Green Party protests nuclear power proposals
29 November 2005
Green Party activists today protested Tony Blair's speech to the Confederation of British Industry, which launched a review of UK energy policy. Campaigns Coordinator Sian Berry and chair of the Young Greens Dylan Banks joined protesters at Islington's Business Design Centre to oppose the expected shift towards nuclear power.
Ms Berry said: "It is important that we express our concerns. The nuclear lobby is trying to paint nuclear power green by saying it is emissions free. This is a campaign of deliberate misinformation. The most common nuclear plants, using uranium from low-grade ore, produce more CO2 than a gas power station and many times more than renewable options.
"Climate change has been picked up as a convenient argument for nuclear but this is sheer propaganda. There is no reason to tolerate the massive cost, risk and unsolvable legacy of nuclear waste. We cannot let the nuclear lobby abuse public concern over climate change for its own aims: namely, a kiss of life from the public purse."
Speaking after the speech, Mr Banks said: "Tony Blair's stance is misguided. We are simply trying to explain to the public that renewables are a real option for today. They can fill the energy gap by reducing it. Seven per cent of the electricity we produce is lost in transmission to its point of use. By decentralising our energy production we will not need to produce such massive and dangerous energy production centres.
"Today's protest was necessary to let the public know that, contrary to government and nuclear industry spin, green groups are not in support of nuclear power.
"This issue is not about a choice between nuclear power or global warming. Bringing back nuclear power will prevent just ten per cent of our expected rise in CO2 emissions. This is not enough to meet our obligations to the Kyoto protocol, and certainly not enough to protect our country from climate change according to most of the accepted models.
"Nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and unsustainable. If we can get across how unclean it is, then all the pro-nuclear arguments fall away and we can consign it to history where it belongs."
