7th October 2008

Philip Booth responds to letters in local press saying we have nothing to worry about French ownership of British Energy.

Photo: Oldbury 

Peter Barnes writes about the French company EDF's plans to build more nuclear plants and it's take over of Gloucester-based British Energy (Citizen letters 2/10/08) (ii). He asks what have we got to worry about apart from our National Pride? In fact many of us have grave concerns about this and also the plans by German utility, E.ON, for a new nuclear reactor at Oldbury (Citizen 12/09/08) (ii).

It is difficult to envisage any other country prepared to hand over control of such an important part of its infrastructure to what is effectively another state. The deal means British taxpayers remain on the hook for a whole host of liabilities (iii) and our domestic electricity bills will go up while French customers will enjoy cheaper power. Worse still, despite reassurances to the contrary, taxpayers will be subsidising nukes. Already in two key expenditure areas official statements confirm that subsidies will continue (iv).

Our Government's own advisors have shown we can meet our energy needs through renewables and that nuclear is not the answer to Climate Change as this requires a faster input than nuclear is capable of providing (v). Sadly EDF is determined to block renewables because, as the company admits, growth in the renewables industry will kill off any hopes for more nuclear power.

Much has been made by the nuclear industry of the first new reactor in Finland, yet it has serious problems in construction compounded by a serious fire, a £1 billion overspend and is already two and a half years behind schedule. Add to that the risks from terrorism, local health risks and long-term storage of highly radioactive fuel and it is clear the Government must put a stop to it's ridiculous misguided nuclear plans (vi).

Cllr. Philip Booth (Green party)
Stroud District councillor for the Randwick, Ruscombe and Whiteshill ward,
2 The Laurels, Bread Street, Ruscombe, Stroud, Glos. GL6 6EL


Notes:
(i) EDF, which last month finally agreed to buy nuclear generator British Energy, could face sanctions from the regulator over the £12.5bn deal. A merged entity would control a quarter of the UK's power supply and the takeover would remove one of the last independent energy companies in the country. See Observer 5th Oct 2008:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/05/edf.energy.ofgem
(ii) German-owned E.ON has revealed an interest in building a power plant at the Oldbury site near Thornbury – four months after the American-Japanese consortium of Toshiba-Westinghouse announced it was developing its own scheme there. See Bristol Evening Post 18th Sept 2008 here.

(iii) Liabilities included any breaches of its operating licence and over employment and redundancy costs for its 6,000 workers. EDF and its UK subsidiaries are ringfenced from these liabilities under the proposed takeover. See
Observer 28th Sept 2008: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/28/edf.utilities
(iv) See discussion in The Guardian here. Furthermore the industry maintains that the cost of decommissioning new nuclear power stations and the disposal of the associated nuclear waste has been allowed for in the costings for these new stations. However there is not even a site selected for a long-term nuclear waste storage facility so how is it possible to include for a share of the cost of this facility and the long-term attendant costs?

(v) Numerous reports have shown this. Most recently Greenpeace has just published a study by Powry energy consultants which shows that nuclear power is not needed in the UK, which can provide enough electricity from the Government's current renewables targets. Summary of the Powry report here. See also how the government's renewable power strategy is "ineffective and very expensive", according to a damning review by the International Energy Agency. See the Guardian 30th Sept 2008:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/30/energy.renewableenergy
(vi) Even Conservatives now have doubts. First David Cameron said nuclear was a 'last resort', then they told people they were in favour of nuclear power, but now Alan Duncan has gone back to saying the Tories are not convinced new nuclear is necessary - only that it 'may' be needed. See Labour Party 2nd Oct 2008:
http://www.labour.org.uk/trusted_with_business_success
In France itself doubts about the nuclear path have started to creep in after a series of incidents over the past three months: untreated uranium has overflowed into a river, excess radioactive gas has been emitted, combustible material has got caught in a reactor, and EDF workers have been exposed to low-level radiation. See Times 25th Sept 2008:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article4821330.ece
More than half of Britain's nuclear power stations are either closed or working at reduced capacity, it emerged yesterday, prompting fears of power shortages next month. Six of the UK's ten nuclear stations are not operating at full capacity. Three are completely closed, one is operating at half capacity and two have been reduced to 70 per cent because of safety fears. See Scotsman 6th Oct 2008:
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Power-fears-as-nuclear-output.4560379.jp