THE prospect of paying poor countries to build nuclear power stations is back in view.
Draft text under negotiation at climate-change talks in Bonn, Germany, includes an option to make nuclear facilities eligible for funding under two schemes meant to help poorer countries develop low-carbon technologies: the (CDM) and Joint Implementation.
Nuclear power was excluded from these schemes in the Kyoto protocol in 2001, after opposition from both European and some developing countries.
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Climate-change experts are cautious. Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester, UK, has 鈥渟erious reservations鈥� about the CDM. He says nuclear power should be considered 鈥� but only if 鈥渟afety and security issues are satisfactorily addressed鈥�.
Robert Stavins of Harvard University argues that a 鈥渃arefully designed鈥� provision to include nuclear power could be 鈥渉elpful鈥� in combating climate change.
