Greenpeace today attacked the European Commission's decision to approve a UK Government loan of over £ billion to the failed nuclear power company British Energy.
The Commission has chosen to accept the UK Government's claims that the loan is required on grounds of safety and security of supply.
Greenpeace rejects these claims:
- When safety is in doubt nuclear power stations are shut down, not kept running. For instance in September 2002 reactors 1 and 2 at British Energy's Torness plant were closed following the detection of faults in their cooling systems.
- The UK has about 25% more electricity generating capacity than is required to meet peak demand. Even if all of British Energy's stations stopped generating there would still be around 10 large power stations' worth of generating plant in reserve to ensure security of supply.
The EU decision also overlooks the fact that the loan is causing unjustifiable damage to competitor companies.
A Greenpeace spokesperson said:
"The Commission has been hoodwinked by the UK Government. Just when there is a demand for taxpayers' money to be spent prudently, over £ billion is handed on a plate to British Energy for electricity that is not needed. All the while this distortion of the market causes innocent companies to go to the wall and we all get more radioactive waste. There are clear grounds for interested parties to get this poor decision overturned."
On Friday 22nd November the High Court gave renewable energy company Ecotricity and Greenpeace leave to proceed with a Judicial Review of the Government's decision to loan £50 million of taxpayers money to private nuclear generator British Energy. The basis of the challenge is that the loan was a breach by the UK Government of European Union law, which requires member states to get EU approval before providing state aid to companies (1). Lawyers for Ecotricity and Greenpeace also argued that the loan is distorting the electricity market and damaging renewable energy companies.
The EU's decision today will not affect that case, which is expected to be heard the week of 27th January, 2003.
Notes to editors:
Why the lights stay on without British Energy:
- Total electricity generating capacity in Great Britain for 2002/3 is 76.6 GW
- Of the 76.6 GW, British Energy contributes 9.82 GW (12.8%)
- For comparison, the capacity of a single large power station is around 1 GW
- The peak electricity demand for 2002/3 is projected to be 61.11 GW
- Excess generating capacity for this period is 15.5 GW (25.3%)
- Without British Energy's stations, excess capacity would be 5.68 GW
- The above figures take no account of 'mothballed' generating plant that could be returned to service (for example, the National Grid Company reported that there is 5 GW of plant held in reserve in England)
Sources: National Grid Company; Scottish Power UK plc.
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace UK press office on 020 7865 8255
