Public and Commercial Services Union

January 2008, update: PCS has condemned the government's decision to give the go ahead for more nuclear power stations

We oppose government support for building another generation of nuclear power stations in the UK. Instead we believe there should be increased investment in clean, renewable technologies that would create more labour intensive jobs.

The Energy Challenge

In 2006 we supported Greenpeace in a judicial review of the government’s energy review, The Energy Challenge, on the grounds of failing to consult properly on plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations.

In a resounding victory Greenpeace won the case.

No future in nuclear

After losing the High Court challenge the government published a second consultation, The Future of Nuclear Power, in May 2007.

In September, Greenpeace along with Friends of the Earth, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), CND and other members of the Green Alliance pulled out of this consultation alleging that it was inaccurate, biased and misleading - an attempt "to spin us into accepting new nuclear power plants."

Greenpeace takes up the challenge

Greenpeace believes the consultation was fixed by the market research company carrying it out and have lodged an offical complaint with the Market Standards Research Board. 

Greenpeace claim that the company has broken its industry's own code of conduct by designing questions and materials that are deliberately misleading and factually inaccurate.

PCS says no to nuclear

PCS is supporting Greenpeace in taking this action.

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PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh said:

"The only conclusion we can draw is that the government‘s only concern is pandering to the multi-million pound nuclear lobby and ensuring they meet the timescales of the private companies that stand to benefit from contracts to build new nuclear power stations.”

People who attended a series of consultation events early in September have complained about their biased nature.

Government bias in favour of nuclear

One said she left the event furious about "the government's blatant marketing of nuclear power".

For example, Greenpeace have said the fact that a new generation of nuclear reactors could cut our carbon emissions by only 4 per cent was buried at the back of a huge pile of information that participants had to digest on the day.

On 19 September Channel 4 News ran a feature in which it reported that twenty senior academics will be writing to the government because they believe the process was "deliberately skewed" and that participants were "misled".

Investigating the need for nuclear

An investigation could derail the government's consultation - they are legally obliged to carry this out before building a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Meanwhile Greenpeace lawyers are looking into the possibility of another legal challenge.

There's more information about the nuclear consultation on the Greenpeace website.