Nuclear justification? There isn't one!
Today is the closing date for nuclear power companies to submit their bids for proposed sites of new nuclear power stations. And today the Green Party publishes its submission to the government's consultation on the justification for nuclear new-build.
The Green Party's submission argues that nuclear power has no role to play in stopping climate change - or in helping tackle the current recession.
The party's deputy leader Adrian Ramsay said today, "Apart from all the usual and very valid arguments against nuclear, there are two that apply especially right now.
"One is that we need major emissions reductions immediately - even if nuclear power was safe and economical, it wouldn't deliver the necessary reductions fast enough.
"The other is that we're facing a recession and we need major job-creation efforts right now. Nuclear power sustains far fewer jobs per megawatt than renewables. New nuclear plant would create far too few jobs far too late."
A motion to the Green Party's conference in Blackpool recently reiterated the Greens' unequivocal opposition to nuclear power. The Greens supported calls by organisations like Greenpeace for a full public inquiry into the matter.
In their submission Nuclear justification: There isn't one, the Greens raised just four issues:
- Nuclear power certainly does not constitute a large enough part of the UK energy mix for it to be considered indispensable.
- The potential risks to health are unacceptable.
- The risks associated with nuclear power make it far too expensive to be be considered a viable part of a future energy mix
- We don’t have time to wait either for the resulting CO2 emissions or for the associated job-creation.
The full submission can be found at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/reports.html.
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