nuclear-news

But the green group’s executive director, Andy Atkins, released a statement saying the group had made no changes to its stance on nuclear

Atkins said: “Friends of the Earth has not changed its position on nuclear power. We remain firmly opposed to it and continue to strongly promote a transition to an energy system based on energy efficiency and our abundant resource of renewable energy, which is getting cheaper to exploit by the day.

“We have always been an evidence-based organisation and we commission independent reports to ensure our policy positions are robust, and we will continue to do so in the future.

Craig Bennett, the group’s director of policy and campaigns, and the spokesman whose comments the BBC had based its report on, said the BBC’s news reporting had been “misleading” and asked the broadcaster to make a correction.

Bennett had appeared on a package on energy security earlier in the Today programme, and was asked by journalist Justin Rowlatt whether Friends of the Earth was no longer worried about the risk from radiation.

Bennett said: “Of course there are real concerns about radiation particularly around nuclear waste and it’s right we are concerned about that. But it’s important the debate has shifted down the years – the real concern now is how we get on fast with decarbonising our electricity supply, if you look at the models, it shows nuclear cannot be delivered fast.”…

….Tweets from the official Friends of the Earth account responded that there was no shift in position: “Safety including waste still big intractable issue, new evidence on cost makes arguments against even stronger.”…http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/10/friends-of-the-earth-nuclear-power-bbc-report