The Government is currently softening the public up for the building of more nuclear power stations.
What do you think about nuclear power? The key to avoid global warming or a curse on future generations? Send us your views. Here are a few searching questions posed to the politicians by Green commentator Richard Lawson in his blog: www.greenerblog.blogspot.com
1. Do you understand that the rich uranium ores required by a new phase of nuclear power are so limited that if the entire present world electricity demand were to be provided by nuclear power, these ores would be exhausted within five years?
2. How can it be OK for us to develop nuclear power, and not OK for Iran and
North Korea? Yes, they are using it to make weapons, but that is precisely what we have done in the past, and may still be doing for all we know?
3. Is it right and fair that wind turbines have to carry fully comprehensive insurance for risks such as a blade flying off and going through someone's windscreen, yet nuclear power is insured to only less than 1% of the full cost of a Maximum Credible Accident?
4. Can you guarantee that terrorists will not attack one of our nuclear facilities, causing a loss of coolant and consequent Maximum Credible Accident?
5. Can we believe that the huge costs of a nuclear comeback will not suck funding away from energy conservation and renewables, which are, after all the only truly sustainable options on the table?
6. Most nuclear power stations are by the sea. How will sea level rises affect
your lans for decommissioning? At the moment the plan is to leave the radioactive cores in place, on the assumption that they will be dry. Does not sea level rise mean that you will have to move the core material up to higher ground?
7. How can you defend the ethics of our generation enjoying electricity for a few years, and committing our descendants to guarding our waste for thousands of years?
Further reading:
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Current electricity supplies in the UK come from the following sources:
Natural gas - 37.5%
Nuclear - 22.4%
Coal - 34.9
Other, including renewables - 5.1%
The Cost to provide 20% UK electricity over 30 years -
| |
Nuclear power |
Wind power |
| Construction |
£26bn |
£25bn |
| Running costs |
£6bn |
£3bn |
| Decommissioning |
£1.8-£6bn |
£3bn |
| Restoring countryside |
- |
£500m |
| Permanent storage costs |
Unknown and hazardous waste left for future generations |
- |
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Green MEP to challenge Trident
Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas is to join a panel of experts at a public meeting in Hampshire to discuss the public health impact of the Atomic Weapons Establishment - and its planned expansion.
Dr Lucas, who has called on John Prescott to hold a public inquiry into plans for the massive expansion of the Aldermaston nukes factory, will be speaking alongside Dr Chris Busby (Low Level Radiation Campaign), Peter Burt (Nuclear Free Local Authorities) and Miriam Kennett (Green Economics Institute).
She said: "Local people are vehemently opposed to the expansion of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) near Aldermaston - but they are essentially disenfranchised by a secretive military planning system.
"Planning permission is not required, so residents' concerns about the health, social and environmental impact of the development have no democratic outlet.
"The new facilities at AWE threaten world peace and international law. They also undermine local democracy - and we must have a public inquiry to debate the issues in public before another brick is laid."
The meeting, which is open to all, is entitled 'AWE and the Health of Our Community' and will discuss the social, environmental, economic and health consequences of the site's expansion.
Dr Lucas will tell the meeting the greatest public health risk posed by AWE is nuclear conflict involving the weapons produced there.
Dr Lucas, a member of the national council of the Campaign for nuclear Disarmament and co-founder and co-president of the European Parliament's cross-party group on peace initiatives, said the UK should scrap its trident nuclear weapons and not develop any replacement.
"The EU must be a force for peace and use its legal and political weight to prevent illegal nuclear weapons proliferation -by its own member states as well as countries such as Iran and North Korea. The EU would bring greater moral and political weight to its negotiations with Iran if it was itself free from nuclear weapons - and that means stopping this development."
Local residents have criticised Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council's failure to object to the plans before a recent meeting of West Berkshire District Council.
Darren Shirley, of the North and East Hampshire Green Party, said: "On the 25th January, West Berkshire District Council nodded through plans for the installation of a new laser facility, part of a major expansion of AWE, despite substantial public opposition.
"Members of the West Berkshire's Planning Committee stated the planned development at AWE would have a major impact on the area. I agree. The design and production of a new generation of nuclear weapons at the site has ramifications for our entire community. From the adverse affects the new building for the ORION laser will have on the surrounding countryside to the long term health and environmental affects a nuclear weapons factory in our back yard can have on the community.
"Basingstoke & Deane, as a neighbouring council, had a right to represent the views of the residents of Basingstoke and respond to the planning application. It is shameful that they appear to have shirked their duty to represent the people of Basingstoke and Tadley. Slough Borough Council submitted their views on the plan, as did objectors from as far away as Sweden."
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British Public Opposed to
Nuclear Option
News that the British public are hostile to nuclear power has been hailed by the Green Party as adding further weight to the widespread demand for an end to the use of nuclear energy.
A poll has found that 59 % of those questioned believe it would be irresponsible to build more nuclear power stations while problems remain in the disposing of nuclear waste, and 79% back renewables as a replacement for imported energy.
Dr Chris Busby, Green Party Science and Technology Spokesperson, comments:
"Britain has been generating radioactive waste for over 50 years, yet no progress has been made on how to dispose of it. Current strategies for dealing with waste are unreliable, unsafe and ruinously expensive. The nuclear power industry has failed us. Instead of providing cheap, clean energy it has cost the taxpayer millions in subsidies as well as causing concern over safety, pollution and the threat of a terrorist attack. The risk to human health alone should force the government to reconsider its apparently unswerving support of the nuclear power industry. It does not take an accident on the scale of Chernobyl for radioactive material to wreck lives; the dangers of exposure to the low level radiation found in the vicinity of nuclear power plants are well documented - the area surrounding Sellafield, the nuclear reprocessing plant situated in Cumbria, has a rate of childhood leukaemia 10 times that of the national average
"In the light of such incontrovertible evidence against the use of nuclear power, it is astonishing that the Government should still insist on spending such vast sums of money supporting this industry, and at the same time fail so dismally to invest in any real research into renewable alternatives. In 2000, almost 60% of the government energy R&D funds went on nuclear power, with renewable energy sources receiving a paltry 23%."
Greens are calling on the Government to rule out the nuclear option once and for all, and to phase-out nuclear power stations as quickly as possible. Our energy needs could easily be met by a combination of renewable energy, such as wind, wave and solar power, and energy conservation measures.
HSE to act on Sellafield nuclear leak
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has announced that it is to bring a criminal prosecution against British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd (BNGSL) over a leak that took place in 2005. The HSE’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate investigated the leak of radioactive liquor inside a ‘heavily shielded’ facility at the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) following notification on April 20th 2005.
HSE alleges that the incident breached three separate conditions of the Sellafield site licence relating to safety systems, leak detection and the reporting of incidents. An initial hearing will take place in June, at Whitehaven Magistrates Court in Cumbria.
The situation will bring renewed negativity towards the nuclear industry, which is already reeling from various studies – the most recent published last month by the House of Commons Environmental Audi Committee – that cast doubt over the technology’s suitability as a long-term energy provider in the UK.
Source - Green Consumer Guide - 8/5/06
Sellafield the most radioactive
area in the world
The area surrounding Sellafield, the nuclear reprocessing plant situated in Cumbria, is the most radioactive in the world. The groundwater, estuaries and soil are all contaminated. Compared to the British average, there has been a ten-fold increase of childhood leukaemia around Sellafield. Plutonium dust has been found in the houses of residents living along the Irish Sea coast.
www.greenpeace.org.uk
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