The government was today issued with a fresh legal threat from Greenpeace over a new fleet of nuclear power stations.
Greenpeace lawyers have contacted the government, saying "it would not be lawful" for the government to make a decision in favour of building new nuclear power stations.
In February, Greenpeace won a High Court ruling which overturned an earlier consultation on nuclear power, forcing the government to hold a second consultation. Mr Justice Sullivan called the first consultation "manifestly unfair", "unlawful" and "seriously flawed".
Any proposals to back new nuclear power stations following the second consultation would not be legal, according to Greenpeace, because:
- the consultation was again flawed and in some respects seriously misleading;
- the government's preliminary view was so fixed that it undermined a proper consultation and prevented an open and transparent process;
- there is no solution to deal with nuclear waste, and it would therefore be unlawful for the government to make a decision to build new nuclear power stations without knowing what to do with the radioactive waste.
The letter from lawyers acting for Greenpeace argues that the consultation "creates the impression that the problem of nuclear waste has been solved", when no such solution has been found.
Ben Ayliffe, head of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, said: "This is yet another flawed consultation from the government. They have no idea what to do with nuclear waste, meaning they simply can't give the go-ahead to a new round of nuclear power stations."
The legal warning comes as John Hutton, secretary of state for business, is due to announce a massive expansion of offshore wind power in the UK.
John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director, said: "The UK government setting out a strategic direction for offshore wind in the UK on this scale is obviously welcome. But the government needs to get beyond good intentions to actually deliver real action on meeting the targets.
"The government should ditch the current complex, bureaucratic and inefficient support mechanisms for renewable energy in favour of long term guaranteed 'feed in tariffs' favoured by all of our European partners.
"Germany has managed to develop a huge renewable energy industry, employing 250,000 people with massive export earnings because of solid backing from the government. In comparison the UK, despite having the best renewable energy resource in Europe, languishes at the bottom of the renewable energy league table.
"While Germany has ditched plans to develop nuclear energy and has gone all out on renewable energy this government is still bogged down trying to resuscitate the nuclear industry. It's time this government got serious about putting the country on a low carbon energy pathway."
ENDS
Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255
