The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently released a statement from documentary filmmaker Robert Stone regarding nuclear power and its potential to mitigate climate change.
Stone recently released Pandora’s Promise, a film that gives an overview of changing views among environmentalists from opposing nuclear power and their growing recognition of nuclear power as a climate-change mitigation solution.
In his piece, Stone urges delegates that are currently taking part in the Climate Change Conference in Paris this month to consider the hosting country’s power generation methods. Stone said that due to France’s use of nuclear power, its energy grid emits fewer carbon particles into the atmosphere and said electricity prices in the country are lower than the rest of the European Union.
The World Nuclear Association said France generates 75 percent of its electricity through nuclear power plants.
Stone said critics of nuclear power cite current economic and political challenges leading some to believe that nuclear power is limited in sustainability. Stone counters this with the development of new reactor designs that are safer, more efficient and nearly ready for commercialization. Stone also said that had funding to research and development not been cut off due to pressure from anti-nuclear groups, this technology would have been available already.
Stone said that by not including nuclear power as part of any climate-mitigation strategy, the international community is limiting its chances of being successful in reaching global temperature targets in the future.
