Labour’s nuclear plans won’t cut household bills
The UK Government’s plans to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers money on new nuclear power stations across the UK will not cut energy bills, and will only line the pockets of profiteers, warns Scottish Greens co-leader and energy spokesperson Patrick Harvie MSP.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and MP Michael Shanks have been touting building so-called ‘small modular reactors’, despite the catastrophic failure of the nuclear power industry running over schedule and over budget in the UK, and a long record of nuclear accidents and near misses; such as fires and radiation leaks.
The first nuclear power plant to be built in the UK for over 30 years, at Hinkley Point, is nearing £28 billion over its original budget and despite the construction phase beginning in 2016, it will likely not generate any electricity until at least 2029 but possibly 2031.
Mr Harvie said:
“The only people set to benefit from new nuclear power are the shareholders and executives of big energy companies, not the families who urgently need support with energy bills.
“Nuclear power takes decades and billions of pounds to construct, as we’ve seen with the shambles of Hinkley Point. Households need help with energy bills now, and we have renewable energy sources in Scotland already generating abundant, cheap-to-produce energy. People can’t afford to wait twenty years for a new power station to come online.
“Without real action to fix the broken energy market, bill payers will continue to come second to energy company profits.
“Scottish Greens are clear that we want to see real investment in cheap, clean renewables such as wind, solar and tidal to bring down household bills and create green jobs without the extreme cost, time or safety risks of nuclear power.
“Scotland already produces a majority of our energy from cheap, clean, renewable sources, and we have so much potential to go even further. What governments need to do is end our reliance on fossil fuels, cut the artificial high price of electricity, and commit to a renewable future, not toxic, dangerous, expensive nuclear power.”