Nuclear future not the answer
Today’s announcement by Gordon Brown’s Labour Party to build a new generation of Nuclear Power stations is fundamentally wrong and dangerous.
Greenpeace sums up the case against Nuclear power simply:
• Even if Britain built ten new reactors, nuclear power can only deliver a 4 per cent cut in carbon emissions some time after 2025. Even the Government admits this (Sustainable Development Commission figure). It’s too little too late at too high a price.
• Most of the gas we use is for heating and hot water and for industrial purposes. Nuclear power cannot replace that energy. And it’s a similar case for oil as it’s virtually all used for transport - nuclear power can’t take its place.
• The real solutions to the energy gap and climate change are available now. Energy efficiency, cleaner use of fossil fuels, renewables, and state-of-the-art power stations like they have in Scandinavia. Together they have the potential to deliver reliable low carbon energy quicker and cheaper. They are also safe and globally applicable, unlike nuclear. But these technologies will be strangled if cash and political energy get thrust at nuclear power.
Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson, Professor Steve Webb MP set out the Party’s opposition:
“This is a flawed decision based on a sham consultation. There is a real risk that focusing on new nuclear plants will undermine attempts to find a cleaner, greener, more sustainable and secure solution. We should be concentrating our efforts on renewables and greater energy conservation.
“Ministers should also be promoting and supporting carbon capture and storage as a safe, secure and flexible way of plugging the energy gap.”
Rick
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