Nuclear Power? In My back garden please!

Mankind’s use of fossil fuels have been the key driver in the industrial revolution. Without the burning of coal, oil and gas the development of our large-scale civilisations would not have been possible. The plastics derived from oil have enabled growing cities to become sustainable. The people who invented these solutions to our daily survival did so with the greatest of honorable of intentions. The continued growth and success of the human race, coupled with the aliveness behaviour we have become accustomed to in the developed world (and aim to in the developing world) mean that the Earth is both running low on resources and is finding it difficult to sustain the status quo.

The energy that powers our lights, our radio, T.V. and Internet and everything else that we have become all dependent on, is not an inexhaustable source . In fact we have exhausted many of the easily accessed and abundant sources of energy resources and new , often highly polluting methods of extraction are now being embraced .

It calls into question why we have not long ago implemented and reached from a far cheaper, far less polluting and more greener choice? Nuclear Power has been the biggest dupe of any smear crusade that a non-living subject can possibly receive. The hysteria surrounding any aspect of nuclear power is so powerful that governments abandon good common sense and the media, playing to the fear eating crowds, propagate the myths and make unfounded claims that, in accuracy, bar us from a far greener, affordable and abundant source of energy that would power the needs of our great urban habitats and remove our dependency on fickle and corrupt foreign sources where we are beholden to ever increasing costs .

There is a “green” mob out there that would happily span the entire British Isles with wind turbines convinced that such actions are both for the benefit of man and for the planet. The system of logic is that the wind blows freely, can be utilised and converted into electrical energy to power our homes. By equivalence, the use of fuels or the disposing of nuclear waste are seen as the poison that will speed us to our extinction.

In terms of the British Isles, there are a few truths that need to be considered. The first is that “wind farms” are big business with millions of euros being made by those that impose there long term integration with our countryside and coastline. Secondly, the inconsistency of wind around the British Isles mean that the reliability of power is far from assured and wind farms rely on a back-up power station. Thirdly, installing these farms has a murderous effect on the natural environs and wildlife where they are installed.

The thought of the turning blades has become a revered moniker for the goodness we aspire to, yet in truth they are huge waste of our precious resources from the financial to natural and with the optimistic but still tiny objective of supplying 10% of our power needs. Clearly we need to take hard look at the real sources of energy that that will sustain our big cities and stop listening to the voices of the wind turbine cults and European money men growing fat on green subsidies in order to sell us a pup!

AHGTG will investigate the very hysteria surrounding nuclear power but will also look to a new source of power that is changing the face of America and has caused wholesale energy prices to drop by 50%. The scale of US shale gas production is causing no small amount of consternation among natural gas exporting nations with technological breakthroughs in natural gas extraction fashioning this once expensive gas a executable alternative. Shale gas has now been uncovered in several U.S. states and it is now believed that the potential for shale exists worldwide including right here in the U.K.