed to be one of the most effective measures in combating the climate change. Hydropower, renewable sources of energy, and nuclear energy industry are the options. In Russia these sources of energy account for about half of the electricity generated. While the potential for generating more electricity using hydropower plants is close to zero, the potential of renewable sources of energy and nuclear power plants is very large. Nuclear energy generation is effective as a basic source of energy while renewable sources can play the backup role when it is economically advisable, for instance, in hard-to-reach areas where connections with the central power grid are not available.