10th November 2005

 
The Gloucestershire Green party have now submitted a report commenting on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's "Strategy - Draft for Consultation" (i) that looks at the decommissioning and clean up of nuclear sites like Oldbury and Berkeley. The Green party submitted their report, which is available on their website and below (ii), a day before the deadline for submissions on 11th November.

Philip Booth, a Gloucestershire Green party spokesperson who put together the report following discussions with Green party members and others, said: "Greens have welcomed the NDA's call for decommissioning of these reactors within 30 years as the majority of radioactivity has lessened significantly. Waiting means there are very serious continuing problems of safety, security and storage of radioactive waste long term. It is fairer to do it sooner than leave the same job for our great grandchildren to solve and pay for when they didn't even benefit from the electricity."

Philip Booth said: "But we also sound a note of caution. Greens would be totally opposed if the plan involved incineration of radioactive waste, even low-level waste or a lowering of environmental standards."

Philip Booth added: "The enormous cost of decommissioning these nuclear power stations - billions and rising - reflects the folly of the nuclear industry. To talk of new nuclear power stations is madness. Nuclear is grossly uneconomic, we still haven't sorted what to do with the waste, the safety risks are high, fuel sourcing could also be a problem and despite what is suggested nuclear power still adds to climate change pollution. Even a doubling of existing nuclear capacity would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at most 8% (iii)."

Philip Booth concluded: "Decommissioning nuclear power stations will become a growth industry in its own right, sustaining jobs in large numbers for many years after electricity production has ceased. This is the time to shift nuclear jobs into decommissioning and switch to more sustainable sources of power like wind energy that provides six times the number of jobs than nuclear power for a given output of power."


Notes:

(i) NDA Strategy
(ii) See Report section: Response to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Proposed Strategy
(iii) See earlier press release for more details