Britain's nuclear expansion 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.