A young Brazilian fashion influencer named Isabelle Boemeke shot a ray of hope into my life the other day. In her TED talk, , she described her conversion to a believer in nuclear energy and the creation of her nuclear character Isodope. Her efforts to promote nuclear energy are fun, creative and inspiring! Among other things, it was a good lesson to not put people or issues into boxes and cross them off.
There are few issues that are more important than climate change, and yet this promising solution often gets totally ignored. As Boemeke says in her TED talk, when experts are consulted they generally say, “It’s good; we need it. People hate it.”
That may be changing. The subject is cropping up in various media, such as Joshua Goldstein’s 2019 book “A Bright Future”, articles about , and podcasts such as Freaknomics. Victoria’s own Bob McDonald, national science commentator for the CBC, has a new book entitled “The Future is Now” that includes the promise of new nuclear energy technologies.
The war in Ukraine is forcing a reality check on energy choices. Europe finds itself needing the dirtiest of fuels at the highest prices at the same time that it’s shutting down nuclear plants. A recent news story involved the enormous quantities of wood pellets from BC forests being shipped to Britain to burn in a biomass plant. Britain, too, has been shutting down nuclear.
Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry has been actively promoting itself as the natural complement to wind and solar. It would provide a desperately needed stable source of power when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine. The problem is that we can’t reach climate targets under this scenario. What alternative is there? The one that terrifies us.
Nuclear energy does have legitimate concerns such as cost and safety. Cost, however, should take into account the increasing number of lives lost due to the burning of fossil fuels. That figure is currently estimated at 7 to 9 million annually from pollution alone. Add to that the growing number of climate-related weather events, wars caused or enabled by fossil fuels (including Ukraine), species loss and other environmental damage.
In contrast, even with the disregard for safety standards that resulted in the three well-known nuclear accidents since the 1950’s, the actual number of people who died from radiation poisoning is fewer than 100 in total, almost all from Chernobyl.
It’s important not to conflate nuclear energy and nuclear bombs, which were banned by international law in 2021 and need to be completely eliminated. Nuclear waste is a hazardous material requiring strict safety standards and procedures. Perhaps the perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of the good.
Although the development of nuclear energy has been delayed and market forces impeded by lack of demand, recent progress could speed development, bring down costs and address the issue of nuclear waste. Some newer designs can fit on the back of a truck, are far cheaper to produce and will shut down safely if disaster strikes. Advances such as molten salt technology could even and valuable elements recuperated and reused.
What connection with religion or spirituality does this have? There are many (truth-seeking, detachment, wisdom, etc.) but the one that matters the most may be humility. A core teaching of the Bahá’í Faith is to consult together in all matters, with the obligation to do a 180-degree turnaround in opinion or policy when warranted.
Nuclear energy warrants a 180. Let’s do it.
Sheila Flood is the Executive Director of the Victoria Multifaith Society and member of the Bahá’í community.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking at /blogs/spiritually-speaking
