Nuclear Power — Is it the Only Way?

Abstract

Representing Friends of the Earth, I was specifically invited to address the wider question: Do we need nuclear power anyway? Clearly, if the answer to that question is ‘no’ and if we act accordingly, then the problems raised by this conference will no longer exist. While I do not suggest it is automatically appropriate to tackle the side-effects of a policy by abandoning the policy altogether, when in every other respect the policy is highly questionable, then the case for abandoning it to eliminate side-effects becomes much greater. That, in a nutshell, is our point: that we should not need to worry about the urban transportation of irradiated fuel because we do not need the fuel anyway. We are wrongly transporting the wrong product in order to implement the wrong policy for the wrong reasons.