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Energy Justice and Nuclear Power with Zion Lights (Patreon)

Published:
2021-06-23 21:11:05
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Happy to welcome activist and science communicator Zion Lights to discuss Energy Justice, the scientific consensus around Nuclear Power, the shaky morality of Degrowth positions, Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and her new advocacy organisation, Emergency Reactor!


Zion Lights: http://www.zionlights.co.uk/ 

Join Emergency Reactor: https://www.emergencyreactor.org/ 

 

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Comments

Anonymous

This episode was great. I think this debate may have been referenced at some point https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k-hV_FH22I Whilst the intermittency argument seems unassailable, it would have been interesting to hear if Zion had any thoughts about the cost of nuclear (Parenti's argument in the vid). It seems that unless you've got a state-owned company energy company ready to take the project on we've first got to win the battle for nationalised energy production and that's where he argues the opportunity cost, at least in certain countries, outweighs the gains.

interdependence
>>62610246

cheers! Yeah I think we will get into that further when we host Leigh later. Seems like a sufficiently complicated counter argument, but you kindof need to progress the conversation from "nuclear=bad" (where many are at) to be able to dive into the meat of execution

Anonymous

Love to see the Malthusian elements of the green movement openly called out and I definitely agree that nuclear is a must for the UK as a stop gap solution. There are some big omissions in the conversation that should be addressed as part of an argument for nuclear power though, particularly from a political perspective, and the viability of mass expansion of nuclear power. At a social level, nuclear power requires a political formation that one can describe as a nuclear state. This is a large, educated populous with a centralised and stable government that has a complete monopoly on large-scale violence. It will not be possible to achieve that at speed (if ever) in many parts of the world, particularly Africa where population growth and energy want are highest. This is a hard limitation for expansion. At a political level, the creation of a nuclear state expands beyond the focus of civil energy. Only with a very narrow view can one say nuclear power is a less dangerous energy source and has killed very few people. In just a three-day period, nuclear power obliterated over 200,000 people in Japan. The opposition to nuclear power in the green movement is as much rooted in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as it is purely environmental concerns. Ties between the CND and the Green movement remain strong - former leaders of both the Green Party and Labour Party are Vice Presidents of the London-based CND. Arguing for expansion of nuclear power into new states requires an engagement with the "Great Fear" that preceded climate change - nuclear war. The risk of nuclear war has not disappeared - restriction of civil nuclear power is what has held it in check (that is why the scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is dead, for example). At a resource level, nuclear power requires a lot of uranium and water. On the uranium front, Kazakhstan provides nearly 50% of the world's uranium, a fact that has propped up one of the longest dictatorships in the world to the point that even the capital now bears his name. Water is in abundance in wet, coast-heavy North and Western countries of Europe. That is not true of many countries with energy want. Water concerns are a particular concern inland and China is already coming up against that problem: https://www.chinawaterrisk.org/resources/analysis-reviews/china-nuclear-the-future-is-unclear/ There are definitely fair responses to the above points but all need to be considered when making the ethical and environmental argument for the expansion of nuclear power.

interdependence
>>62846306

thanks for the thoughtful response! Sorry it took so long to get back, we will use these as notes for future conversations on the topic - this was intended as a high level intro. We wouldn't suggest that a switch to nuclear would be an uncomplicated panacea - the connection between nuclear power and nuclear arms (and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh) is particularly interesting, as it does seem like as that would take a particularly novel diplomatic configuration to work at scale, which also appears to be necessary to get a handle on climate matters irrespective. Super helpful response, much appreciated!