Following yesterday’s meeting between the Prime Minister and local members of the Sort Out Sellafield team, local pressure group CORE has condemned Tony Blair’s willingness to act as a BNFL tout for securing new business for the company on his forthcoming trip to Japan.
CORE said today “ This smacks of a weak and ill-informed Government who until yesterday pledged that BNFL’s business case must stand up on its own in the market place. That appears to have changed overnight and the public will be astounded that Blair is now prepared to prostitute himself and his government in the name of extending the pollutive operations of a discredited company and drumming up business for the new MOX plant for which BNFL has singularly failed to make an economic case “.
Attempts by the Prime Minister to secure more reprocessing and MOX business for BNFL at the Okinawa G8 meeting later this week will also be seen as a slap in the face for the European and Scandanavian Governments who, as signatories to OSPAR, have made clear their objections to Sellafield’s radioactive discharges. The Commission, recently meeting in Copenhagen, has directed that alternatives to reprocessing must be looked at as a priority by the UK. Any new reprocessing business is contrary to that directive and will serve only to perpetuate the radioactive discharges from the plant. CORE believes the supportive actions of both the Prime Minister and his Energy Minister Helen Liddell display an abject ignorance of the overwhelming world-wide case against reprocessing, its environmental discharges and nuclear waste creation – and against MOX fuel with all its plutonium proliferation problems. As BNFL’s sole shareholder, the Government was recently heavily criticised by the DTI Select Committee for having so little understanding of the company’s finances and operations.
The Prime Minister’s plans will also be seen as a hindrance to the belated attempts by West Cumbrian organisations to secure a diversified future for the area.. Prime mover behind yesterday’s visit to Downing Street was Copeland MP Dr Jack Cunningham, an avid supporter of BNFL over the years.
A CORE spokesperson added “ This historic support for Sellafield by Nuclear Jack is very largely responsible for the area’s total dependence upon and domination by Sellafield, a situation acknowledged as being wholly detrimental to West Cumbria’s future. His support now for new business with Japan will do nothing to change that situation and will set back the plans for diversification by years. The only way to sort out Sellafield and the future for West Cumbria is to move BNFL away from the uneconomic and unnecessary reprocessing and MOX operations and towards the more meaningful work of clean up and decommissioning “.
For further information contact CORE on 01229 833851.