The push to lift Ireland's nuclear ban: Going nuclear or nowhere?

From the backbenches of Fianna Fáil in recent months has emerged a political push to lift the ban in Ireland on nuclear power generators.

What's behind the move to 'go nuclear’ now? And is it a viable option, or a distraction from already proven renewable technologies?

In the late 1970s Ireland had its own version of Woodstock. Thousands of demonstrators descended on Carnsore Point to attend carnival-like protests against the development of the country’s first nuclear plant.

ESB engineers had chosen the Co Wexford site for its low population, stable geology and access to the Irish Sea for plant cooling.

Minister for Energy at the time, Desmond O'Malley dubbed the protesters "members of the flat-Earth society" hindering Ireland’s entry into the atomic age.

Yet the scale of opposition, the discovery of gas off Kinsale and the Three Mile Island accident in the US eventually led to the withdrawal of political support for the Carnsore Point project.

The u-turn was so pronounced by the late 1990s legislation was introduced to veto any future nuclear production.

Two Acts contain legislative blocks - the 1999 Electricity Regulation Act and 2024 Planning and Development Act, but there is no constitutional impediment to nuclear power. And for the first time in decades, the issue is back on the political agenda.

Fianna Fáil TD James O’Connor has introduced a bill which would reverse the legislative ban. The proposal has been supported by both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.

"It’s a long term play, a generational decision," Deputy O’Connor told Prime Time.

The population was expected to grow by one million over the next 20 years and the economy needs carbon neutral energy which would help bring the cost of electricity down, he said.

"Ireland has ended up as the most expensive country in the EU27 because over many decades we haven't planned long term. That's what I'm seeking to change.

"40 per cent of the energy in Finland comes from nuclear and that is why the energy prices in Finland are so cheap."

Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman described the idea as Government "kite flying".

"The nuclear industry promises to deliver at a cheap price on a reasonable timescale but it doesn't happen," he told the programme.

"We should double down on delivering renewable energy, cutting bills for consumers and giving us energy security."

Going nuclear, or going nowhere fast?

The war in Ukraine has highlighted our dependence on imported fuel and the argument goes that nuclear power may provide an additional low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels; one that can complement renewable sources.

The optimism of nuclear proponents lies in new technology called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). These are smaller reactors that require less cooling but that can produce up to a third of the power of large, conventional reactors.

Prefabricated units can be manufactured, shipped and installed on site, making them more affordable to build than large power reactors, according to the Institute for Atomic Energy Agency.

However, the new technology is still in development and is years away from being deployed at scale, said Dr Paul Deane, Senior Lecturer in Clean Energy Futures at University College Cork.

"There’s lots of uncertainty around the costs and capability of the technology and big questions on what you do with the nuclear waste."

While keeping an open mind on its potential, Dr Deane cautioned that SMR technology was not yet commercially available.

"You can go into Harvey Norman in the morning and buy a solar panel. You can't go anywhere and buy a small modular nuclear reactor.

"When something doesn't exist in the commercial world everyone is able to be right and wrong about it because we've nothing to benchmark against."

The delivery of nuclear power requires supply chains with a steady supply of raw materials as well as large workforces of highly specialised engineers. China and Russia are the only countries currently with operational small reactors, although Canada is developing the first such facility in a G7 nation.

"They started building it last year. It's probably going to take about five years for it to be developed but then we've got to see, does it work?," Dr Deane said.

For people like Roderic O’Gorman, the obvious step to improve our grid capacity while meeting climate goals is not untested nuclear technology, it’s investment in battery storage and renewable generation.

"Spain made a call after the Ukraine war to go with renewables, to go with solar. They now have the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe," he said.

Where else is looking at the potential of SMRs?

In the US, Google and Amazon - keen to power their AI data centres - have signed deals to use SMR reactors when they become available.

The first such plant in the UK is earmarked for Anglesey in north Wales while American firm Holtec has signed an agreement to deliver an SMR at a decommissioned power station in Nottinghamshire.

Gareth Thomas, Director of Holtec Britain told Prime Time the planned nuclear reactor at Cottam will power a new data centre.

"The site is 40 acres which is not a huge area of land compared to wind turbines or solar panels which occupy vast amounts more space."

Mr Thomas said that developments with AI meant there was a concern across nations whether electricity grids reliant on renewable sources would be sufficient to meet electricity needs, even with battery back up.

"Nuclear power is generating 24 hours a day. There's a few weeks every 18 or 24 months where you refuel it, but apart from that it generates the whole time.

"I think there's a journey with a local community to first explain the benefits, the safety, and ultimately what it will do for a local area in terms of jobs and economic benefits," he added.

"I think it's worth the conversation to see, for Ireland's projected demand and its projections on data centres and AI, if SMRs potentially have a place."

Back here, Small Modular Reactors are among the technologies being examined by the Sustainable Energy Authority as part of its Decarbonised Electricity System Study. It will present the Government with a range of options for decarbonising Ireland's electricity system post-2030.

A draft technical report noted "SMRs are not expected to be available before 2045. Moderate scale deployment may be possible by 2050, but it is plausible that no nuclear fission will be deployed by 2050."

"Optimistic scenarios" envisaged that SMRs could complement renewables by providing stable, low-carbon baseload power needed for grid stability, but legal complexity, upfront investment, and public acceptance remain significant hurdles, the report said.

The SEAI has cautioned that the report is provisional. "Subsequent work, that is currently under way, will provide a more precise assessment of the potential for the (decarbonising) technologies to be adopted within the Irish electricity system.

"Specific conclusions should be based on the final publication."

Safety concerns have also not gone away, according to anti-nuclear activist Adi Roche who cited Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in Ukraine as evidence of the technology's inherent security flaws.

"Nuclear facilities themselves can function as potential radiological weapons — "dirty bombs" whose consequences could be catastrophic without a single warhead being deployed," she wrote in the Irish Examiner.

Gareth Thomas, Director of Holtec Britain said that unlike older nuclear power stations that require external power to shut down reactors in potentially dangerous situations, new SMRs are designed to be shut off "without relying on external pumps or external power."

"This new generation of reactors will not be susceptible as previous designs have been."

Adi Roche has also questioned the sustainability of nuclear fission.

"Nuclear power depends on a highly radioactive finite resource, uranium, which, even when unmined, poses huge health damage risk. Studies suggest that, at current consumption rates, uranium supplies could be depleted within two decades.

"To invest heavily in a system reliant on a dwindling resource is short-sighted," she wrote.

Regardless of whether Ireland ever builds its own nuclear plants, it will begin importing a portion of nuclear-generated electricity from France via the Celtic Interconnector from 2028. France generates nearly 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power across 19 stations.

Environmentalists contend that every euro invested in an Irish nuclear energy project is money that isn’t spent on green energy, grid resilience or large batteries that could smooth out renewable supplies.

There is no need, they argue, to revisit the Carnsore Point debate.