NUCLEAR WASTE COSTS BLOW HOLE IN GOVERNMENT PLANS

12.00.00am GMT Fri 28th Mar 2008

Commenting on today's report by former nuclear regulator Ian Jackson, which shows that new nuclear stations cannot be built in the UK without the taxpayer subsidising the costs of storing nuclear waste, Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, said:

"This cost analysis blows a hole in the Government's case for nuclear power.

"The Government has repeatedly assured us that there would not be any public subsidy for new nuclear power, but it is clear that huge amounts of public money will be needed to encourage the nuclear industry to build more plants here.

"When Wales' two nuclear power stations are fully decommissioned, they will have produced enough radioactive waste to fill 30,000 drums but no one knows what the true cost will be to dispose of this nuclear waste because no has actually done it before. What we do know is that each new estimate of the clean-up costs is higher than the last.

"Ministers should be spending their time and money reducing CO2 emissions now through improved energy efficiency and investment in renewable energy, not wasting taxpayers' cash on expensive and inefficient nuclear plants which won't deliver for over a decade."