Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications
Nuclear Energy: Discussion
10:45 am
Professor Philip Walton:
On the subject of waste, one has to look at what would happen if we were to use coal as an alternative. At Moneypoint the burning of coal emits about 5 million tonnes of CO2. The nuclear industry manages its waste. It is small in volume. I do not have a great problem with its being buried in very deep mines. Even though the Moneypoint plant is scrubbed regularly and new scrubbers have been installed at a cost of €3 million, it still emits tens of thousands of tonnes of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. It is spewing its waste out while the nuclear industry is managing it.
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