Regarding Brahma Chellaney's March 23 article, "Nuclear power no solution": The ongoing events in Japan have led many, including Chellaney, to question the role of nuclear technology in energy production, and calls are already being made for countries to abandon their nuclear programs altogether. Global coverage of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima has provided a dramatic backdrop to this argument, but nothing has altered the fact that our current means of producing most of the world's energy are also causing increasing damage to our planet.
Nuclear power production has its risks, the full impact of which is being witnessed now, but so do many other things we take for granted in our day-to-day lives. Things go wrong, but we continue to persevere with them because they are acknowledged as being essential, and the same thought should apply to nuclear energy.
It is just not feasible for renewable sources of energy alone to meet even the current rate of global energy consumption. As this consumption rate inevitably rises, we must continue to supplement our energy production with nuclear methods. By all means, review, appraise and improve our nuclear energy production, but do not allow nuclear technology to take a step backward as a result of this tragedy.
The fact remains we live in a world with declining natural resources that at some point will have to be entirely replaced by other means of energy production, one of which is undoubtedly nuclear. To argue that it should cease to be used altogether will only do further harm to the environment by placing more reliance on fuels that are unsustainable and already causing considerable environmental damage.