Following the Prime Minister’s roundtable seminar with representatives of the nuclear industry at Downing Street this week, the Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities has written to Boris Johnson suggesting he host a second urgent summit at No. 10 with the UK’s green energy providers.
Councillor David Blackburn said:
“The Prime Minister was right to talk about the need to ‘place big bets’ on developing new energy projects to ensure future energy supplies and energy sovereignty for this country, but has backed completely the wrong horse in going with nuclear to deliver.
“Civil nuclear projects take years to develop and usually become operational only after long construction overruns and at a massively inflated cost. New projects will be beholden to foreign investors, foreign reactor designs and foreign uranium. Nuclear can also never be a completely safe technology to operate and it comes with the curse of having to decommission redundant reactors and manage radioactive waste at great cost long after the plant has ceased to generate power.
“Contrast this to renewables. Far quicker and cheaper to install, using proven technologies, with no operational risks and with no toxic waste to deal with. That is why we are calling on the Prime Minister to back renewables and a great first step would be gathering the key players around the table in No. 10 to thrash out a plan to generate greener power to meet Britain’s energy needs.”
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For more information please contact Richard Outram, Secretary, NFLA Email Richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk / Mobile 07583 097793
Notes to Editors
The letter to the Prime Minister follows:
Councillor David Blackburn,
Chair, Nuclear Free Local Authorities,
C/o NFLA Secretariat,
Level 3, Town Hall Extension, Manchester, M60 3NY
23 March 2022
The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP,
Prime Minister
Boris.johnson.mp@parliament.uk / publiccorrespendence@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Dear Prime Minister,
Following on from your recent roundtable with nuclear industry representatives where you discussed the ways and means to accelerate new civil nuclear projects, I am writing to you as Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities to urge you to host a roundtable with alacrity and equal status with representatives from the UK renewable energy sector, prior to the publication of the government’s promised new energy strategy.
As with the nuclear sector, within the UK there is also a great deal of expertise and innovative practice in the renewable sector. New generating capacity can be created in renewables far more quickly, at a much lower cost, and without the attendant operational risks that accompany nuclear. Furthermore at the end of a renewable plant’s life it needs only be scrapped – there is no need for the costly defueling and decommissioning that happens with a redundant nuclear plant, nor any need to manage and store deadly radioactive waste for countless millennia.
Prime Minister, you have highlighted the need to ensure Britain’s energy security for the future. However most of the current participants in the civil nuclear field and many of those present at your roundtable are not domestic enterprises – EDF Energy is a near wholly French state owned business; CGN is a Chinese state owned one; and Bechtel, GE Hitachi Nuclear, Jacobs, and Westinghouse are all American-domiciled private businesses. Even the seemingly sole national flag carrier, Rolls-Royce, has within its consortium the financial backing of a Qatari Sovereignty Fund and a French investor family.
Current proposals to develop large nuclear projects at Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C, and Bradwell B, involve French and Chinese designed reactors. Many others in the future may involve reactors of foreign design and all are dependent upon the importation of foreign uranium for fuel.
Who is to say, whether in the future, relations between the United Kingdom and any one of these nations might sour, resulting in the commercial arrangement with a foreign power becoming toxic as has happened recently with China now branded as ‘not a trusted vendor’?
Britain is an island nation surrounded by water, we have occasional sun, regular rainfalls, and frequent high winds. Unlike uranium, none of these natural sources of energy require mining, processing or international transhipment, and accessing them causes no hardship to indigenous communities or damage to our environment, nor is their availability subject to the vagaries of Britain’s international relationships with any foreign power.
It must then make perfect sense to look to derive as much of Britain’s future energy requirements from sources with which we are naturally blessed.
There are many exciting developments in biomass, geothermal, hydro, solar, tidal, wave, and wind energy production, as well as in innovative storage solutions, at which the UK excels. Money and government support should be found to back those in the here-and-now.
Furthermore, the government should take the lead in offering more support for community-led renewable energy projects and in encouraging our citizens to invest their savings in such projects through incentives; in changing planning requirements so that new buildings generate and store their own energy, and are energy efficient; and in backing the retrofitting of insulation to domestic and business premises so their occupants can enjoy warmer accommodation without the crippling energy bills which many of them now face.
Prime Minister, you were right when you said we need to take ‘big bets’ on new energy projects and you were right when you talked about the need to ensure Britain’s future energy needs and sovereignty; but we in the NFLA believe you were misled and mistaken to place your faith in nuclear.
I urge you now to promptly convene a second urgent high-level roundtable meeting to explore with representatives of the UK’s renewable energy sector how best you might work in partnership to deliver the sustainable, affordable energy this nation needs. The NFLA would be proud to participate in such an event.
Thank you for taking time to read this letter and consider my request. I look forward to your reply. Please direct any response to this correspondence via the NFLA Secretary, Mr Richard Outram, by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Yours sincerely,
Councillor David Blackburn,
Chair, Nuclear Free Local Authorities