Oranges harvested in the Rosarno area of Calabria are mainly used for juice or soft drinks

March 2012 Subscribers Newsletter

Ecologist

5th March, 2012

Welcome to the March 2012 Ecologist subscribers newsletter, this month including our exclusive - groundbreaking - investigation from southern Italy examining the working and living conditions for migrants harvesting oranges. Plus: get an exclusive sneak preview of our maternity special report. To access this plus your newsletter log in and scroll down to the bottom of the page

EDITORIAL

HIDDEN NUCLEAR AGENDAS

By Nikki Clark

The Government's plan to pursue its nuclear agenda under the auspices of a nuclear new build programme in the UK has singled out Hinkley Point as the first location for attempts at a 'nuclear renaissance'.

EDF, who are 90 per cent owned by the French state, have put in an application to the recently created Infrastructure Planning Commission, for two enormous, 1350MW generation 3 reactors, which are untried, untested designs. These EPR designs have experienced nothing but trouble in Finland, France & China, where projects there are behind schedule and over budget.

Nuclear new build in the UK cannot happen without subsidy from the public purse in the form of insurance liability, the electricity reform act (which will provide a fixed price per unit of electricity) and a floor on the price of a tonne of carbon under the woefully inadequate carbon trading mechanism. This comes on top of the £250 million per year spent over the last 25 years on research and development on how to deal with the legacy waste.

The decisions on nuclear are being challenged - Energy...

To view the rest of this article - you must be a paying subscriber and Login