Madam, - May I support the letter from Somhairle Mac Aodha (Nov 1st) concerning the end of cheap oil. It is true that world oil production will peak within the next few years and then decline at an annual rate of about 2 per cent.
This comes at a time when demand is increasing, especially from developing countries such as China and India.
Industrialisation has been almost totally dependent on the plentiful supply of cheap oil and gas. We will have used, in about 200 years, half of the oil/gas reserves which were created over many millions of years.
Our profligate use must be curtailed if we are to extend the life of this vital resource which, as well as being an energy source, is a vital feedstuff for agriculture and the whole chemical industry.
With impending shortages we need to use every available source of energy such as renewable sources, strict conservation measures and the use of nuclear power.
It is unlikely that renewables will ever contribute the major fraction of our needs and nuclear power is the only option for the base load which produces negligible greenhouse gases. (We hope that nuclear fusion will ultimately be an answer but that seems a long way off.)
The well known environmentalist, James Lovelock (guru of the UK Green Party) has now come out very strongly in favour of nuclear power.
France generates about 80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power with very few problems or public objections. Radiation phobia, fuelled for example by misconceptions and misinformation about Sellafield and Chernobyl, have impeded the growth of nuclear power but things will have to change.
The legacy of nuclear waste buried in stable underground sites for many thousands of years is of little consequence compared to the problems we are going to face. - Yours, etc,
PHILIP W WALTON, Moycullen, Co Galway.