Renewable energy is already cheaper than nuclear – BBC News

We don’t know that this design [for nuclear reactors from Rolls Royce], that will take three years to produce, will work. We don’t know if it will be approved by the nuclear regulators. We don’t know what the electricity from it will cost, and whether that can compete with the […]

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 […]

Chinese firm with military ties invited to bid for role in UK’s nuclear future

By Adam Vaughan This piece was published by The Guardian     China National Nuclear Corporation on government list of preferred bidders for development funding for next-generation modular reactors   Tom Burke, chairman of the environment thinktank E3G and a former British government adviser, said there were legitimate concerns over the company. […]

Hinkley Point – BBC Radio 4 – Today Program

      There is no doubt that we need electricity, we just don’t need the electricity from Hinkley at enormous cost. It’s very unreliable, we are not sure that this type of reactor will actually work. There are much better ways of achieving the security of supply we need […]

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 […]

Letters to PM warned of the risks of going ahead with Hinkley Point

                        In March 2012, on the anniversary of Fukushima, I drafted a letter to the Prime Minister that was signed by myself and three other former Directors of Friends of the Earth. One year later we wrote a second letter […]

Is there really a need for Hinkley Point to be built? – World at One – Radio 4 – 16 Feb 16

    BBC: So Is there a really need for Hinkley Point to be built? Tom Burke: There isn’t actually, there’s lots and lots more things that we can do. There is no need to replace nuclear with nuclear, or indeed with gas. We’ve got so many more options, that […]

Nuclear Cost – Letter to The Times, October 19 2015

                  The Times, letters, October 19 2015 To slash and burn renewable investment for the sake of costly support for new nuclear plants is unwise Sir, George Osborne assumes that energy demand will increase (“Nuclear deal with China is threat to UK […]

WHOM THE GODS DESTROY

      Despite frequent headlines suggesting otherwise, EDF has not yet agreed to buy two nuclear reactors from its sister French state-owned company Areva. The British Government has yet to sign a contract to purchase the electricity the reactors will produce. Without that contract EDF will not make the […]

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 […]