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URGENT CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE HALT TO PROPOSED NUCLEAR PROGRAM |
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12th July 2008
The Stroud District Green Party, today called for an immediate halt to
the current push for a new round of nuclear reactors which could see a
new nuclear power station at Oldbury, 16 miles from Stroud.
Martin Whiteside, the Green party's Parliamentary spokesperson for Stroud, said "There has been no attempt to inform the public of the very real dangers of escalating costs to public funds or to explain the failure of the Government and nuclear industry to find any solution to the problem of very highly radioactive nuclear waste (i)."
The latest estimate, prepared last year, puts the cost at £73 billion over the coming decades. However last Thursday (July 10th) the Chairman of the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, Edward Leigh MP, announced that: "We cannot be confident, however, that even this figure will not be significantly upped when the estimates are next revised. Estimating costs far into the future is of course a precarious business; but elements of cost that might be expected to be more predictable - such as for work expected to be undertaken over the next five years - have risen steeply" (ii).
Echoing the MP's words, Martin Whiteside went to explain that: "Decommissioning the UK's first generation of civil nuclear sites which includes Berkeley and Oldbury is the largest public contract that has ever existed. It will cost an enormous amount of public money, which could very well exceed £1500 for every man, woman AND child of the population. What the nuclear industry and Government have consistently avoided telling us, is that the Government is unable to provide an assurance that costs of decommissioning new nuclear power stations will not fall on future taxpayers".
Martin Whiteside was also concerned at the export of the ownership of nuclear sites under the Labour Government's privatisation process of nuclear facilities. "With the support of Conservatives, control over the building, operation and decommissioning of nuclear sites is being transferred from British agencies to foreign corporations, whose primary interest is profit rather than safety (iii). Over recent weeks, foreign companies, likely to take over British assets are involved in the construction operation and waste storage of nuclear sites in Europe. These companies have not only been responsible for the release of nuclear waste into rivers, but have had to stop construction on new reactors because of faulty workmanship (iv). Last week also saw confirmation of a leak from a German nuclear waste storage facility that has existed for two decades without any attempt to stop it (v)".
Martin Whiteside re-iterated, that the Green Party regards the comprehensive clean up of our existing nuclear sites as vital and that without a solution to the waste problem, it is unethical and irresponsible to even consider a new program to expand this dirty and expensive industry. Expressing concern at the wider impact of a program to build new nuclear stations, Martin Whiteside pointed out that such a program would damage local economies, the local environment and social cohesion and increase fuel poverty, as the amount of taxes required from local people would far outstrip any benefit received through availability of jobs for local people and their communities.
Notes:
(i) http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/governments_nuclear_waste_13062008.html
(ii) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmpubacc.htm
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5ddf24c0-4dd9-11dd-820e-000077b07658.html
http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2221212/nuclear-warning-cost
(iii) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/11/nuclear
http://www.newscientist.com:80/article/dn9191-europes-new-nuclear
(iv) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/defects-found-in-nuclear-reactor-the-french-want-to-build-in-britain-808461.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/contamination-fears-after-leak-from-french-nuclear-waste-plant-863928.html
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19926642.900-contaminated-us-site-faces-catastrophic-nuclear-leak.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/08/europe/EU-France-Nuclear-Leak.php
(v) http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43108
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