NFLAs call on Chancellor not to class nuclear as ‘green’

Fearing the UK Government may – for once – follow an unwanted lead set in Europe, the Chair of UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities network has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer requesting that he refrain for reclassifying nuclear as a ‘green investment’ under revised taxonomy rules.

There has been much speculation in the corridors of power, in the press and amongst the anti-nuclear community that Jeremy Hunt may soon choose to reclassify ‘nuclear’ as a green investment to unlock more private investment in the government’s planned future civil nuclear programme.

A reclassification in the revised taxonomy rules would make such investment more ‘attractive’ and ‘acceptable’ to certain large pension funds and investment companies.
The European Commission has previously adopted an identical strategy, but it was one which met with significant political and societal opposition and led to legal challenges from member states.

In his letter, Councillor Lawrence O’Neill outlines how nuclear power is both carbon-intensive and environmentally damaging. Commenting he said:

“It would be a complete misnomer to describe nuclear as ‘green’. From mining the uranium ore through to dealing with the legacy of radioactive waste, civil nuclear power leaves a massive carbon footprint and contaminates all it touches. The NFLAs hope that the Chancellor will see the logic of leaving things as they are and accede to our request, but if not we shall be ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all those opposed to this change. Nuclear is not ‘green’ and never will be.”

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Notes to Editors

For more information please contact: Richard Outram, Secretary, NFLA email Richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk / mobile 07583 097793

The letter sent to the Chancellor reads:

The Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP,
Chancellor of the Exchequer
C/o Correspondence and Enquiry Unit,
HM Treasury
Public.enquiries@hmtreasury.gov.uk

Thursday 23 February 2023

Dear Chancellor,

In recent days, it has become clear that it is the intention of the UK Government to declare investments in nuclear energy to be ‘green’ as a supposed ‘environmentally sustainable economic activity’ as part of the UK’s revised taxonomy.

This follows on from a similar strategy adopted by the European Commission, and mirrors their intent in seeking to make investment in future nuclear power projects appear more ‘attractive’ and ‘acceptable’ to pension funds and large investment companies

As Chair of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities, I am calling on you not to do this for civil nuclear power is far from green.

There are many reasons not to invest in civil nuclear power projects – they are far too costly, they take far too long, they will be delivered much too late to address the current energy crisis or the burgeoning climate emergency, they undermine our claim to energy independence by making the UK reliant upon foreign-sourced technology, finance and uranium (often historically from Russia), nuclear power generation comes with operational risk, nuclear power plants represent an enormous potential ‘dirty bomb’ to terrorist groups or hostile state actors (Russia again), and to cap it all they are both carbon-intensive and hugely environmentally damaging.

Chancellor, please let me outline for a moment in more detail some of the carbon-intensive and environmentally damaging activities that accompany civil nuclear power projects:

• Nuclear power stations rely on uranium as a power source. Uranium mining and processing leaves behind environmental degradation, radioactive contamination, and chronic ill-health from exposure to that radiation amongst the local workforce and the host community (usually poor and Indigenous).
• Building a nuclear power station requires the employment of vast amounts of concrete, steel and numerous other materials, many years of labour, and many millions of vehicle and personnel movements onto and off site.
• The operation of a nuclear power station requires the transportation of fuel rods, waste, other materials and the labour force onto and off the site; the daily use of millions of gallons of seawater with the deaths of millions of fish; and the employment of its own generated electricity for cooling the plant and any stockpiled radioactive waste.
• Nuclear operations lead to the contamination of the environment surrounding the plant, local beaches, the sea and neighbouring water courses.
• The closure of a nuclear power station requires the decommissioning of the plant, the decontamination of the site, and the management and treatment of the radioactive waste, processes that take decades and that are incredibly resource intensive.

It has been estimated that the work being carried out by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to clear and make safe nuclear legacy sites will take up to 120 years and cost – at today’s prices – £260 billion.

Consequently, I am writing to you with one simple request from the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities that you continue to exclude nuclear from classification as a ‘green’ investment under the revised taxonomy rules.

We would love to hear your views. We invite you to write to us by email to NFLA Secretary Richard Outram at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Lawrence O’Neill,
Chair, UK/Ireland NFLA Steering Committee