TOXIC TAXES SOAR
Friday 7 July 2006
Nuclear power is being subsidised by the government and cost tax payers billions of pounds claim campaigners.
As the government contemplate a new-build nuclear programme to help bridge the energy gap and tackle climate change the tax payer is left to foot the existing bill.
Greenpeace campaigner Nathan Argent said: “They estimate to clean up the industry from the waste we have already created at the last count was 90billion pounds and spiralling out of control, and this tax-payers money.”
In addition to radioactive waste disposal costs the associated risks of nuclear power has deterred private investors, leaving the government no option but to maintain large stakes in the industry. Ultimately the public liability insurance is paid with tax payers money claims Tom Tibbets of the Green Party.
Chris Huhne the shadow environment secretary for the Liberal Democrats said: “Up until Chernobyl many companies built nuclear power in order to make a profit, since then not a single nuclear power station has been built without massive government subsidy, paid directly by the tax payer or indirectly by rigging the market to get an extra return through hard prices.”
Defending the nuclear industry, Martin Pearce of British Energy said: “The cost of nuclear power is considerable but what you’ve got to remember is nuclear power generates large amounts of electricity, anywhere between one and two million pounds a day, so it will pay itself back in significant quantities.”