Background

Currently, New Zealand develops 79% of its energy from renewable sources, placing third in OECD rankings of electricity produced from renewable sources according to the International Energy Agency. Further, New Zealand has set a target of reaching 90% of its electricity production from renewable means by 2025. The renewable technology most focused on to achieve this target is wind and solar power.

The current strategy focuses on diverse renewable electricity technologies, with particular mention of wind power. The dominate theme derived from the strategy is that NZ should fight climate change and wind power is a very good way to do it.Within this frame, wind power’s true costs and efficiency is neglected in favour of it being a renewable source of energy. Influenced by weather conditions, wind power’s fundamental problem is that it is intermittent and unpredictable. Therefore, the strategy’s attention to fulfilling its 90% reduction and Kyoto commitments lack a pragmatic approach to energy supply and security.  In short, the proposed strategy is contradictory as energy supply and production will be less secure.

The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) was shelved due to its inability to create nuclear weapons. In those Cold War days, weapons production was more important than energy production.Since that time,uranium fuelled nuclear power has failed to live up to its egalitarian dream of ‘too cheap to meter’ energy, and instead has brou ght only cynicism and resistance.

Thorium however, holds the candle to nuclear power’s egalitarian dream, as LFTR can:

• Produce more power than uranium for less cost and waste,
• Cannot melt down,
• Can be air cooled, cannot overheat- massive container domes and infrastructure is not needed,
• Cannot make nuclear weapons,
• Thorium fuel is highly abundant.

LFTR provides a solution to the energy strategy’s inherent pragmatic void. Producing more energy than uranium, and overcoming its many problems, thorium fuelled nuclear power holds a far greater potential than wind power. In short, a LFTR nuclear reactor, compared to wind power, can provide energy supply and production security. Because its design reverses uranium’s many flaws, LFTR has potential to become accepted within NZ’s anti-nuclear climate.