Nuclear power must for low-carbon economy: Sachs

Making a strong case for nuclear power, the UN Secretary-General’s special advisor Jeffrey Sachs today said it is a must that the world economy is transformed to a low-carbon producer and held that it was a safer source of energy than coal.

“Nuclear energy provides about 20 per cent of the world’s electricity supply right now and I personally find it hard to believe that we can have a transition to a low-carbon economy without nuclear power,” Sachs said at an OECD conference here.

Sachs, who is also the Director of Earth Sciences in Columbia University, said while the damage of lives caused by nuclear power is “very small”, the casualty caused by coal-fired thermal power is “vast”.

“The loss of life as a result of the worst incidence in Japan was very very small; on the other hand, what coal-fired plants are doing to kill people and the eco-system, not seen, but day-to-day relentlessly, is vast,” he said.

Sachs also criticised the new French government for its proclaimed strategy of bringing down the dependence on nuclear power despite putting in place a very high standard of nuclear programme.

“I was very surprised and all the more disheartened with the announcement of the new French government that they are going to scale back its nuclear energy dependence. To my mind, this is a mistake,” he said.

“France has created a very effective and high quality safe system and I believe if France scales back and the potential that Germany produces more power with coal, this is not going to be anybody’s benefit at the end.”

However, he said nuclear power has major complications by far the most important of which is not the waste, but the proliferation challenge.

“But, having said that, I personally believe that from the point of view of nuclear safety, nuclear power is a justified, and I would say, at this stage a necessary technology,” Sachs said.

Sachs invited debate on the issue: “It’s a debatable proposition that I just said. But, I would have this debate, which is systematic and rational way, intensive, now as I think that this is going to be extremely very important”.