John Dolan: Imagine the blowback if they built a nuclear plant in Cork...

The year is 2036, and the Government of the day is poised to make a ground-breaking announcement.

After a White Paper was published on the subject of a nuclear power plant, and following years of debate, dithering, committee discussions, and pledges on the issue, a decision has finally been made.

The Taoiseach addresses the cameras: “I am delighted to announce that we are proposing to build the first nuclear power plant in Ireland,” she declares.

“And Cork has been chosen as the location.”

How would such an announcement be greeted in the Rebel County, do you think?

We often gripe about how the chiefs ‘up in Dublin’ seem to take all our taxes, and we get little back. So would this be viewed as a wonderful coup for Cork?

Hupouttadat!

I reckon there would be hell to pay, and that every TD and councillor in city and county would get it in the neck. Can you imagine the marches, the protests, the uproar, that would greet such a decision?

‘Not in my backyard... or anywhere in my county come to that!’

It will never happen, says you. The Irish have been dead against nuclear power since it was first on the table 50 years ago. Indeed, we have even banned it through law.

But the current Taoiseach Micheál Martin brought the topic of nuclear power out of cold storage the other day, when he suggested it may be a viable option in the future, given the uncertainty over our power supply, and the onset of climate change.

He will be long gone from the top table by the time any decision on a nuclear power plant is ever made. But the prospect is well and truly back up for debate.

The 1999 law banning nuclear power can always be reversed, and some opinions may be turned on this issue - but the big stumbling block will be the naysayers who will not want a nuclear plant - no matter how small and perfectly safe they are told it will be - in their backyard.

But why put it in Cork, says you?

Well, because the county fulfills all of the criteria for one.

Such a plant would need to be located in an area of low population density, and ideally beside the coast, as this would avoid the need for ugly cooling towers.

Cork has by far the longest coastline in Ireland - several hundred miles in total - and lots of areas along it where very few people live. It ticks the boxes.

Of course, any decision on where to locate Ireland’s first nuclear power plant would be highly political. It may bring lots of jobs to a region, but the stigma attached to it among those deeply suspicious of the energy source would risk a huge localised blowback.

When nuclear energy was briefly mooted for Ireland in the 1970s, the favoured location was at Carnsore Point in Co. Wexford, while Moneypoint in Co. Clare has often been suggested as an alternative.

But imagine a scenario in a decade where the Taoiseach is from Clare and the Minister for Energy from Wexford... and no Cork TDs have a big voice in government. Hmmm.

I am old enough to remember the enduring protests over the Bottlehill landfill site in North Cork, and the Indaver incinerator proposal in Ringaskiddy has exercised local people for 25 years.

I reckon the concerns - either real or imagined - over a nuclear plant in Cork would dwarf those campaigns.

When it comes to most issues - especially energy - we Irish have a tendency to arrive fashionably late at the party - if indeed we arrive at all. And any attempt to drive through a plan for a nuclear plant anywhere in Ireland is bound to meet fierce opposition.

Would there be years - even decades - of legal challenges?

Possibly not.

Landfill sites and incinerators - much as they play a vital role for society - are viewed differently to energy needs when it comes to the planning process.

Essentially, a government - or an arm of it at least - can run roughshod over a community’s opposition when it comes to securing and maintaining our energy supply.

I found this out all too well more than a decade ago when I was involved in a group that tried to oppose plans for a new power line in our area of mid-Cork.

Our impassioned arguments that the line was unnecessary and would be a blot on the landscape were politely heard and then rejected by An Bord Pleanála in favour of Eirgrid. As is almost always the case.

During that campaign, I was astounded to discover how little power homeowners and residents hold over their land when up against the organisations responsible for keeping our lights on.

Presumably, a nuclear plant would fall under a similar remit.

There was a time in the 1970s and ’80s when vast swathes of the Irish population were fiercely opposed to nuclear energy.

However, as the power source has become ever safer, and even more small scale, and in the midst of yet another oil crisis allied with a climate crisis, attitudes are shifting.

A recent survey suggested around 28% support it, with 45% opposed.

I am firmly in the 28%.

Would I mind if a nuclear power plant was built across the road from me? Well, yes, but only in the same way I would be angry if any large industrial complex was built there upsetting my view and causing noise and congestion. I’m not afraid of nuclear power per se.

And if they dangled a carrot of free electricity bills under my nose, my anger may quickly subside!

I can’t speak for my neighbours though. The opposition to nuclear power is ingrained, and it will need a powerful range of interests to ally to convince the doubters.

One such entity should surely be the Green Party.

How ironic that a party that was founded on a strong anti-nuclear stance remains firmly against this environmentally-friendly alternative, arguing that renewables are better.

We are decades down the line of renewable energy in this country, and still paying more in Europe for our power than anyone else.

What if a large element of our power was not imported, but was made here? What if nuclear power ended our reliance on gas and oil? Imagine how much better the planet and our pockets would be.

Is that not sufficient to convince the Green Party? It seems odd to speak confidently of the end of the world being nigh due to climate change, then to dismiss the safest, cleanest energy system out there on principle.

In any case, Ireland does import energy made by nuclear power from the UK and France - the latter alone has a whopping 57 reactors. And we can’t build just one, because of an irrational and outmoded fear?

It’s time people were given the facts: Nuclear power emits 70 times less CO2 than coal, 40 times less than gas, four times less than solar energy, two times less than hydroelectricity, and the same amount as wind energy - which is notoriously dependent on how the wind blows.

Eighteen countries in Europe operate nuclear plants, producing a quarter of its electricity. Ireland needs to get with the programme.