Nuclear power: dirty, costly, dangerous. Decentralised and renewable energy: a clean, safe and efficient solution to meet our energy needs.
Summary
The government's 2006 review into the future of the UK's energy policy was used by Blair to give the go-ahead for a whole new generation of nuclear power stations.
Nuclear power will cost the Earth, will not stop climate change, produces deadly waste and is a target for terrorists.
Nor is nuclear the answer to energy security - nuclear power only produces electricity and thus only marginally deals with our need for the services that are mainly derived from gas, such as hot water, central heating and cooling. Furthermore it plays no role in providing power for transport. So its overall contribution to total UK energy demand is small - only 3.6%.
So even replacing our existing fleet of nuclear reactors over the coming decades will still leave us needing significant amounts of energy from other sources. The only sustainable solution to climate change and energy security is to reform the centralised UK energy system.
