A nuclear power plant in a hurry:for whose benefit?

Recent media reports of our interim Government’s hurried approval to install a Russian-backed Nuclear Power Plant in Sri Lanka. The purpose is unclear.We are desperately trying to reduce our fossil fuel consumption to reduce the burden on our limited dollar reserve, reduce our carbon footprint as a resolution to curtail our natural disasters and promote renewable energy to reduce the cost of power in Sri Lanka to attract investments. However, approval of a nuclear power plant completely contradicts this sensible strategy.

Nuclear power is not a solution to our power crisis. Today, more than 50% of our energy requirement is fulfilled by renewable energy. If all goes according to plan, a nuclear power plant will take at least 10 years to construct before it can generate electricity to light even a single bulb.

Nuclear power generation depends on imported uranium, and this project shall only exchange our dollar consumption from fossil fuel to uranium with an added dollar requirement to fund the export of uranium waste for safe disposal. This will only worsen our ‘debt crisis’ for generations.

Electricity costs for the consumer will remain continuously high, repelling any investors interested in commencing business activities in Sri Lanka. Thanks to our leaders, our ordinary people will have no opportunity to flourish through employment. Poverty will become extreme with public unrest, leading to more property damage and human loss.

Our contract with currently war-ridden Russia is more likely to be fluid than solid whilst importing Russian geopolitics to the heart of our motherland.

Along with this, we are also importing the danger of a nuclear disaster in Sri Lanka, a non-existent risk at present. Such a disaster will leave an area of at least a 35-mile radius completely inhabitable for centuries. See Chernobyl, the disaster in 1986, still inhabitable 35 years later.

It is another opportunity for our oligarchs to continue to exploit ordinary citizens, as nuclear power needs continuous imports and exports for its functioning.

This project appears to be another ‘white elephant’ in the making, similar to many other projects that are in limbo, costing millions to ordinary citizens and making their lives miserable.

Patriotic leaders should fully explore renewable power generation sources, such as hydropower, wind power and solar power, that will have no dependence whatsoever on the import of any fuel. That is the sensible approach in this current crisis, but the opposition is conspicuously silent – do they also have a share? This is an opportunity for our investigative journalists to explore and publish the pros and cons, if there are any left in Sri Lanka.

Chula Goonasekera

On behalf of the LEADS forum
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