US should focus on energy efficiency and renewables not nuclear, says report

The US should focus on energy efficiency and renewables to tackle climate change not new nuclear capacity, says a report from environmental organisation Environment California. To avoid the worst effects of climate change, the US must roughly halve emissions from its power plants over the next ten years, but it would take too long to construct new nuclear plants to have an effect, the report claims. Starting from scratch, it could take ten years or more to construct a new reactor, claims the group. Even if the US did make an unprecedented investment of the estimated $600 billion needed to construct 100 new reactors by 2030, it would still only reduce US emissions by around 12%. "Nuclear power is a foolish investment that will set us back in the race against global warming," says Bernadette Del Chiaro of Environment California.