Monday, January 08, 2007

Tackling nuclear NIMBYs like me

The Government (DTI) has published a number of future scoping research papers commissioned from MORI/Ipsos, to help tell it what to do. Among them is one on how to tackle the anti-nuclear power movement.

It actually doesn't tell you much that any of us couldn't have told them. For example it says:

"Public resistance towards radioactive waste may lead to there being few, if any, acceptable domestic sites on land for storage/burial Governments and the waste managers may have to find alternative ways of disposal."

and: "This could either force the minimisation of use of nuclear resources (therefore driving the development and use of alternative energy sources), or drive companies to dispose of their waste in other locations without public knowledge."

It warns specifically that James Lovelock and other pro-nuclear 'environmentalists' can help swing public opinion.

And that the government should watch out for "increasing membership of anti-nuclear NGOs and other groups; decreasing support for nuclear power plants; and radioactive waste disposal companies unable to find suitable locations due to public outcry" as indicators that they may not be able to reach their nuclear targets.

It therefore advocates "campaigns to educate the public on real risks of radioactive waste; improving management of radioactive waste; and development of new methods for its disposal."

In terms of 'Parallels & Precedents' it mentions: "Nirex exposed as having identified 12 secret sites for radioactive waste disposal in England and Scotland; a number of incidents have occurred when nuclear waste was improperly disposed of in some cases, these incidents involve people being injured or killed due to the release of radioactive contamination."

Well. No-brainer or what?

See: the paper here.

On the same site are a number of other interesting papers on global warming including, bizarrely, "What would Jesus drive?: the birth of green spirituality and creation care".

Perhaps Tony thinks God can save us.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I found your blog when searching for blogs about environmental issues...I was curious as to if you would like to be a part of my natural living blogring. Please let me know by commenting on my blog or emailing me at jaded.pyratekk@gmail.com :)

Look forward to hearing from you,
loved reading your blog you are full of great information :)

Anonymous said...

Dear NL Blogring members,
There are only a few of us so far, so please search out any blogspot blogs you can and see if you can recruit any more people into the ring. I am searching for people using google and blog-gathering sites trying to find others to talk to.

Also, I was contacted by one potential member who said they didn't want to have to include a list of links to the blogs in the ring on their blog. If you feel the same, feel free to just include somewhere in your sidebar (the closer to the top the better of course!) the link to the nl blog : http://nl-info.blogspot.com and make the link name "Natural Living Blogring" :) This will still get new people to click and visit the blog and once at my blog they will see the detailed list of members.

I would choose to use a blogring site, but I don't necessarily like the way some of them run. But if things get a lot bigger then I will consider it.

But that's all, just wanted to contact everyone :)

~christi