We don’t need nuclear, we need renewables, investment and consistency from government – GB News

You can choose smart or stupid ways to go green, and going nuclear is one of the stupider ways. There are much smarter ways to do it. If you do it in smarter ways, then you can argue about whether the investment is a subsidy or an investment. You can […]

We don’t need new nuclear to meet our net-zero by 2050 commitment – BBC Radio 4

Let’s be clear, the government hasn’t made a decision, they have made an announcement about a future decision. When that happened a long time ago with the original nuclear power station at Sizewell, it was eight years between the announcement and the decision, and then another eight years before it […]

REMARKS BY TOM BURKE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE WORLD NUCLEAR INDUSTRY REPORT 2019 – CHATHAM HOUSE

At a time when truth is under systematic political attack and digital technologies are collapsing the public attention span, the publication of long data series such as the Nuclear Industry Status Report becomes increasingly important. The real world is not a headline; it does not have a half-life of 24 […]

Do we need some base provision from nuclear power if we are to keep the lights on? – Sky News

We don’t need nuclear power to keep the lights on, which is fortunate as nuclear power stations are unplanned offline about 25% of the time. They are also intermittent, as indeed is all generation, so it is fortunate that we don’t actually need base load power. It’s about five years […]

Nuclear costs have always been unmeetable – ITV – Border TV

Nuclear costs have always been unmeetable, in comparison with renewables, in comparison with energy efficiency, and other ways to meet energy services, so the whole prospect for this program has never been sound.

Is nuclear power a ticking time bomb? – France24 Debate – 8 Mar 16

                  I think that you really want to consider much more than just the body count of deaths when you look to evaluate a complicated problem like this. This has been a social catastrophe, the people who used to live near Fukushima […]

Tom Burke talks to LBC about nuclear power, Hinkley Point and EDF – 07 Mar 16

            Clive Bull: A top EDF boss has resigned over the company’s plans to build Britain’s first new nuclear power plant for decades. There is an ongoing row over the 18 billion pound cost, part of which China is paying for. The government wants to […]

THE POWER OF DREAMS

    This piece first appeared in The Guardian on Thursday 10th July                 It has always been difficult to see what was attractive about the proposed deal with EDF to build a nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset. To bring this […]

Viewpoint: Can we risk another Fukushima?

  This article first appeared as a guest post for Greenpeace Energydesk By Tom Burke, Founding director of E3G 21ST NOV 2013 This article also appeared in The Ecologist   One of the more opportunistic responses to the meltdown at Fukushima was that of nuclear advocates claiming  that since there were […]