There is an opportunity cost in nuclear power: in terms of the fight against climate change, security of energy supplies and other considerations, nuclear power diverts attention, effort, and large amounts of money away from renewables and the conservation of energy, where those resources would be more effectively spent.

There is abundant evidence from reputable sources that, in general, renewables are substantially more effective in cutting emissions of CO₂, they provide greater security in energy supplies than nuclear power (but without its inflexibility), they are cheaper than nuclear power (taking account of all subsidies), there are more than enough to meet our needs now and for the foreseeable future, they can be built much faster than nuclear power stations, they provide diversity in energy supplies, and they are largely free of the several problems with nuclear power:

• The nuclear cycle is far from being zero-carbon. Peer-reviewed research has shown that the nuclear cycle emits between 9 and 25 times as much fossil carbon as wind power.

• Security of supplies:

• Nuclear power is a hindrance, not a help, in ensuring security of energy supplies:

• Nuclear plants are out of service for routine maintenance and unscheduled outages. Failure of a nuclear power station is very disruptive on the grid because a relatively large amount of electricity is lost, often quite suddenly and with little warning. By contrast, variations in the output of renewables are much easier to manage because they are gradual and predictable.
  

• Nuclear power cannot easily be turned up or down to meet variations in demand -- it is an inflexible source of power which is unhelpful in balancing demand and supply of electricity. By contrast, several renewable sources of power -- hydropower, enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), tidal lagoons managed as pumped-storage devices, thermal power stations with biofuels, and concentrating solar power with heat storage -- can provide power on demand, day and night.

• A demonstration of the way that renewables can provide a reliable and responsive source of electrical power is the “Combined Power Plant” which links and controls 36 wind, solar, biomass and hydropower installations spread throughout Germany. It has proved to be just as reliable and powerful as a conventional large-scale power station.

• To guard against all contingencies, a strategic reserve of gas-fired power stations may be maintained with a strategic reserve of bio-gas or bio-methane.

• There is a range of techniques that can balance supplies of electricity with constantly varying demands for electricity, ensuring reliable and secure supplies with 100% renewables.

• Nuclear power is not a “home grown” source of power in the UK because all uranium is imported.

• Nuclear power is vulnerable to terrorist attack, and it facilitates the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

• There is more information in The potential of renewables (Security of energy supplies).

• Nuclear power is one of the most expensive ways of generating electricity:

  • Notwithstanding the misleadingly low figures for the cost of nuclear power that are put out by the nuclear industry and repeated, apparently without critical examination, by other organisations, it is now well established that nuclear power is one of the most expensive ways of generating electricity.

  • The cost of nuclear power is disguised by several Nuclear Subsidies (PDF, 167 KB). Without those subsidies, nuclear power would be entirely uncompetitive.

  • The Union of Concerned Scientists, writing about their report about subsidies for nuclear power, said "Government subsidies to the nuclear power industry over the past fifty years have been so large in proportion to the value of the energy produced that in some cases it would have cost taxpayers less to simply buy kilowatts on the open market and give them away."

  • Without these and other distortions in energy markets, renewables are, almost certainly, the cheapest sources of power (with the possible exception of those in the early stages of development).

• Renewables can, in general, be built much faster than nuclear power stations.

• There are more than enough renewables to meet all our needs for energy, not just electricity, now and for the foreseeable future:

• The evidence is summarised in The potential of renewables, with links to relevant sources.

• Several reports show how it is possible to decarbonise the world's economies without using nuclear power.