THE TRUE FACTS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER
Why it is: Unaffordable - Dangerous - Unnecessary - Bad For The Environment
Read why the proposed new SMRs - 4 of which are to be built at Oldbury - are a con trick that can never solve the problems of carbon free energy supply.
Huge tax payer and bill payer subsidies will be needed. Nuclear Power generation is ridiculously expensive. So why on earth....?
Terrorism, accidents, low level radiation emissions, flooding, leaks, security of supply - there are so many reasons why nuclear power is too dangerous to contemplate.
Nuclear Power is too expensive. Renewable energy sources can come on line much sooner. And then there's the link with nuclear weapons...
The dreadful legacy for future generations.
On the 7th April 2020, Boris Johnson announced that Nuclear Power - something that most people thought had died a quiet death - was going to be an important element in achieving a secure electricity supply, meeting the country's energy needs in the future and reaching climate change agreement CO2 levels. Risi Sunak's Government were intent on following the same path and the new Labour government seems just as wedded to nuclear power expansion.
While we believe that this target of 25% electricty generated by nuclear power is disingenous - just a quick and unaccountable way of magicing future carbon reduction targets out of thin air - we nevertheless feel it important that the British public are made aware of why such a policy is dangerous and unachievable and will hold back the development of renewable energy sources and storage. In fact, Ed Milliband, the new Secretary of State for Energy, while in opposition in 2022, said that developing nuclear power was a mistake and would hold back the development of renewables; which makes his change of mind both perplexing and disappointing.
That is why the STAND website has been revived and brought up to date, to make sure the British public are fully aware of the real facts behind nuclear power. However, the majority of our earlier research is still valid and can be seen on our Archives page and makes fascinating - and at times mind boggling - reading.
In this age of dis-information and social media trolling we believe it is important to provide only evidence based material, which is why we quote our sources wherever we can, and why we encourage any one who believes that we have got something factually wrong to let us know.
The Small Modular Reactor (SMR) programme announced recently by the Government – four of which are to be built on the flood plain of Oldbury, Gloucestershire, where the old decommisioned nuclear power station still stands – will not only fail but will divert resources from tried and tested renewables. We have created a whole new section on the non-viability of SMR’s, as the negative implications of this untried and untested technology are widespread and costly in every way.
21st August 2024
Developer snaps up site of former Berkeley nuclear power station to create first new hub for nuclear energy research, training and AI. Will work in collaboration with Rolls Royce to produce UK's first SMRs
Chiltern Vital Berkeley (CVB) has today agreed to purchase the 40-acre Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park in Berkeley for a reported £6.5m in order to create the UK’s first low carbon “super cluster” for nuclear research, education and AI. The developer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chiltern Vital Group (CVG), said it would seek to transform the site - which formerly housed one of the world’s first civil nuclear power stations - into the UK’s R&D centre of excellence for the next generation of small modular and micro reactor technology [our italics].
Explainer
About 12 years ago, a company was formed, called Horizon Nuclear Power to develop new nuclear reactors for the site at Oldbury, which were originally to be built by Hitachi. After Hitachi pulled out, realising that it was no longer financially viable to build nuclear power stations, Horizon kept operating. For those 12 years, dozens of highly paid people had been working in a large office building in Gloucester, paid for by the British taxpayer. The company has now ceased operating. What have they achieved? Apart from "earning" lots of money for themselves, absolutely nothing! Are the Chilton Vital Group now going to jump onto the same gravy-train when it comes to the nuclear reactor part of their brief?
24th July 2024
Labour govt plans to build ‘mini’ nuclear reactors around UK. Ministers, including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, see nuclear power as playing a key role in its energy strategy. Potential sites for the first SMRs include Moorside at Sellafield in Cumbria, Wylfa in Anglesey in North Wales, and Oldbury in Gloucestershire. iNews.co.uk. This is inspite of Ed Milliband saying in an interview on TV in 2022 that nuclear power expansion was a bad idea as it would take resources away from renewables, something STAND has been saying for years. BBC News