NUCLEAR WASTE: CONFIRMED 'THERE IS NO SOLUTION'

The Gloucestershire Green party have made a submission to the Government's nuclear waste consultation which has just closed. Glos Greens also sent a representative to the recent Round Table discussion with the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) in Bristol and have consulted with many experts to write the 35-page submission which has been described by other environmentalists as 'one of the best' on the issue (i).

Martin Whiteside, the Green party's Parliamentary candidate for Stroud, said: "The Government's own nuclear waste advisers, CORWM, have already concluded that, 'If Ministers accept our recommendations, the UK's nuclear waste problem is not solved.' (ii). We simply cannot ensure a safe, secure and stable repository for our nuclear waste - there is also much we don't know and the risks posed by under-estimation of the problems and on false reliance on untested models could be catastrophic."

Martin Whiteside, who is also a District councillor said: "We have, for example, already miscalculated nuclear storage with some containers already completely disintegrating. Fortunately those containers have been refurbished, but this experience provides some indication of the difficulty of assuring the lifetime of waste containers. We just don't know how to store our existing waste safely, never mind creating more.”

Martin Whiteside said: "This submission only adds to what the Green Party has been saying for years: Nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and unsustainable. It is not the answer to climate change as the government suggests, as it only provides 5% of our total energy needs. What is sorely lacking in government is the political will and courage to recognise nuclear power for what it is: a nightmare."

Martin Whiteside concluded: "The UK is at an energy crossroads. Nuclear is not the way forward. We desperately need to reduce our energy consumption - through energy effciency, and invest in renewable sources of power to create a sustainble supply."

Jim Duffy, from the Stop Hinkley group, which has campaigned for years against the nuclear reactors in Somerset, said: "This submission is one of the best summaries I have read on this issue and clearly shows the grave problems we have with nuclear waste. We have an onus to face these problems, but this report really confirms the importance of a commitment by the government to stop producing more of this waste."

Notes for Editors:

(i) The full submission can be downloaded free from the 'Report' section at: www.glosgreenparty.org.uk

(ii) The CoRWM report says:
Paragraph 64 : 'If Ministers accept our recommendations, the UK's nuclear waste problem is not solved. Having a strategy is a start. The real challenge follows.'

Extracts from description of status of the report:
'The Committee is currently completing the third and final phase of its programme: assessing its short-listed options for managing the UK's radioactive waste and recommending the best option or combination to Government. It decided in autumn 2005 to start preparing its final report, beginning with an outline and introductory Chapters, then progressively adding more material, starting with its work to date and ending with its final conclusions and recommendations. This is the current version of the report.'

Philip Booth, Gloucestershire Green party
e-mail: press@glosgreenparty.org.uk
Homepage: http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk

Download this article in pdf format >>

Email this article to someone >>

Submit an addition or make a quick comment on this article >>

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

No Solution?

21.03.2006 10:46

The americans seem to think that the best solution for radio active waste is to create hideous weapons to drop on poeple with dark skin.They actaully buy the stuff to turn into D U warheads.Then when the warheads explode they contaminate an area of over 200 square metres,for a billion or so years,oh yes and the particles blow around the world,raising radiation levels as it does so.They have dropped over 100 000 tons on Iraq alone.Thats as much radiation as in 40 000 hiroshimas.
Clever aren`t they?
They manage to create a lucrative industry from the waste,and kill and maim lots of arabs at the same time.
And we are in bed with them. Great.Thanks government.
And our own nuclear power plants have all ran at a massive loss,constantly being bailed out by the government with our own taxes,whislt speading lukemia and birth defects across the UK.
Humans are gone,we ve had our chance and blown it,bigtime.....get ready for the nuclear winter suckers.

Silicone Synapse

with the greatest respect

23.03.2006 23:56

"Thats as much radiation as in 40 000 hiroshimas."

Hmm, sorry to contradict you but you have underestimated by a factor of ten. The figure you quote is quoted as a ten times the total atmospheric tests, which is itself 40000 times the total of Hiroshima. So the correct figure is 400,000 Hiroshimas. To put that in context that is one Hiroshima for every 16,500 living people since 1991.

"Since the U.S. military first used DU weapons in the 1991 Gulf War, it has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki nuclear bombs into the global atmosphere (that's no misprint) causing permanent contamination with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Furthermore, that DU radiation is 10 times the amount released by all atmospheric testing which in total equaled 40,000 Hiroshima bombs (again, no misprint). The 2 atom bombs used against the Japanese killed a likely 300,000 or more people from the initial blasts and subsequent radiation and chemical poisoning deaths. To this day, there are still reported deaths attributed to the bombings. Now imagine the potential threat to all planetary life from all the DU weapons used since 1991 and their continued use in Iraq and Afghanistan - the equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombings and increasing daily as U.S. forces now are conducting 4 to 6 daily bombings of target sites in Iraq alone using DU bombs."