Nuke decision is wrong

With the Government announcement of support for a new programme of nuclear power stations, the sad thing is, that it comes as no surprise. The Green party has been putting out various news releases over last couple of days - see my comments here and here - and more local Green comment here.

Photo: Oldbury nuclear power station

The local media doesn't seem to have so much interest in this story - a tiny piece in The Citizen today - and worse still there is only partial mention in the national media of the catalogue of deceit and misinformation from the government and the nuclear industry leading up to this decision.

The High Court found that the previous Government's Review was seriously flawed - this latest one has been branded by the Nuclear Consultation Group, as relying on "contentious information" and "sleight of hand". I hope Greenpeace and others contest it again. If you read the news releases linked above you will see that the arguments about energy security and climate change do not stand up - indeed the Governments' own Sustainable Development Commission thoroughly assessed the situation and concluded there is no case for supporting nuclear power. Worryingly there is also new comments from key people that money has been withheld from renewables to help ensure the push for nuclear.

Yesterday I got hold of a paper from Greenpeace - the Government may say nuclear has to pay it's way but that is nonsense - Greenpeace have looked at the White Paper that came out yesterday and have outlined some of the more subtle ways the government has understated the real risks to the taxpayer and the lack of clarity on economics:

• The White Paper shows how nuclear companies will be able to cap their liabilities, leaving the tax payer exposed if estimates for dealing with waste change.
• It openly admits the government will have to provide extra money if cost estimates are wrong.
• It uses questionable financial estimates to build the nuclear economic case.

I also saw an extraordinary fact from Ecotricity noting - that the existing nuclear programme cost £50 billion to build and produced 20% of our power in the UK. The whole of Europe could be run on wind power for that amount!!!!

Supporters of nuclear power must surely realise that they are supporting a dishonest process and one that will not meet the needs of people, the economy or our commitments to combating climate change? As one commentator put it: "This is extortion and theft from future generations, which will be unwillingly forced to pay for the unsolved problem of radioactive toxic waste. In any sane society, this would be deemed a criminal act but is now accepted common practice amongst government and nuclear corporations."

I heard Caroline Lucas MEP on the Today programme (BBC Radio 4) and was pleased she made the point about fairness as well as the many other arguments against nuclear - after all how can it be just that a rich country like ourselves resorts to nuclear then tells others like Iran they can't. Where is the morality in that?

Anyhow this prfoundly wrong decision by the Government comes out at the same time as new German research showing that Leukaemia risk "doubled" for children who live near nuclear power stations - see Channel 4 News 10th Jan 2008. Anyhow I wont go over all the arguments again - suffice to say I am deeply disappointed in yet another U-turn from Labour.