Radioactive Mann

In September 2016, just after its launch the Isle of Man Green Party called for pressure to be applied by the Isle of Man Government regarding the dilapidated stated of the Sellafield Nuclear facility following the highlighting of issues in a BBC Panorama programme. This was covered by Manx Radio: https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/green-party-calls-for-sellafield-pressure/

Isle of Man Green Party Leader Andrew Newton went on to comment in an Op-Ed in the Green Centre News, that investing in Nuclear Power not only risked environmental and health consequences but also higher energy costs if at the sacrifice of renewable energies.

Radioactive Mann (Page 2 of the Green Centre News, October 2016 Edition)

On Monday 5 September BBC Panorama delivered an insight into the failings at the Sellafield Nuclear facility, a mere 34 miles from the Isle of Man. Panorama’s stark findings drew the newly formed Isle of Man Green Party to call for the Isle of Man Government and Tynwald to put pressure on the UK Government to expedite the decommissioning of this cold war relic. The Panorama programme identified a glaring lack of oversight and administration of the facility, with the structural integrity of the façade a concern, and effluent discharges and storage of nuclear waste going unchecked.

In a lamentable turn of events, just one week after the Panorama programme was broadcast the United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May announced that stalled plans for the Nuclear Power Plant at Hinckley were to be proceeded with. The Economist captured the news of the Prime Minister’s decision with an opinion that the Hinkley Point power station would tie Britain into an energy system that is already out of date. In the last ten years the price of nuclear energy production has increased while the price of renewable energy has plummeted. The decision to progress the Hinkley Point plant proffers an ignorance of the future of decentralised energy production. With the increased availability of wind generation and solar cells, and the exponential improvements in the price and efficiency of battery storage, Hinkley Point will become a white elephant hanging around the neck of the UK tax payer, tied into fixed price subsidisation for the plant’s builders.

Renewable energy production such as wind and solar will not only provide for a sustainable and increasingly cheap form of energy but do not carry the risks of nuclear waste and climate change to our future generations; if anything, their increased use can provide for the mitigation and amelioration of such issues.

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