'New nuclear' energy: the great green rip-off
The government has told us that we need more nuclear power stations to combat climate change. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nuclear power is incredibly expensive and incredibly dangerous. The New Economics Foundation estimates that to pay for building new reactors and processing their waste, nuclear power providers could increase our electricity bills by almost three times the industry estimate. So that's a hike from £45 a quarter to around £100.
Opting for ten new nuclear power plants is a quick fix solution that will leave us with a terrible legacy of cancer-causing radioactive waste that nobody knows what to do with.
If nuclear power is allowed to get a grip on the energy sector now it could kill off any hope of a viable, affordable market in truly renewable forms of energy.
Reports by Greenpeace, the New Economics Foundation, the Sustainable Development Commission, the Centre for Alternative Technology and many other respected organisations have outlined strategies for future energy provision that does not include nuclear power.
WE HAVE TO STOP THIS NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.
We want a future, not a disaster.
Nancy Birch
shared this idea
387 comments
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Johnny Heriz-Smith
commented
There is no credible strategy for disposing of waste which will remain lethally toxic long after civilization collapses.
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Amabel
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D. Rothwell
commented
Nuclear power is a dirty dangerous diversion.
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JILL SUTCLIFFE
commented
new nuclear power is no solution and BEFORE any new programme is embarked on we have to solve the problem of the legacy wastes....let alone any other long term impacts.
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Charles Birch
commented
Please. What else can we do to get the message through ! Nuclear is a dead end.
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Jude
commented
What does anyone think about Cold Fusion? It was 'rubbished' when first discovered, but has come back into profile now. Apparently several cold fusion plants are nearly ready to produce electricity.
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Marie Clark commented
Let common sense prevail...by the time these reactors are built the depletion of uranium will be at a crucial point.....uranium isn't sourced here it has to be shipped in (carbon-free?).....these reactors are going to cost....we will also have to foot the bill in the event of a safety issue/disaster......Nuclear isn't enviromentally or financially sustainable....
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Lucia
commented
quoting a poster here but I feel just the same :
M L Thatcher
When in the past examination of alternative energies by government set up bodies (supposed independent) which have had on them members of interested parties, who have been members of the nuclear power companies, and have admitted to cooking the books in their favour, you can bet your bottom pound this has not changed much in 30 years or so.Just looking at Germany's right moral decision to get rid of all nuclear power and the Japanese disaster, when will OUR Politicians Who we put in power, wake up to the real world we the people live in.
Why vested interests have sway and their pockets are going to feel lighter, we the people will always be the ones who suffer.
Just look at the way the present government is acting to handle the financial crisis, as all government's do, they are hit the poorest and disabled rather than those with fatter pockets, because their own vested interested interest come before those of the weakest and most vulnerable in our society.
Say NO to nuclear power.
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Mike Rigby
commented
Great sentiment but please remember that it's not even a 'quick fix' solution as stated in the blurb. It will take at least 10 years before any of the proposed new generation of nuclear power stations is online and it then takes a further ten years for each station to generate sufficient energy to 'pay-back' that used in its construction. The UK desparately needs new energy sources, not just to minimise carbon emissions but just to keep the lights on. The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee estimated that the lights will start going off from 2015 without a crash programme of gas and wind construction. Nothing else is a quick enough fix.
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tricia rowe
commented
We have some fantastic natural resources for generating renewal energy. I live near the Bristol Channel and I strongly believe we should be investing in a tidal barrage to make use of one of the strongest tidal bores in the world instead of building another nuclear station at Hinckley. We should be using the wind, the waves, and solar energy. I'd like to see all properties have some form of natural power generation, be it solar panels, a small wind turbine or ground source heat generation.
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M L Thatcher
commented
When in the past examination of alternative energies by government set up bodies (supposed independent) which have had on them members of interested parties, who have been members of the nuclear power companies, and have admitted to cooking the books in their favour, you can bet your bottom pound this has not changed much in 30 years or so.
Just looking at Germany's right moral decision to get rid of all nuclear power and the Japanese disaster, when will OUR Politicians Who we put in power, wake up to the real world we the people live in.
Why vested interests have sway and their pockets are going to feel lighter, we the people will always be the ones who suffer.
Just look at the way the present government is acting to handle the financial crisis, as all government's do, they are hit the poorest and disabled rather than those with fatter pockets, because their own vested interested interest come before those of the weakest and most vulnerable in our society.
Say NO to nuclear power.
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Kate Wood
commented
Nuclear energy is phenomenally toxic, unmanageable, dangerous and expensive. Let's invest in natural sources of energy that are clean, cheap and renewable.
This beautiful life sustaining planet is our home - lets leave it that way for our children. -
Dave at Vote For Yourself
commented
I live in Spain, in March 2011 over 40% of all their electricity came from wind/solar and hydroelectric, just 19% came from nuclear - see article:
http://www.simplynetworking.es/news-5836-31-alternative_energy_becoming_a_viable_alternative.htmlChris Huhne is a lying, hypocritical opportunist, so are the other 649 MPs. Let's get rid of them and introduce Direct Democracy via the Internet - here's how:
If you could Vote For Yourself I am sure that the public would maintain (or even reduce) the existing retirement age. As people retired there would be more job vacancies and this would enable young people to get a start in life. The existing funding for unemployed youngsters (currently wasted) would be spent on pensions instead.
I am also sure that ordinary people would rather spend the budget allocated for new nuclear power stations to build solar panel factories and to train thousands of the unemployed to install them on every suitable roof to negate the requirement for the power stations.
Here’s the V4Y campaign on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112594442103428
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Art4Artsache
commented
The mindset of our leaders is toward materialism, economics, profit & military solutions, which has been natural to social development hitherto. Jesus, the philosopher (not Messiah) foresaw the need to nurture Life over wealth. At that time, being only a man, he used the words God as Life & Mammon for materialism & profiteering. Much else he said, if taken as symbolic, fits with a sensible approach to ecological harmony that enriches life but diminishes acquisition or "Love of money". Gradually the focus is turning but while powerful Mammonites manipulate politicians, we who are more enlightened, are impeded from replacing current decision makers with wiser heads. Religions also impede progress by sacrificing progressive thought to the distraction of ritual repetition (Religious observances). Jesus never said to do that. He said "Consider nature & love it and whomever creates it" He also said, "communicate & work together or go out & teach God's word" ie. The wisdom of Life. Sadly the Jewish preoccupation with a mythical Messiah even deluded this great man himself & so the fairy stories began. If God was a rational decision-maker instead of pure inspiration, it would never have happened this way. Bur we are created god-like in being rational & humane & it's time to move on from this primitive stage of our progress; out of competitiveness toward cooperation. The beginnings of this inevitable shift have been evident since the ancient Greeks or earlier but it takes an age to complete. Move these obstructors, the politicians & financiers. The military are already becoming peace-keepers: it is happening, but too slowly. We must wake up and work as best we can for all things that purify human spirit toward fulfilment - goodness & godliness.
If my words seem too spiritual, I hope they are essentially true.
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Alan Debenham
commented
The idea that new nuclear build is some sort of panacea essential to keeping supplies of electricity afloat and for keeping our reduced carbon emissions on target are even bigger brain-washing lies than the ones about how our public services must be hacked ( topical word ?) and our wages/jobs sacrificed to meet our 'enormous deficit' financial crisis when, like the Green Party, we all know that it is the bankers, financiers, and their multi-million pound speculative money dealings, fat-cat salaries and bonuses, should pay for the collapse which their greed created.
As never before, it surely is time for a political renaissance - especially from the under 30s - in the name of 'green socialism' to see that future power is put back again more towards people and democracy and less kept in the hands of national and global financial organisations which currently hold governments under their control and often to ransom.
Also, whenever big money changes hands like the 12 billion pounds EdF was said to have paid Brown's Labour Government for the then destitute - close to bankruptcy - British Energy ( our existing nuclear empire ), it should be obvious to everyone that the political message behind it is that the deal must carry some undercover obligations to allow EdF fairly free, subsidised reins on a new programme of nuclear new build. The fact that the Lib Dems - Chris Huyne especially - are now eating Tory humble pie on this, as they are on the 'big deficit' crisis, is sure evidence that the powers behind the policies are big business interests not House of Commons people-elected MPs and their national parties. -
Art4Artsache
commented
Basic economics: Use what is freely available but will not cause problems impossible to cope with: Solar, Tidal, Wind? Geo-thermal? Horse & Pedal-power & if this isn't enough for our needs, learn to need less. Deconstruct whatever is too vast & learn to live less lazily with smaller units of everything. And when my life is no longer meaningful, ease me out of it.
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robert woodland
commented
a promise of the greenest government ever....bollocks comes to mind.... nuclear power is dangerous,expensive, unsafe , and unnecessaary... were surrounded by sea, wind and sun...lets use it ...... safer, greener and cleaner.......how green are you mr cameron to burrie radio active waste underground and at sea.......think about it a little more.........
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Peter J Kirkham
commented
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima, where next?
Accidents happen.
Nuclear power is not safe, not economic, not reliable
and is certainly not green. -
Jude
commented
Yet again......governments proving we can't EVER trust them
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Marianne Birkby commented
Over 100 problems with "geological disposal" have been identified, and a report published by Dr Helen Wallace, for Greenpeace
International confirms that deep disposal of radioactive wastes has the
“potential for significant radiological releases through a variety of
mechanisms”. The Environment Agency talks of a "knowledge gap"
In other words EVEN if Cumbria's geology was not already known to be
wonderfully leaky and complex, geological disposal would not be the
"solution" to high level nuclear wastes.There is no "solution" - that is the problem of nuclear waste. The plan
to bury it in Cumbria to 'solve' the waste problem in order to make even more cancer causing waste is being 'gently' pushed as "steps towards geological disposal" . The usual watchdogs like the National Park have been neutered . They are "Partners" in the whole diabolic "Process"
