CD – sorry to come back on this but I just stumbled across this from John Hutton, Minister in the last Labour Government:

“The public must be told the facts about nuclear, as well as other forms of energy. The most unpalatable truth is that no form of energy generation can be completely free of risk. And there is one chilling statistic that we should all have at the forefront of our minds when we consider the alternatives to nuclear – in China, 5,000 people die every year while mining coal for use in power stations. When it comes to energy policy, there are rarely any simple, easy choices.
Renewable sources must be part of a balanced policy, but they are intermittent and need to be engineered around a base load of dependable power generation if peaks of demand are to be met.
It is clear, therefore, that our needs cannot be met from renewable sources alone. Europe will, in any event, be extremely hard-pressed even to achieve its current renewable goals, let alone meet any increased level of output.
The most likely alternative global source of energy, if we abandoned our nuclear ambitions, would be coal or gas. However, burning more coal and gas will not help us reduce the amount of carbon being emitted into the atmosphere – in fact, quite the opposite. The human and environmental consequences of such a policy would be potentially catastrophic, which must be factored in to any call for an end to civil nuclear power.
If Britain were to turn its back on nuclear, a new “dash for gas” would be inevitable, given that it seems unlikely the Government would sanction any new coal-fired power stations in the foreseeable future. Not only would this be bad for our environment, it would increase our dependence on foreign energy supplies, making us less secure. This is a risk no sensible government should expose us to. A primary goal of energy policy must instead be to increase our energy independence. Nuclear passes this critical test.”

I just love the line where you quote, no sensible Government etc, have we ever had one of those?.if so I must have missed it.

Lincoln .7