Nuclear and renewables: can they be partners?

Given that both nuclear and renewables emit zero or very little carbon, they can potentially play important parts in curbing emissions by replacing fossil fuels. There is a popular view that nuclear power and renewable forms of energy, such as wind, solar and tidal, are competing for place in the energy mix. Although all of the usual arguments trotted out against nuclear energy are repeated, it is clear that the real opposition to nuclear lies somewhere much deeper. Their alternative would be to move towards a more localised and small scale form of electricity provision, often called distributed generation. This could ultimately result in people generating power in their own homes, using low carbon-emitting technologies, with the addition of a very localised grid system to take up any surpluses or cover deficits. Although it is realistic to propose that rich industrialised societies can try to move away from centralised generation, this can not happen overnight. For rapidly growing developing countries such as China and India, it is also unrealistic to believe that they can achieve their economic objectives without large-scale centralised power generation, hence they have to seriously consider nuclear if they also wish to minimise carbon emissions. For major industrialised countries such as the UK an USA, there is also now a significant requirement for replacement capacity, as existing generation facilities are shut down for economic or environmental reasons.