[Press Release: December 8th, 2002]

GREENS WELCOME BELGIUM'S DECISION TO PHASE OUT NUCLEAR POWER

The Wicklow Greens welcomed last week's decision of the Belgium Government's decision to phase out nuclear power Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, said "The Green Party welcomes this Belgium decision to phase out nuclear power. The Greens have always promoted safe clean energy through renewable technologies such as wind, wave and solar power. Nuclear power is uneconomical, outdated, dangerous and creates massive nuclear waste problems."

In an historic vote, the Belgian coalition of Liberals, Socialists and Greens voted for a ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants and limited the license of the existing seven nuclear reactors to a maximum of 40 years.

Councillor de Burca said that a majority of EU countries are either non-nuclear or have now agreed to phase out nuclear power. "Belgium is now one of five EU states planning to phase out nuclear energy. The others are Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. In all, eight EU states have nuclear plants. "

Belgium's lower house of parliament voted early today to phase out nuclear energy progressively between 2015 and 2025. The decision, which will have to be approved by the senate in the next few weeks, will lead to the closure of Belgium's seven nuclear power plants. The draft law aims to close power plants when they are 40 years old. This means that the first closure will occur from February 2015 and the last in 2025.

"The issue of nuclear power, and the threat to Ireland from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria is an issue of great concern to the people of Wicklow and indeed the rest of Ireland" says councillor de Burca. "For this reason,the Irish government must use its influence within the EU to ensure that the remaining EU member states and the new applicant states that have nuclear industries are encouraged to phase these industries out. Belgium has set an important example" she says.

Councillor de Burca has also pointed to the danger that the nuclear energy lobby will convince governments that nuclear energy should be considered as an 'alternative' source of energy to fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. " The burning of fossil fuels is contributing to the serious problem of global warming and climate change" she says. "The nuclear energy lobby is cynically trying to exploit this opportunity and to secure government support and funding for nuclear energy. This must not be allowed to happen".

For further information please contact Deirdre de Burca on 086 8061450 or email deburca@wicklowgreens.org.