Pro-Nuclear Rhetoric Meltdown

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As predicted, the British government has launched a post-election push for more nuclear power stations. The Director-General of Energy Policy advised incoming ministers to raise the issue now, as "it is generally easier to push ahead on controversial issues early in a new parliament." The Nuclear Industry Association is lobbying for ten new reactors, "to combat climate change." The Independent reports that one-third of the members of the British Committee on Radioactive Waste Management "have serious conflicts of interest." Four of 12 members are paid consultants to firms employed by the committee. Yet, "Ministers recognise that to gain public support for a pro-nuclear policy, they first have to resolve the problem of what to do with existing nuclear waste." The New York Times reports that nuclear energy will not reduce oil imports, as President Bush has claimed, because less than three percent of oil consumed in the United States goes towards electricity production.