I agree with your blog, although I think that it's a shame you didn't talk more about global

warming. The nuclear industry have done a great P.R job of greenwashing the industry. However what I find difficult to understand is why people get caught in debating whether or not Nuclear is Carbon neutral or not, (which is it's not!), and can contribute to our CO2 targets. The fact of the matter as I see it is that ionising radiation is a form of pollution that poses a catastrophic threat to human and ecosystem health, particularly when you consider the timescales it has to be managed and monitored over, (will our society remain stable both politically and financially over such a period of time?). It is only very recently that we've begun to see Carbon as a form of pollution, and to realise the implications of emitting such large quantities of it via our activities. Runaway climate change or mutated genes, cancer and vast tracts of uninhabitable land whether through climate change or radiation, are both equally undesireable legacies for humanity aren't they? Surely trying to use one form of pollution to 'save' us from another is faulty thinking? Not to mention the huge sums of investment and innovation into real solutions that are sucked up by shoring up the nuclear industry. I find it absolutely reprehensible that the nuclear industry are being allowed to bypass the planning system on the grounds that they are going to make a meaningful contribution to tackling climate change, when this case is far from made, the necessary carbon reductions could easily be achieved by renewables. The Major consents for nuclear new build are not in place the government know their appraisal of sustainability isn't watertight and yet EdF are going to apply any minute for consent to begin preliminary works in Somerset at Hinkley Point which will decimate some important RAMSAR designated coastline, work that would have been unlikely to go ahead had not the (unsubstatntiated) assertion that nuclear energy will help us to achieve our carbon reduction targets, been foisted upon us. The general public are only just getting to grips with the concept of climate change and one of the green house gases(never mind the other seven!) The changes to the planning system for nuclear new build via the IPC (or whatever its replacement will be called!) will, via the national policy statement on energy,effectively squash any dissent around the discourse on nuclear waste or health effects of radiation illegitamsing what have always up until now, been considered to be the legitimate concerns regarding nuclear energy generation. You also haven't mentioned that all of the 3rd generation nuclear builds planned are even dirtier and more dangerous than the present reactors that are intermittentely operational. And did I mention uranium mining yet? It's about time that we woke up to ourselves and pursed the real solutions to the impacts of our lifestyles and activities, on ourselves, other species and our environment, our world.