Archived press release

Nukes not needed to tackle climate change

7 March 2002

FOE slams king's call for more atomic power

Climate change can be tackled without building new nuclear power stations Friends of the Earth said today. Earlier this morning the Government's chief scientific adviser, Prof David King,called for more nuclear power plants to combat global warming.

Building new nuclear power stations to combat climate change was examined by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution [1]. It concluded: “We do not...accept the arguments of those who hold that it is indispensable”. The Commission backed this up by constructing a scenario (no nuclear power, large demand reduction and renewables) showing that carbon dioxide emissions could be cut by 60% by the middle of this century. The Commission also said that “New nuclear power stations should not be built until the problem of managing nuclear waste has been solved to the satisfaction both of the scientific community and the general public.”

Last month the Government's Energy Review concluded that “there is no current case for further government support” for a large, inflexible programme of nuclear new build. Cleaner,more flexible sources of energy could be used to replace nuclear power the report said.

Roger Higman, Senior Energy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

“Studies have shown that UK carbon dioxide emissions can be radically cut without building more nuclear power stations. Nuclear power is uneconomic, unsafe and unpopular. What is more it produces highly radioactive waste which no-one yet knows how to store safely. Creating even more would be extremely foolish. We can meet both our Kyoto commitments and our long term energy needs with renewable power and energy efficiency. We should concentrate our efforts on sustainable solutions rather than dangerous short term fixes.”

[1] RCEP report: Energy - the changing climate, June 2000

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