No need to be scared of the n-word

No, Mr Solomon! Don’t frighten our fellow Cypriots with this kind of stuff (‘Surely we are not so stupid?’ Sunday Mail, July 19). Nuclear energy has a long way to go before it reaches sunny Cyprus.
It will first have to be deployed to a larger extent in the cold, highly industrialised countries of northern Europe (e.g. Herr UberSchell’s country), where solar/wind is uneconomical and downright impractical.
In some of these countries you would need about 85 megawatts of base-load capacity for every 15 megawatts of solar/wind installed – if and when the latter becomes practical and/or economically feasible. This is to make up for the demand when solar/wind is not available.

And, if we subscribe to the “greenhouse effect” (which we should) that base-load capacity will have to come from nuclear or something that does not emit much carbon dioxide.

Undoubtedly, a more efficient use of energy in general is a smart way to go. But I doubt it that we will opt to go as far as grandfather’s days. We’ll just get used to the new technology, much like we did with fire, the steam engine, the automobile, the computer.

After all wouldn’t you rather turn “swords into ploughshares” by burning the uranium to produce electricity instead of using it to make nuclear weapons to guard the oil reserves of the world?

Andreas C. Vikis, B.Sc., Ph.D.
Ontario, Canada