July 2006

Blair's energy review: save nuclear, destroy the climate

Posted by bex — 11 July 2006 at 8:00am - Comments

UK floods

It's now official. Blair wants a new generation of nuclear reactors. The energy review is over and, disappointing as it may be, the conclusion won't come as a surprise to anyone who has been following recent events. The review has been a farce from the beginning: "a rubber-stamping exercise for a decision the Prime Minister took some time ago," according to the chairman of the Trade and Industry Committee.

"The future is decentralised"

Posted by bex — 7 July 2006 at 8:00am - Comments

Flowers growing in a greenhouse heated through combined heat and power

Remember 1997? Imagine somebody had predicted then that, within a decade, the Conservatives would be advocating "a revolution in green energy" and New Labour would be the only mainstream party still clinging to nuclear power as a central part of their energy policy. You probably wouldn't have rushed down to Ladbroke's.

UK nuclear reactors are defective, say government inspectors

Posted by bex — 5 July 2006 at 8:00am - Comments

A huge KAPOW projected onto Torness power station

A nuclear expert has called for nuclear reactors in the UK to be "immediately shut down" after secret documents written by government inspectors reveal they contain structural defects.

The documents - which were passed to Greenpeace days before Tony Blair is expected to give the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations - show that the government's Nuclear Safety Directorate (NSD) has identified cracks in the cores of up to 14 UK reactors, rendering them at increased risk of a radiological accident.

A bad month for Blair

Posted by bex — 5 July 2006 at 8:00am - Comments

Radioactive Champagne?

Radioactive champagne, near nuclear meltdowns, leaked terrorism documents and a nuclear waste train crash... In the same month that Tony Blair announced nuclear power was "back on the agenda with a vengeance", events in the real world put the lie to nuclear industry spin.

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