Last month Britain green-lit the construction of a new nuclear power station. The last time we started work on a new one was Sizewell B in 1987, so it’s a pretty major announcement. It’s also clear that the government considers this to be part of their green agenda. As David Cameron said the other day: “We have got the first nuclear power station since 1995. This is a Government investing in important green technologies.”
That casual description of nuclear power as an ‘important green technology’ will make a lot of environmentalists squirm. The green movement has traditionally been anti-nuclear. That’s beginning to change, with some high profile debates between key figures. Some well respected figures have very publicly changed their minds, to the disappointment of their colleagues. It’s an important discussion, and it’s just had a boost with the release of Pandora’s Promise, a new film profiling the potentially positive role of nuclear power.
As usual, it won’t be easy to find this particular documentary on a cinema screen, but it will be online in December. I’ll try and watch it before I say any more, but it looks like a useful contribution to what has so far been a rather painful debate.
The Earthbound Report 