The electric consumption in Ireland is currently about 25 TWh per year.

In France the electric consumption is 470 TWh per year, and 80% of it

provided by 58 reactors (1000 MW each on average). Therefore just 25 /

(470 / 58) = 3 reactors of 1000 MW located on one same site in Ireland

could provide a baseload supply of about 80% of the Irish electric

needs, as in France. This could be provided for example by 3 units of

the AP-1000 advanced pressurized reactor or by just 2 units of the EPR

(European Pressurized reactor) of 1600 MW each. The remaining 20% could

then be reasonably provided by a combination of renewable sources

(hydro, wind, tides, waves, etc.).

Such a program could slash the CO2 emissions in Ireland (per inhabitant)

by almost half in 2020.

The first Irish reactor could come on line starting in 2015, after

gaining public acceptance, taking the political decisions, the paper

work (3 years up to this point), and constructing the reactor (5 years).

The following reactors could be built and come on line in the next 5

years. It can be noted that in France (then 50 million inhabitants) 58

reactors were built in about 20 years after the first oil shock in 1973,

at a pace of 3 reactors per year.

In the longer term (2025-2040), allowing for some growth in the electric

consumption (especially to allow for electric cars, electric trains and

more electric heating in the future, to replace carbon fuels as the

world will be running out of gas and oil), Ireland could stabilize and

answer most of it's energy needs with about 5 units of 1000 MW each, or

3 EPR reactors.

This of course is not the only solution and should go along with energy

conservation, energy efficiency, the development of solar power

(especially for heating purposes : hot water production and domestic

heating), the development of geothermal energy, more ecological

construction techniques (better insulated homes, heated by heat pumps,

with double-flux air ventilation), the development of more sober electric cars, cogeneration of heat and power (which can be done by nuclear reactors)...

Such a program could slash the CO2 emissions in Ireland (per inhabitant)

by about three quarters (75%) by 2030, and perhaps up to about 90% by 2050.