“I was told, believed and argued publicly that civil nuclear power was cheap, safe and peaceful and it was only later that I learned that this was all untrue since, if the full cost of development and the cost of storing long-term nuclear waste is included in the calculations nuclear power is three times the cost of coal when the pits were being closed on economic grounds.
Nuclear power is certainly not safe as we know from accidents at Windscale (now renamed Sellafield), from Three Mile Island in America and Chernobyl in the Ukraine, dangers which the authorities have always been determined to downplay.
Nor are Britain's civil nuclear power stations peaceful as for many years, and still possibly today, the plutonium they produce was sent to fuel the American nuclear weapons programme, making them into - what were in effect - bomb factories.
At no stage, as a minister, could I rely on being told the truth either by the Industry itself or by my own civil servants who may or may not have known it themselves.
Some dramatic examples of misinformation which made a deep impression on me converted me from being a supporter to a very strong opponent of the whole nuclear power programme.
Once, in Japan, a Japanese minister asked me how we were getting on with the task of clearing up the fire at Windscale years before, of which I was wholly unaware.
- Tony Benn
Please remember that UNISON's green charter states: UNISON does not believe that new nuclear build is the right solution to our need for secure, low carbon energy.
http://www.unison.org.uk/
So why are we printing such rubbish in a UNISON Activist magazine?
As for EDF Energy the so called first sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, announces the inaugural Green Britain Day, taking place on 10 July 2009. In 2009, EDF Energy took control of the UK nuclear generator, British Energy, buying share capital from the government. This made EDF Energy the UK's largest generator, as well as the largest distribution network operator. There is nothing Green about nuclear it is a disaster and a very long term mess that is being left behind.
Let us also not forget that Andrew Brown (Gordon’s brother) just happens to be Head of Media Relations in the UK for the French-owned utility company EDF Energy since 2004.
http://dizzythinks.net/2008/
http://business.timesonline.
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/
