So Ed Miliband has decided that nuclear power has had enough of a ‘rest’ and has given the go ahead for 10 new nuclear power stations to be built…
Ok, so it’s not strictly been ‘resting’ nuclear power does account for 13% of the country’s current power usage (yeah I was surprised too!) but with all this renewed vigour for nuclear power doesn’t that mean they’ll be a huge amount of toxic waste substances produced? The new power stations are planned to be built on 10 different sites, these sites are reported to be: Braystones, Sellafield and Kirksanton, all in Cumbria, Heysham in Lancashire, Hartlepool, Co Durham, Sizewell in Suffolk, Bradwell in Essex, Hinkley Point in Somerset, Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Wylfa in Anglesey.
Mr Miliband stated: “…Change is also needed for energy security. In a world where our North Sea reserves are declining, a more diverse, low-carbon energy mix is a more secure energy mix, less vulnerable to fluctuations in the availability of any one fuel…”
This is good in a way as continually burrowing into the earth to find more coal reserves for the 18 existing coal burning power stations it seriously taking its toll, not to mention how large the average persons carbon footprint is. It maybe seems a little contradictory then to also announce that he will still continue to support the building of coal fired power stations provided they are fitted with greener technology which in turn has been met by companies refusing to invest huge sums into this greener system.
Greg Clark, the shadow energy and climate change secretary, said: “…Ed Miliband’s statement is made necessary by the Government’s admission in July that it expects power cuts in 2017 – the first time since the 1970s that a British government has had to make such a disclosure…”
“…The cause of this National Emergency has been obvious for many years. Over 12 years, 15 successive energy ministers – a new one every nine months – behaved like the ostrich and stuck their heads in the sand rather than face up to the action that was needed to address our energy black hole…”
Kate Hudson, chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: “…Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive. It is totally unacceptable for Ed Miliband to see a ‘relatively good’ safety record as sufficient – nuclear disasters have the potential to make any other kind of industrial accident look harmless in comparison, potentially affecting millions of people…”
Well with arguments raging on both sides I guess this debate is something that will go on for some years to come, burn all the fossil fuel in the world and create tons of carbon and pollution or go down the nuclear route for more efficient energy production but incredibly toxic waste products.
This entry was posted by Clayton on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 11:22 am and is filed under Technology & Software News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 