When not making cameo appearances in James Bond movies or building space planes, famous British industrialist Sir Richard Branson like to speak out on the state of the world. Here he is speaking about nuclear power at the National Press Club in Washington earlier this year…
The trouble is, by talking about oil and nuclear power in the same breath, Sir Richard isn’t comparing like with like. Nuclear power can replace our reliance on oil, can it? How so? Nuclear power, as we know, is used to generate electricity. How about oil? Not so much. For example, in 2007 the US generated only 1.6 per cent of its electricity using oil.
Sure, in the long term we could use electric cars thus reducing our reliance on oil, but what about all the other things we rely on oil for? The list of everyday uses for oil is staggering…
More than 95% of pesticides and 90% of fertilisers used to produce the world’s food started life as crude oil or natural gas. Food grains grown in the United States now contain between 4 and 10 calories of fossil fuel for every 1 calorie of sunlight. Plastics, medicines, industrial chemicals, lubricants, refrigerants, paints, solvents, insulation, antiseptics, inks, detergents…
Can we use nuclear power to provide any of those as oil supplies dwindle?
Yes, we need to find alternatives to oil and fast. Sorry Sir Richard, but nuclear power isn’t one of them.
(Thanks to the World Nuclear Association for alerting us to the video)
