The expansion of nuclear power vs. a more economical use of energy as solutions to the CO2-problem?

The importance of nuclear power in managing the CO2 problem is one of the hotly debated topics in energy and environmental policies. For a foreseeable time, nuclear power is the only abundant energy source free from CO2, the use of which can even be intensified if and when necessary. The concepts in energy policy and the environmental strategies in this fact is taken into account are currently being compared by energy critics in quantitative and financial terms with energy conservation as a more economical way of using energy that would make the expansion of nuclear power appear a relatively ineffective and much too expensive way of averting the climatic catastrophe. Especially the climatologist Professor W. Bach, member of the Committee of Inquiry set up by the German Federal Parliament to investigate ways and means of protecting the climate, expressed himself to that effect last year. His opinion is based on a study by D. Keepin and G. Katz written in 1988 at the Rocky Mountain Institute, Colorado, the center of action of A. Lovins. That study is the subject of this comment. (orig.)