‘Endemic breaches in Sellafield safety’ – Ritchie | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

‘Endemic breaches in Sellafield safety’ – Ritchie

SDLP South Down MP Margaret Ritchie has criticized the British Government for their continued pursuit of nuclear energy despite critical safety and environmental concerns.

ritchieRitchie made her comments after it was revealed that there were numerous breaches of safety protocol at the now defunct Sellafield Nuclear facility.

She said, “The revelation that there were endemic breaches in safety protocol at Sellafield just adds to the litany of critical reasons why this government cannot consider nuclear as a viable plan for the future of energy in the UK.

“Inspectors have discovered that nuclear safety has been compromised after 14 breaches in safety limits and conditions. This adds to serious questions on the Government’s guarantee on the safety of nuclear power and their ability to competently work with such dangerous materials.

“International incidents like the disaster at Fukishima have demonstrated that nuclear energy is not safe,” she insisted. “The Energy and Climate Change Secretary has been accused of grotesque hypocrisy.

“While France is scaling down its nuclear operations, hiking carbon tax and investing in renewable energy, she continues to neuter the Green Deal by watering down low carbon policies and committing £10 billion to the construction of 3 new nuclear reactors at Moorside in Cumbria.

“The decommissioning of Sellafield has been an unmitigated disaster with billions sunk into the clean-up and radioactive waste dumped indiscriminately into the Irish Sea which could impact on the environment.

“The UK Government must reflect on the billions that has been wasted on nuclear energy, the terrible harm it has caused to people’s health and the irrevocable damage it has done to our environment.

Ritchie added, “The people of these islands cannot afford another Sellafield and I urge the Government to work towards a more economical and ecological alternative.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=51996

Posted by on Jul 29 2015. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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