nuclear-news

UK govt dismisses its own experts’ nuke waste advice

Nuclear “Smoke and Mirrors” in Lancaster virtual-lancaster.net news blog 4 Dec 09 Lancaster Town Hall recently played host to some very clever nuclear smoke and mirrors from the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the form of a slick travelling exhibition promoting extensive new nuclear build at Heysham. But despite government assurances on display that arrangements exist or will exist for the long term management of radioactive waste generated by Britain’s civil nuclear program, those claims have now been challenged by experts on the issue.

The government recently launched a consultation on the building of new nuclear power stations, which will run until 22 February 2010.
In a letter to the Secretary of State for Energy Ed Miliband, four senior members of the original Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) claim the government is going against recommendations made by their own committee of nuclear waste experts.

“We do not consider it credible to argue that effective arrangements exist or will exist at a generic or a site-specific level for the long-term management of highly active radioactive waste arising from new nuclear build,” they argue……..
Just to add to the government’s smoke and mirrors on nuclear waste, campaigners against the recently-announced expansion of nuclear energy argue there has been an undemocratic, unjust change to our planning system to push through the building of new power stations.

The Infrastructure and Planning Committee is the result of ‘streamlining’ the planning process, which means that issues like the unsolved nuclear waste problem, safety, health and environment will be excluded from the public’s input into decision making. In other words, community groups, individuals and Non Governmental Organisations could present conclusive evidence that Heysham is on a geological fault line but this would not be considered as relevant by the IPC.

The Infrastructure and Planning Committee was successfully lobbied for by the nuclear industry, which now wants to exclude even the recommendations from government experts.

Virtual Lancaster News Blog: Nuclear “Smoke and Mirrors” in Lancaster

December 5, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, spinbuster, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive