The Northern Ireland Government's independent advisory body on sustainable development
Northern Ireland nuclear option?
The ETI Committee was quick to counter apparently erroneous speculation in a daily newspaper that it was to establish an inquiry to examine the nuclear option as a means of meeting Northern Ireland’s future energy demands.
The ETI Committee said only that it is preparing some scoping work into energy issues.
In 2006, The SDC published its advice to Government on ‘The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy’. Following a comprehensive study, we concluded that there was no justification for bringing forward plans for a new nuclear power programme at that time and that any such proposal would be incompatible with the Government’s own Sustainable Development Strategy.
The Commission’s Chairman, Jonathan Porritt, said last week, “Simply stated, it is the view of the SDC that this Government has got it completely wrong on nuclear power.”
For all those interested in how the SDC came to its conclusions – and this might be useful background material for members of the ETI Committee – we have published a series of reports and straightforward advice on our website.
All reports, evidence papers and audio interviews can be downloaded from the SDC UK website.
