nuclear power

PHOTOS FROM 330,000 STRONG PETITION HAND IN AT NO 10 AT 11AM CAN BE FOUND HERE from 11.30am

In response to the government's announcement on the Hinkley deal, John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director said:

 It is understood that the decision whether to invest £24.5 billion into the Hinkley power station in Somerset hangs on a knife edge. A key management level trade union, CFE-CGC, who sit on the board, have issued 15 questions raising financial, legal and strategic concerns over whether EDF can afford the project, or deliver it on time.(1)

Energy giant EDF has formally asked the French government for permission to delay the start of its EPR nuclear reactor in Flamanville until 2020. The French utility had been set a 2017 deadline to get the reactor up and running.    

The news comes as an initial agreement to build a new £24.5bn reactor of the same type at Hinkley is about to be unveiled by UK and Chinese authorities later today. 

Greenpeace Energy Campaigner Richard George: “Japan’s decision to pull the plug on nuclear power is a major vote of no confidence from another of the world’s leading economies, following Germany’s phase-out decision last year. This is an historic blow to an industry already in decline and makes a British nuclear renaissance even less likely.