Earth Equity News

U.K. Drops Huge Tidal Project, Announces 8 New Nuclear Sites. AFP, 10/18/10. “The government confirmed on Monday it will drop plans for a multi-billion-pound tidal energy project, as it identified eight sites suitable for building new nuclear power stations. An official study said the proposed 16-kilometer barrage stretching across the Severn river, which was to generate energy using tidal power, could cost more than 34 billion pounds… The report said the barrage was unlikely to attract adequate investment from the private sector and would rely heavily on public investment. The decision to scrap the project was welcomed by environmental campaigners. Martin Harper of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said the barrage would have trashed’ local wildlife sites. It would have destroyed ‘huge areas of estuary marsh’…

“The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government also cleared the way for new nuclear power plants to be built at eight sites in England and Wales -- three fewer than the 11 proposed by the previous Labor government… despite Liberal Democrat opposition to new nuclear power stations before the party was in power… Friends of the Earth slammed the announcement, describing it as a ‘reckless’ disregard for the need to tackle climate change. ‘Nuclear power is not the solution to tackling climate change -- it would leave us saddled with toxic waste for centuries to come,’ said campaigner Simon Bullock.”