A power plant on the outskirts of Zhangjiakou, north of Beijing
© AFP/File Frederic J. Brown

LONDON (AFP) - Fatih Birol, speaking ahead of the publication of the agency's World Energy Outlook, said that countries must convince their voters that nuclear power was both safe and an "essential tool" to meet domestic energy security, and global climate change, goals.

"We need a decision almost tomorrow if we are going to act before we reach a point of no return in climate and security of supply," Birol told the newspaper.

"We are on an energy path that is vulnerable, dirty and expensive," the report, due to be released November 7 in London, will say, according to the FT.

The goal, however, was to "prepare an alternative path ... to a cleaner, safer, less costly system," Birol said.

The IEA will say that nuclear power costs about as much as coal and gas, and concluded that there were sufficient uranium deposits to meet increased demand for places to dump nuclear waste.

Birol also said that the IEA's previous calculation of 17 trillion dollars (13.3 trillion euros) of investment required around the world in energy until 2030 would be revised upwards because of cost inflation.

Several countries around the world are planning to construct new power plants and others, such as Britain, are considering installing new ones.

©AFP