LONDON, May 17 (UPI) -- Environmental campaigners railed against British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday after he gave his backing to a new generation of nuclear power stations.
Pre-empting the outcome of the government's ongoing energy review, Blair told an audience at the Confederation of British Industry Tuesday evening that the "stark" facts he had been shown meant that nuclear power was "back on the agenda with a vengeance."
Opponents of nuclear power said that his comments confirmed their belief that the energy review was nothing more than a smokescreen for a decision the prime minister had already taken.
Almost all of Britain's ageing nuclear power plants are due to come offline by 2020, leaving an energy shortfall. Advocates of the nuclear option contend that it is essential to tackle climate change and ensure energy security, however critics, including the government's own advisory body the Sustainable Development Commission, say it is both unsuitable and unnecessary.
Blair's stance provoked a furious reaction from anti-nuclear lobbyists and the Labor mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who said that choosing the nuclear route would prove "the greatest misjudgement of our generation."
Friends of the Earth Director Tony Juniper said it was increasingly obvious that the energy review had been a "complete sham."
It was clear that Blair was "fixated" with nuclear power and was determined to oversee a new generation of nuclear reactors rather than investing in clean and sustainable options that already existed and leading Britain to a carbon-free, nuclear-free economy, he said.
Greenpeace Director Stephen Tindale said: "Nuclear power presents a real terrorist threat, costs a stupid amount of money, doesn't help in the fight against climate change and certainly won't plug the energy gap. To put this hazard back on the agenda is recklessly incompetent."
