One pot of money....

I've been listening and watching a never-ending array of comments on the 20th Anniversary of Chernobyl this week. I also went to a debate at London's Dana Centre, featuring the broadcaster Johnny Ball and Keith Barnham from the Department of Physics at Imperial College London. Barnham is a major advocate of solar power, and advocates coating buildings with newer, more-efficient solar cells for electricity generation.

The debate involved Ball arguing that nuclear power is safe than many believe, waste isn't an insuperable problem, and the only practial solution to growing energy demand and security. Barnham, on the other hand, talked up the threat of terrorism on nuclear infrastructure and waste, talked about the timescales over which radioactive waste decays, and the costs of waste management. He compared with with rising efficieny levels of solar cells, as well as commenting on other areas of renewable energy like wind and wave power.

There is, as he put it - "one pot of money" that needs to be assigned either to nuclear or renewables. Interestingly, he didn't mention his own patents on solar cells & related technologies. I wonder why?