A new report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that using nuclear power can increase the risk of nuclear proliferation, damage the environment and is likely to harm human health.
This special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C shows that despite our pressing need to tackle climate change, nuclear energy is not the way to do so.
As this report has found, utilizing existing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, halting deforestation, and increasing our use of renewable energy from wind and solar, are all means of limiting global warming which are free of the dangers posed by nuclear energy.
Nuclear energy is expensive, unsafe, and supports nuclear weapon proliferation. However, some governments, including the UK government, continue to support the expansion of the nuclear sector despite the clear risks it presents to human and environmental life.
Most recently, the Welsh government has allowed the dumping of radioactively contaminated sediment, taken from the Hinkley Point C nuclear construction site, to continue. Despite campaigners strong claims that this mud has not been tested well enough to be deemed safe, the dumping has been given the go ahead. This is further evidence that nuclear energy is dirty, dangerous and unsafe.
It is clear then, that rather than hailing nuclear energy as a ‘green alternative’ which is capable of cutting our carbon emissions, the UK should be following IPCC guidelines and heed the dangers of nuclear energy that this landmark report has highlighted. Other nations, such as Germany and Switzerland, have made the transition away from nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster. There is no reason why the UK can’t too.
Join CND in calling for the UK government to turn away from nuclear energy, and instead invest in safer, cleaner and more effective energy systems.