Nuclear Power - No Thanks!

11.58.23am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 11th Jul 2006

Commenting on the government's announcement, Cllr Michael Headley said:

"This week's announcement of the Government's intention to pursue nuclear power is most worrying."

"Not only does nuclear power cause a great threat to the environment through the large amounts of waste produced, but it is also economically unviable.

The Government intends to use private investment to fulfil our future energy needs. However, since the Chernobyl disaster, no nuclear power station has been built anywhere in the world without huge amounts of government subsidy - and that means taxpayers money."

"The Government should instead spend this money on the development of genuinely sustainable technologies as well as pursuing greater energy efficiency. This should go beyond wind farms to include tidal and wave power, solar power, geothermal power and biomass. It is also crucial to rapidly develop the contribution that can be made by domestic microgeneration and combined heat and power domestic boilers."

"Nuclear power is not a short cut to tackling global warming, it is a dead end."