30th November 2005

Blair is trying to bulldozer us into accepting nuclear power just as he did over war with Iraq (i). He must not win this one. Nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and unsustainable.

After 50 years of toxic waste production, we still don't know what to do with it. Taking waste and decommissioning  into account we have yet to see an economically viable nuclear plant and this is in spite of huge subsidies by taxpayers.

Bringing back nuclear power will prevent just ten per cent of our expected rise in CO2 emissions: not enough to meet the Kyoto protocol and certainly not enough to protect Britain from climate change. The nuclear lobby continues to portray this dangerous and polluting power source as being free of greenhouse gas emissions (Citizen 29/11/05). It is not: to generate electricity from uranium requires a complex chain of industrial processes that mean the production cycle produces as much as five times more emissions than renewables.

The solution to the 'energy gap' and climate change is to cut our fossil fuel use and generate the energy we need at a local level from renewable sources such as wind, wave and solar. Solutions that are clean, global, cheap and safe with no radioactive waste legacy for future generations nor risks of another Chernobyl. They also do not rely on massive subsidy from the taxpayer, nor a scarce and finite supply of high grade uranium that is a target for terrorists.

It is time to consign nuclear to history. A Green energy revolution is the way forward for a fairer, more sustainable world.

Philip Booth, Press Officer, Stroud District Green Party.

Notes: 

(i) Jonathon Porritt, who was appointed by Mr Blair to chair the Sustainable Development Commission, warned it would be "foolish" and a "very serious own goal" if the government rushed a review to restart its nuclear energy capabilities. He also told MPs that there was a conspiracy within Whitehall in favour of nuclear energy. "If you are simply going to jump to that conclusion before an analysis has been done, it would cost the government a lot in terms of credibility and support," he told the Commons Environmental Audit Committee.

Scotsman 22nd November 2005
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=2279792005