Help to prevent climate change and raise funds for CND by switching to green energy with Ecotricity.

Click here for the Europe wide million signature campaign against nuclear power.

Click here for CND leaflet
Click here for CND briefing

Not the answer
Nuclear power is not the answer to climate change. – in fact, even if we doubled the amount of nuclear power in the UK there would only be an 8% reduction in greenhouse gases. It is neither carbon emission free nor would new power stations come on stream for at least ten years. It threatens the environment and people’s health. No safe solution has yet been devised to store its carcinogenic toxic radioactive waste, some of which is dangerous for thousands of years. It also leaves us vulnerable to the possibility of nuclear accidents or even terrorist attack.

A safe energy mix of renewable energy sources, cleaned up fossil fuels and energy efficiency measures – all of which are safe, effective and proven technologies - are available now. And it is not an impractical fantasy: Germany, a massively industrial power, is closing its nuclear power station and moving towards reliance on a non-nuclear mix.

The recent Planning White Paper will remove decisions on nuclear power stations, and long term waste dumps to the new Independent Planning Commission. CND is concerned that this will remove rights from local communities where sites are to be imposed and place massive decisions in the hands of an unelected and unaccountable commission.
…………………………………………….

What can you do?

CND’s new leaflet
Click here for 'Nuclear Power - not worth the risk' leaflet. You can order extra copies from the CND national office - 020 7700 2393.

Contact your MP
Tell them why you think Nuclear Power is not the answer to climate change (see the arguments below) . Find out who your MP is: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

CND new briefing
Click here for CND’s new briefing on Nuclear Power.
…………………………………………….

What are the arguments?

Nuclear Power: Why we say no to a new generation

Nuclear power is not the answer to climate change
1. Nuclear power is not carbon emission free! The whole nuclear cycle from uranium mining onwards produces more greenhouse gases than most renewable energy sources with up to 50% more emissions than wind power. Doubling nuclear power in the UK would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% because the electricity sector accounts for a quater to a third of all carbon emissions (transport and industry account for most of the rest).

2. Climate change is happening now. A new nuclear power station takes 10 years to build and longer to generate electricity. Wind farms can be up and running in less than a year.

3. It’s expensive. The nuclear industry is massively subsidised by the British public. Sizewell B, the UK’s most recent power station cost the taxpayer around £3.7billion just to install, and decomissioning the current ageing power stations will cost us an estimated £56 billion.

4. It’s not sustainable. The reserves of uranium ores used to generate nuclear power are going to run out. There is only 50 years worth of high uranium ores left in the world. There may be only 200 years left of all uranium ores including poor uranium ores which take more energy to mine and process and thus release more carbon emissions.

Nuclear power is dirty and dangerous
5. Nuclear power threatens the environment and people’s health. It produces enormous amounts of carcinogenic toxic radioactive waste, some of which is dangerous for thousands of years. No safe solution has yet been devised to store it.

6. Uranium mining kills. Uranium mining is the first step in the nuclear power cycle; it has taken the lives of many miners all over the world causing environmental contamination, cancers and nuclear waste.

7. Nuclear accidents. The risk of terrible nuclear accidents like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Windscale (Sellafield) will plague a new generation of power stations as it did the first.

8. A terrorist target. Nuclear power carries with it the risk of nuclear terrorism. In this age of uncertainty dirty bombs and attacks on power stations are a terrifying threat.

9. The proliferation of nuclear weapons is inextricably linked to nuclear power by a shared need for enriched uranium, and through the generation of plutonium as a by-product of spent nuclear fuel. The two industries have been linked since the very beginning and a nuclear weapons free world requires a non-nuclear energy policy.

We need real action to save the planet now!
10. We need a safe, genuinely sustainable, global and green solution to our energy needs. A combination of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures which are safe, effective and proven technologies are available now. The government must live up to its Kyoto agreements and invest in sustainable clean solutions to climate change.
…………………………………………….

You can stop this lunacy.

Join Us Today

privacy statement | Sitemap