British nuclear plans could devastate Kalahari

The hidden cost of Britain's new generation of nuclear power could be the destruction of the Kalahari desert in Namibia and millions of tonnes of extra greenhouse gas emissions a year, The Observer reports. French nuclear giant, Areva, and Rio Tinto are leading the charge to ravage the precious desert ecosystem with new uranium mines in Namibia. The Observer quoted Bertchen Kors, director of the Namibian environment group, Earthlife, who said of the proposed mines: "Large areas of the desert will be inevitably devastated. They will do immense damage. We fear that there will be major contamination of the ground water supplies." A similar situation already exists in Niger, north west Africa, where Areva has mined uranium for 40 years, leaving a legacy of radioactive contamination, water depletion and disease. Areva also won the contract to open Africa's biggest uranium mine - at Imouraren in Niger.

Jeremy Leggett points out the fallacies of the U.K. nuclear plan

Responding to the U.K. government's announcement that it will press ahead with potentially 15 new nuclear reactors at 10 sites, Jeremy Leggett lists 12 compelling reasons why this is a  rash and reckless plan. (Social entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett is founder and Chairman of Solarcentury, the UK's largest solar solutions company, and SolarAid, a charity set up with Solarcentury profits. He is author of The Carbon War and Half Gone.)

EDF holds Britain to ransom over proposed new reactors

EDF, the French state-owned electricity company, wants British ratepayers to absorb a rate increase on their fossil fuel bills in order to help pay for four proposed new EDF reactors in Britain. EDF has been accused of holding the British Government to ransom by demanding that the market be fixed to make nuclear energy competitive by ensuring that consumers paid more for electricity from fossil fuels, such as coal and gas. British consumers could see as much as $380 added to their electricity bills, a potentially untenable burden on low-income households. Unlike in the U.S., the British government has so far refused to grant subsidies to new nuclear programs, and expects private industry to finance construction. As Ben Ayliffe, a campaigner for Greenpeace, U.K., observed of EDF: “Even with the full resources of the French Government behind them, it seems they cannot make the economics of new nuclear stack up.”

Scottish reactor leaks low-level waste

Environmentalists in Scotland sounded the warning once more about the nuclear industry's incompetence when it was found that the Hunterston B reactor had leaked so-called low-level radioactive waste into the Firth of Clyde. Lang Banks, a spokesperson for the World Wildlife Fund said: ". . .the history of nuclear power plants is littered with final warnings . . . Nuclear power is a dirty, dangerous and expensive energy source. The sooner Scotland is nuclear-free the better.’’

Cover up of leaks at reactor could have led to fire

Watch the outstanding Channel 4 British television report about the radioactive leaks at the Sizewell A reactor and the close call that was averted by luck, then covered up for two years.