17
March
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: World energy crunch as nuclear and oil both go wrong
17 March 2011 The Telegraph
The existential crisis for the world's nuclear industry could hardly have come at a worse moment. The epicentre of the world's oil supply is disturbingly close to its own systemic crisis as the Gulf erupts in conflict.
. . .
Much depends on whether shale gas fulfils its promise, or how soon we can achieve a quantum leap in solar technology, or exactly when the world hits "peak oil", and at what price. The UK industry taskforce on peak oil fears the crunch will hit at 95m bpd within a decade.
Dr Euan Mearns at the Oil Drum said Fukushima has shattered democracies' faith in the safety of nuclear power. If Japanese engineers had prevailed despite the worst that nature could muster, it would have vindicated the industry. "Alas, this is not the case. The future of the human global energy system has just changed course with potentially far reaching consequences for civilisation," he said.
