Publication Laka-library:
Shut them down (1986)
| Author | Greenpeace |
| Date | December 1986 |
| Classification | 2.05.1.10/02 (UNITED KINGDOM - PUBLIC OPINION) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
SUMMARY As the full horrors of the Chernobyl accident unfolded, the bland and often contradictory assurances of the nuclear industry and its political apologists poured forth. Yet public alarm and rejection of nuclear power grew and the opposition parties felt sufficiently emboldened to toughen their statements about nuclear power and even re-think their policies. A new and seemingly radical concept entered the nuclear debate - 'phase out'. To many people this implied the beginning of the end of the industry. Yet when what was actually being discussed was carefully considered, something distinctly less dramatic emerged. The Liberal Party, by far the most outspoken of the Parliamentary Opposition, talked vaguely of ten to fifteen years; the SDP stalled 'prudently'; the Labour Party talked of 'decades'; the Government of course remained 'resolute' in its determination to steam on regardless. Exasperated, Greenpeace decided it was time to inject some urgency into the debate. We know, as do a large proportion of the British population, that nuclear power is an unacceptably dangerous technology, and that the effects of any serious accident in our densely populated island would be catastrophic. Nuclear experts themselves have admitted that another major nuclear accident can be expected in the next decade - we are living on borrowed time. There is only one response to this situation, to find out what is the earliest date that all Britains reactors can be closed down, and to campaign vigorously to ensure that this becomes the policy of future governments. Greenpeace therefore commissioned an independent environmental consultancy, Earth Resources Research, to find out whether it would be possible to close all British nuclear reactors in the life of the next Parliament, with no increased likelihood of disconnections, and assuming a political commitment to do so. Their finding have formed the basis of this SHUT THEM DOWN report and Greenpeace's conclusions are: - All Britains nuclear reactors can be shut down in four years without increasing the risk of disconnection. - This policy would cost the equivalent of around a 10 per cent rise in electricity costs. - There are unlikely to be any net job losses, given all the new measures needed to compensate for the loss of nuclear power, and less that 5,000 direct job losses will occur in the nuclear power stations themselves. - An emergency plan must be drawn up immediately to deal with the closure of all nuclear power stations in Britain in the event of a serious nuclear accident occuring here or in France. After Chernobyl, there is no time or room for complacency.
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