1,000 Nuclear Plants Needed to Break Oil Addiction

Out of the frying pan into the fire. In a bid to end the global “addiction to oil”, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has signalled he wants the UK to play a major role in the race to build an extra 1,000 nuclear power stations across the world.

Brown, who is flying to Saudia Arabia for next week’s emergency oil summit, said in spite of the risks of terrorism, Africa could build nuclear power plants to meet growing demands for energy.

Despite Brown’s enthusiasm for nuclear (don’t forget his brother Andrew is a nuclear spin doctor for EDF) the UK has not found any solution to Britain’s waste problem. So the government has just outlined plans to offer communities money (bribe would be another word for it) to provide burial sites for nuclear waste. Areas of the UK which offered sites would become involved in a “multibillion-pound” project which would bring benefits such as hundreds of new, skilled jobs.

Brown and other world leaders are likely to get a short sharp shift from Opec at the Summit. Opec’s president insisted yesterday that the market was in surplus by as much as 500,000 barrels per day. Opec fears an imminent oil glut and is unlikely to pump more oil.

Someone should tell Brown that nuclear won’t solve the energy crisis nor climate change. Maybe he should stop listening to his brother.