By IRNA
London : The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) is leading a campaign to prevent Scotland being included in the British government’s controversial plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations.
“The case for new nuclear power stations has not been made,” the SNP’s environment spokesman Mike Weir said in an Early Day Motion to parliament.
The resolution, which has so far being supported by three other SNP frontbench spokesman and a Labour and Liberal Democrat MP, comes as the UK government is expected to announce plans to replace the country’s aging nuclear plants on Thursday.
It reminded the British government of the “risks and costs of nuclear power, in terms of waste disposal, decommissioning, security and health concerns.”
London ministers were also called up to respects the majority view of members of the Scottish Parliament who oppose new nuclear power stations in Scotland, which already has four.
The publication of an Energy Trends report, by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, also revealed that nuclear production in Scotland fell by a quarter in 2006, while electricity generation as a whole including renewables increased.
Weir said that this underlines that nuclear is unreliable as well as unnecessary and “recognizes that Scotland has the natural resources to generate clean, green power.”
Since winning power for the first time in Scotland, the SNP has made efforts to harness the mountainous country’s renewable potential to meet future energy demands while tackling climate change.
The British government is also facing opposition from the devolved Scottish government to its plans to replace the Britain’s Trident nuclear missiles, which are based in Scotland.