26th January 2012 Discussion: Securing our Future Energy Supplies

On 26 January 2012 starting at 18.30 Professor Martin Freer, head of the Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Birmingham, and Director of the Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research, spoke on "What should be the role of nuclear power in a secure future energy supply?"

Professor Freer explained that much of the existing electricity generating capacity is nearing the end of its useful life, and controversy surrounds many of the alternatives. Fossil fuels are becoming more scarce, insecure and expensive (and technologies to reduce their carbon emissions are still unproven), while renewable electricity depends on intermittent winds, tides and sunshine, and can be highly intrusive (both in itself and because of the transmission lines needed to shift power from where it can be generated to where it is used).

Nuclear power has had longstanding problems concerning safety and waste, but seemed to be making a comeback when the Fukushima disaster delivered a severe blow to confidence. The time taken to deliver generating capacity on a national scale is running out, and we must make some hard choices. In this context, it seems that we must look again at nuclear power.

Kindly sponsored and hosted by Squires Sanders Hammonds, Rutland House, 148 Edmund Street, Birmingham, West Midlands B3 2JR.

The meeting was chaired by Professor Alan Wenban-Smith.