Najam in TNS on Renewable Energy in Pakistan

epa02307754 (FILE) A file picture dated 23 August 2009 shows the setting sun behind a nuclear plant in Grafenrheinfeld, Germany. On 29 August 2010, German Chancellor Merkel stated that she favoured keeping nuclear power plants in operation for an additional 10 to 15 years.  EPA/DANIEL KARMANN

Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed on the benefits of renewable energies like wind, solar, geothermal and wave over nuclear energy. 

Najam was quoted in an August 6, 2017 article in The News on Sunday entitled “The Cost of Going Nuclear.

From the text of the article:

“Japan has shown that even the best managed plants are not immune to natural disasters,” said Adil Najam, dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He said the “technological prestige” associated with nuclear energy had fizzled out and it was no more the ‘shiny toy’ it once was.

Instead the cutting edge of scientific and technological achievement today is wind, solar, geothermal and wave. “If showing off is what you want to do, then the bragging rights are now with renewables!” said Najam.

And what about the ‘exorbitant’ cost of setting up, operating, maintaining and later decommisioning and taking care of the spent fuel of a nuclear plant, pointed out Najam. The two nuclear power projects underway in Karachi with a cumulative capacity of 2,200 MW are estimated to cost over $9 billion.

Adil Najam is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and was a former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan.