Friends of the Earth pulls out of nuclear consultation
On September 7th Friends of the Earth announced that it had withdrawn from the Government's public consultation on nuclear power for a number of reasons. These include:
* A lack of clear non nuclear options which would have facilitated informed public debate;
* A failure to provide adequate information about the wider dangers of nuclear power, such as terrorism and proliferation;
* The `consultation' was being rushed through in five months over the summer period, and the NGO stakeholder group participation process was rushed. The Sustainable Development Commission recommended nine months;
* The Government appeared to have already made up its mind to push ahead with a new nuclear programme.
The consultation was also boycotted by Greenpeace, WWF-UK, CND and the Green Alliance.
FoE's Director,
Tony Juniper, said "This is not a genuine consultation about nuclear
power… We are perfectly happy to debate the issue, but we are not prepared to
take part in this latest Government farce….. A new programme of nuclear power
would only generate around four per cent of the