The case against nuclear energy

The case against The Whitehaven News 18 November 2009

THE Government has just announced that 10 sites around the UK can be fast-tracked through the planning system for nuclear new build. Three of them are along the Cumbrian coast, two of them on greenfield sites.

This is bad news for the fight against climate change. Even with changes in the planning system it will still take far too long to deliver a new nuclear power station. Promised building timescales slip badly. At Olkiuoto, Finland, the plant promised to be built in four years will now take at least twice that. There can be no new nuclear power stations operating in the UK before 2015, and probably much later than that…………………..

It is bad news for the economy. The cost of this programme will be huge and unpredictable. At the most recent British nuclear power plant, Sizewell B, capital costs more than doubled. In Finland the promised price has already more than doubled to 5.5 billion euros.

Our Government insisted that any new build is privately financed and companies were apparently content with this, but we always suspected this would change. Nowhere has a nuclear power station been built on these terms, and independent analysts think it impossible for the UK unless help is given with the construction, power price and operational risks. In fact EDF has asked the Government for financial help to build the new reactors.

It’s bad news for jobs…………..

No assessment has been made of the jobs that will be lost in other industries – farming and tourism locally – as West Cumbria regains its nuclear status, but also in the wider public sector as nuclear subsidies result in a drain on public funds. Nor of the jobs that could come, if we went a different route.

It’s bad news for the environment. From the cradle to the grave nuclear is bad news. Uranium mining is often an exploitative affair. Campaigners from Tuareg, Niger, describe vividly the environmental degradation and human rights abuses caused by uranium mining.

Currently the Ranua people of Lapland, Finland, are fighting proposals for uranium prospecting and to mining which threatens traditional livelihoods and would destroy this vast northern wilderness area………………….

THERE is a far better way to reduce our climate change emissions, which is more effective, cheaper, provides more jobs and does not result in a contaminated environment.

We propose a low-carbon energy system that includes making “every building a power station”. The energy efficiency of existing buildings will be maximised, as will the use of renewables to generate electricity.