ESSAY |Vol 449|11 October 2007 Fifty years of hopes and fears Atomic energy was cutting edge when the Windscale fire showed the world the effects of a nuclear accident. Fifty years on, we have more innovative ways to generate electricity.

Walt Patterson From 1990 onwards, gas-turbine gen- eration has taken the lead. It is cheap, On the edge of the Lake District, scenic clean and easy to site. It needs no fuel heart of northwestern England, lies a vast, store, uses less water than coal-fired or ugly industrial scar. Part is Calder Hall. nuclear generation, and produces no The rest was once Windscale. Half a cen- waste. Gas turbines have also paved the tury ago both became famous worldwide. way for other smaller-scale generators. On 17 October 1956, Queen Elizabeth Traditional water and steam power kept II switched on the electricity from Calder scaling up because a bigger unit made Hall, called the world’s first nuclear power cheaper electricity. For microturbines, station. On 8 October 1957, the physi- gas engines, Stirling engines, flow batter- cist in charge of the Windscale Number ies, fuel cells, wind turbines, microhydro 1 production reactor, a few and marine energy, biomass power, solar hundred metres from Calder Hall, threw thermal and photovoltaics, what counts a switch too soon. The reactor caught fire. is scaling up the number of units: the By the time the fire was extinguished three more you make, the cheaper their out- days later, a plume of radioactivity had put, with rapid learning curves. Some drifted far across northern Europe. The also deliver both electricity and heat world found out what a nuclear accident from the same fuel, boosting efficiency could do. and reducing emissions. Generation Last month, wreckers demolished the from wind, water and sunlight uses no cooling towers of Calder Hall, on the site fuel and produces no emissions. now known as Sellafield. The hopes — and Traditional electricity networks are fears — that those towers came to represent radial and one-way. They deliver large still loom over global energy. flows of electricity over long distances In the 1950s, politicians, media and the from huge power plants in remote loca- public were keen on ‘atomic power’, as they tions. Such networks are inherently called it. They felt it was cutting edge, a vulnerable to disruption, as widespread cleaner, more modern replacement for blackouts attest. Smaller-scale gen- coal. Those keeping the lights on were less eration closer to users prefers two-way keen. In the United States, Britain and else- networks, linking loads and genera- where, electricity managers viewed nuclear tion in optimized local systems. Such power, untried and unfamiliar, with scep- decentralized electricity offers higher ticism. Their wariness deepened after the performance and reliability, and lower Windscale fire left a radioactive mess, still environmental impact. It is gaining being cleaned up half a century later. ground rapidly. Nuclear promoters, backed by their gov- As climate and fuel security dominate ernments, prevailed. Electricity demand the energy agenda, the battle between and supply expanded dramatically. Nuclear The cooling towers of Calder Hall at Sellafield traditional and innovative electricity plants, scaling up at breakneck speed, being demolished last month. intensifies around the world, notably in reached record size. They also had record fast-growing economies such as China. cost and timetable overruns, sometimes For three decades after Calder Hall, After half a century, nuclear power is tripling initial estimates and taking more nuclear power plants fitted the traditional the ultimate in tradition. It needs cli- than a decade to build. A brief flurry of electricity system, in which a better power mate more than climate needs it. To orders followed the first oil crisis in 1973, plant was always a bigger one farther away. avert catastrophic global warming, why then petered out, amid many cancellations. Then, at the end of the 1980s, governments pick the slowest, most expensive, most The last US plant completed was ordered began selling electricity assets to private limited, most inflexible and riskiest in 1974. operators and introducing competition. option? In 1957, despite the Windscale On 28 March 1979, Three Mile Island 2 That transferred risk from the captive cus- fire, nuclear power was worth trying. in Pennsylvania came scarily close to melt- tomers of traditional electricity monopo- We tried it: its weakness proved to be down — the first major accident at a civil lies to the shareholders and bankers of the economics, not safety. Now nuclear nuclear power plant. Soon nuclear order new competitive systems. Private inves- generation is just an impediment to books were almost empty. On 26 April tors lost interest in nuclear plants. Instead sustainable electricity. ■ 1986, the Chernobyl 4 reactor exploded, the they bought gas-turbine power stations Walt Patterson is associate fellow at worst nuclear accident in history. By then, that could be ordered, built, operating and Chatham House, London SW1Y 4LE, UK however, nuclear power was already falling earning revenue in less than two years. and author of Nuclear Power (Penguin), out of favour, not for the oft-cited reasons Suddenly a better power station might be available free at www.waltpatterson.org. of safety or waste management, but because a smaller power station closer to users — a His new book is Keeping The Lights On: of its cost and complexity. fundamental break with tradition. Towards Sustainable Electricity. ESSAY 664