THE TRUE FACTS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER
Why it is: Unaffordable - Dangerous - Unnecessary - Bad For The Environment
THE TRUE FACTS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER
Why it is: Unaffordable - Dangerous - Unnecessary - Bad For The Environment
The government recently announced that the winner for the contract to build new nuclear power stations in the UK will be Rolls-Royce.
The government say they will build three new nuclear reactors (see Rolls Royce artists impression of one of them above) and has named four possible sites.
However, for many reasons, it is almost certain that the Oldbury site, on the banks of the river Severn, will be chosen.
And at a recent stakeholders meeting a representative of Great British Nuclear Energy told us that there would also be a nuclear reactor built at Berkeley.
Read on to find out why this will be bad for the area and the UK, dangerous, too expensive, unnecessary and will hold back the development of renewable power.
Read why the proposed new SMRs - 3 of which are probably to be built at Oldbury and another at Berkeley on the banks of the river Severn in Gloucestershire - 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.
Nuclear Power is too expensive. Renewable energy sources are the future: they are more reliable, cheaper and can come on line much sooner. And it is a myth that nuclear power is needed to "keep the lights on".
Lydney Community Centre packed for STAND public meeting on 17 Oct 2025
Jonathon Porritt talking at STAND's public meeting
The Lydney community centre’s main hall was packed on the evening of Friday 17 October for a public meeting called by STAND to make people aware of the governments plans to build three or four nuclear power stations just a few miles across the river Severn from the Forest of Dean. The headline speakers were Jonathon Porritt, the well-known sustainability and human rights campaigner, and Dr David Toke a highly respected energy researcher. Also present on the panel were Sue Haverley and John French for STAND. Read the full report in LATEST NEWS here
CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO VIEW STAND'S NEW 5 MINUTE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE
And our latest STAND car art by the wonderful mural artist Tom Cousins:
The word about the proposed nuclear reactors at Oldbury is spreading fast and Tom has decorated 5 cars
now and plans some more soon.
NEW NUCLEAR POWER WILL BE A DISASTER FOR THE UK
LATEST UPDATE August 2025
Confusion (or collusion?) at Great British Energy-Nuclear?
Back in May, we were told by a representative of Great British Energy-Nuclear at a Berkeley and Oldbury Site Stakeholders Group (SSG) meeting that the government had decided to award the contract for the new SMRs (small modular reactors) to Rolls-Royce and one other manufacturer and that there would be six of them built to two different technologies on two different sites.
Just a few days later the government announced that the contract had gone to Rolls-Royce to build three nuclear reactors - no mention of another manufacturer. They went on to say that the sites they were looking at were Wylfa on Anglesey; Sellafield in Cumbria; Trawsfynydd in mid Wales and Oldbury, Gloucestershire.
Then last week the New Civil Engineer reported that Great British Energy-Nuclear were advertising for a Site Lead Manager to be in charge at Wylfa. Within hours Great British Energy-Nuclear said this was a mistake and posted another advert for a Site Lead Manager at Oldbury.
Confused? So are we. Such is the secrecy and mis-information surrounding nuclear projects it is not surprising that the left hand does not appear to know what the right hand is doing.
But given that Chiltern Vital Group - who are are planning to build a huge nuclear research and development complex at Berkeley on a site next to Oldbury - say they are working in close partnership with Rolls-Royce, we believe that Oldbury will almost certainly be the - or one of the - chosen sites, especially as Rolls Royce told an SSG meeting some time ago, at which STAND were present, that Oldbury was their preferred site.
Watch this space!
AT A GLANCE:
IN DETAIL:
1. 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% electricity generated by nuclear power is disingenuous - just a quick and unaccountable way of magicking 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 – which will almost certainly 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.
UPDATE 4th July 2025
The government recently announced that the winner for the contract to build new nuclear power stations in the UK would be Rolls-Royce. The government say they will build three new nuclear reactors and has named four possible sites. However, for many reasons, it is almost certain that the Oldbury site will be chosen.
One reason is that Chiltern Vital Berkeley (CVB), a newly formed part of the Chiltern Vital Group (CVG) say on their own website: “CVG is supporting the Rolls-Royce SMR business in the selection of strategic UK sites for the roll-out of its Small Modular Reactors, and in the creation of the long-term end user/offtake agreements to support the financial viability of their deployment.”
And as Chiltern vital Berkeley recently acquired the land around the nearby decommissioned Berkeley nuclear power station and intermediate nuclear waste storage facility, and plan to redevelop the 40 acre site for what they call "a new kind of nuclear technology, establishing a low carbon energy super cluster for nuclear research education and AI". It would quite clearly make Oldbury the obvious choice for the new reactors.
LATEST NEWS
18 Oct 2025
JONATHON PORRIT MAIN SPEAKER AT STAND'S PUBLIC MEETING IN LYDNEY ON THE 17th OF OCTOBER.
Sue Haverley and John French, members of STAND’s steering committee, began the meeting by explaining how STAND, previously SCAR (Severnside Campaign Against Radiation) started over 40 years ago due to concerns over radiation induced childhood leukaemias which had been found in the area, and why the Government's new proposals for Rolls-Royce to build new nuclear reactors at Oldbury on Severn, just 5 miles away from the Forest of Dean, would be dangerous and unaffordable, especially given new evidence that the site would certainly be inundated sometime this century by devastating floods.
David Toke then said that wind power was now producing more electricity than nuclear globally and in the UK, and that solar power was gaining even faster. David is Senior Lecturer in Energy Policy in the Departments of Sociology and POLSIS at University of Birmingham and he joined the University of Aberdeen in April 2013. He is a prolific writer on Energy matters and publishes information and reports, and campaigns in favour of renewable energy. He said:
“The only reason that SMRs [small model reactors] are being dreamed up is to con the public there is something new. They would use old technology and would be a lot worse in financial terms because they would lose the economy of scale that larger reactors provided and would create even more high-level Radioactive Nuclear Waste."
Jonathon Porritt, the keynote note speaker, and well known sustainability and human rights campaigner, said:
“The challenges we face now are low carbon, energy security, and affordability. And for the avoidance of doubt, if anybody thinks Nuclear Power can put a tick into any of these three boxes, you really need to do your homework.”
By way of pointing out how much money Nuclear Power diminished the amount of financing available to renewables, he said that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, in its 2024 to 2025 financial statement, said the total amount of money spent in that financial year was £6.7 billion. Of that money the NDA (Nuclear Decommissioning Agency), took £3 billion, the planning for Sizewell C took £1.7 billion, leaving only £2 billion for affordable energy, energy efficiency, renewable storage, grid upgrades, etc, etc. He said:
“You're left with £2 billion to do the rest, to do everything! It’s utterly staggering”
A lively question and answer session followed. One questioner asked why, if nuclear power was so dangerous and expensive was the government even contemplating it. John French replied that, while lobbying by the Nuclear Industry, who were keen to get their hands on the massive taxpayer subsidies available, was a large element, there was also the link with nuclear weapons. Right from the start he said nuclear power stations were designed mainly to produce enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear warheads. Ever since the 1950s, he continued, such fissionable material had been produced for the UK's own nuclear weapons and for export to the USA. While denied for decades, it is now known that regular shipments of weapons grade material have been shipped to the USA and is still being shipped.
Many thanks to James Greenwood, for chairing the meeting so effectively
STAND JOINS INFLUENTIAL BEIS nuclear NGO GROUP
STAND is pleased to announce that we have been invited to join the BEIS nuclear NGO group, which has as its members Friends of the Earth, The Nuclear Free Authorities group, Stop Hinkley groups and others.
We will be meeting regularly with Government Ministers in Whitehall to ask questions and put our points of view.
A brilliantly researched paper by two of the groups members will be presented on the 6th of December to Lord Hunt, the Minister for Nuclear Power. You can download this report here - a must-read for anyone interested in the future of energy production in this country...
LINKS to other websites
NUCLEAR FREE LOCAL AUTHORITIES (NFLA)
NATIONAL ENERGY SYSTEM OPERATOR (NESO)
Recommended Reading
'Love, Anger & Betrayal: Just Stop Oil's Young Climate Campaigners'
Jonathon Porritt's new book is launching on July 24th.
Jonathon writes: Love, Anger & Betrayal' is different from any book I've written before — not least as it's co-authored with 26 of Just Stop Oil's young climate campaigners. I want people to hear their voices, views, fears and dreams - not the demonising caricatures the UK's right-wing media specialise in.
We're going to be making the case for far more urgent action on the climate crisis, for the crucial importance of civil disobedience, and for all campaigners' right to protest - now under threat as never before.
FOLLOW the campaign On Instagram - On Facebook - On Blue Sky - On the website This is such a crucial time for the climate movement in the UK. All 27 of us are hoping ‘Love, Anger & Betrayal’ can have a truly positive impact - and you can really help with that. PROCEEDS FROM SALES WILL SUPPORT THE WORK OF RADICAL CLIMATE CAMPAIGNS
Nuclear is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change, by M.V. Ramana, published by Verso books.
Ramana is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, the Canadian Pugwash Group, the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group, and the team that produces the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Leo Szilard Award from the American Physical Society. He knows what he is writing about! The book covers all our arguments in detail and is scientifically factual as well as being easy and entertaining to read.
(See a review of this book here)
