Nuclear Power

A terrorist attack on a train carrying waste nuclear materials across Britain could spread lethal radioactivity across an area of 100 sq kilometres, and result in the deaths of up to 8,000 people, according to a new report released this week.

Spent nuclear fuel is routinely transported by train from nine nuclear power stations around the country to the Sellafield storage facility in Cumbria. Typically these journeys take place once a week from each reactor - at the same time and on the same lines as regular passenger and freight trains.

As the government's Energy Review veers ever closer to the conclusion that nuclear power is the only answer to climate change, a new report by non-profit research agency the World Alliance for Decentralised Energy (WADE) demolishes this myth.

The UK will shortly become a net importer of gas, as the North Sea fields which have given us over 20 years of self-sufficiency finally begin to run dry; production is decreasing so that we are now a net importer, rather than a net exporter. The recent attempt by the Russian Government, Europe's major gas supplier, to hike the price of the gas it supplies to neighbouring Ukraine (the first step on the pipeline route to Western Europe) has led to intense media speculation over the security of supplies to the UK - in effect the argument is that since we cannot rely on a stable supply of gas, we should press ahead with a new generation of nuclear power plants which would guarantee energy security.