Nuclear

The coastal walk from Dunbar to Cockburnspath on Thursday took us past Torness nuclear power station, one of the most recent nuclear power plants built in the UK.

The night before I’d been speaking to someone who works at Torness. He told me the plant transfers 43 per cent of the energy it generates into electricity, gets its uranium from Canada, South Africa and Australia, and is due to be decommissioned in 2025. I asked him what his view on nuclear power in Britain is. He reckoned it is not the best way to create electricity, but new nuclear power plants will be needed for the next 40 years before renewable power can fully take over.

I asked some of the other marchers their views on nuclear as we passed Torness.

Mahesh from India told me that India already has four nuclear power plants. He is against more nuclear plants as the radioactive waste stores up problems for future generations which they may not be able to deal with - nuclear is not morally justifiable.

Cassia from Brazil was also against nuclear. She said there are two nuclear reactors in Brazil and there are plans for a third. Cassia thought the first two are not currently working. However, they were paid for by loans from western countries which are still being repaid.

Demo from the Philippines has a similar story to Cassia. President Marcos borrowed money from the World Bank to build the Philippines’ only nuclear reactor. Since then, popular opposition means the nuclear plant has never been used. But the people of the Philippines continue to pay the debts created by Marcos’ reactor.