Nuclear power is an issue that provokes fierce debate and strong emotions amongst environmentalists and this has been apparent in some of the coverage over the issue recently. With the pressure on fossil fuels becoming difficult to ignore and the ongoing issues in Japan, nuclear power has risen up the agenda once again.

Friends of the Earth inflated a giant white elephant outside parliament to protest against public funds and resources going into nuclear energy. In Birmingham over a hundred people held a vigil in Victoria Square to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. This highlighted fears that the plant at Fukushima may prove to be more destructive than it has so far appeared. Coupled with this, Friends of the Earth International is challenging the Japanese government’s decision to increase the permitted levels of radiation children can be exposed to.

The Economist ran a debate discussing the motion ‘This house believes that the world would be better off without nuclear power’. Tom Burke of E3G argued that the fact that private investors have never been willing to take the economic risk of nuclear power is a clear warning to treat all assertions about its costs with some suspicion, chiming with FOE’s giant white elephant. Ian Hore-Lacy from the World Nuclear Association, in opposition, claimed that sources of power capable of providing continuous, reliable supply on a large scale while avoiding carbon dioxide emissions have never been more needed – sidestepping the issue of efficiency altogether and assuming that the planet will be able to support our current consumption rates.

In the Guardian, Helen Caldicott and George Monbiot have been engaged in a furious argument on the claims and counterclaims about the health impacts of the nuclear industry. FOE’s Mike Childs has summed up the key points of the recent debate and what this means for the future of energy policy, pointing out that when it comes to nuclear versus renewable energy, the key issue is not safety or cost, but speed. We urgently need to cut our emissions to avoid dangerous climate change, and renewables need some financial support in order to drive this further.

Whatever your view on nuclear power, the fact that there is now a debate raging about our energy future may mean that people are waking up to the fact that energy usage and supply both need to change, and it provides an excellent opportunity to press for energy policies that are genuinely sustainable.

Roxanne Green