Nuclear meltdown7 December 2010
A look at why Gordon's plans for more nuclear power are a costly mistake.
What is it?
The Government wants a new generation of nuclear power stations to help tackle rising oil prices and climate change.
Nuclear plants currently generate around a fifth of the country's electricity. But most existing plants are due to be shut down by 2023.
What's to like?
Not much. Unless you like 'cheap' electricity that comes with a £73 billion clean-up bill (and that's just for the radioactive waste we already have).
Nuclear plants don't produce the massive carbon emissions of fossil-fuel power stations.
But the long-term risks posed by nuclear power mean renewables, like wind or tidal power, are a much safer way to develop clean energy.
What's not to like?
Like a nuclear technician, you'll need a clipboard because the list is long.
The key points are these:
- Nuclear energy costs far more than its supporters claim.
- New nuclear stations will take 10-20 years to build.
- Dangerous nuclear waste will cost billions to clean up.
- Nuclear reprocessing plants are failing to cope with the waste we already have.
For more, download Voodoo Economics and the Doomed Nuclear Renaissance by environmental journalist Paul Brown, a free report published by Friends of the Earth.
© Ian Homer
