4th December 2007

Green party member Angela Paine writes from the newly reformed Shut Oldbury Campaign to The Citizen newspaper

I am shocked that our MP David Drew welcomed Gordon Brown's decision to back a new generation of nuclear power stations, even before hearing the results of the consultation on nuclear power which will not become public until mid 2008.

Unfortunately new nuclear power stations cannot play a role in tackling climate change, since they would not be built in time and although they could generate 25% of our electricity, this is only 5% of our total energy requirement.

Nuclear power is not carbon neutral, but actually creates half as much CO2 as gas fired power generation.

Nuclear power cannot improve energy security since the UK does not have any uranium but would have to import it from countries like Azerbaijan (not known for political stability), whereas we will import all our gas from Norway.

 Nuclear power stations are targets for terrorist attack and the theft of nuclear materials is a constant threat, as demonstrated by the news last week that Uranium for a ‘dirty bomb’ was seized by the police in Slovakia.

Clearly it will be difficult to find a private company willing to invest in nuclear new build, since the costs have escalated, far in excess of inflation, unless special incentives are provided by the government.

Why not provide these incentives to companies prepared to invest in research and development of renewable energy, such as wave power, tidal power and off-shore wind power, all of which would yield sufficient energy more quickly and more safely than nuclear power.

Angela Paine, Shut Oldbury Campaign