How much can the Lib-Dems take? Can the anti-nuclear Lib-Dem MPs continue to back a doomed policy? They were clear in their denunciations before the General Election.
Simon Hughes never changed his mind. Now Nick Clegg appears to have cracked. The Deputy Prime Minister cast doubt on the future for nuclear power by predicting that a review into existing plants would recommend higher and more costly safety standards.
The coalition agreement says no nukes if subsidies are involved. If the review examines the threat from terrorist attack and loss of electricity that caused the Fukushima meltdown, extra costs will pile up.
Nick Clegg is right that energy firms would struggle to raise investment from the private sector as a result of the Fukushima. A hammering in May's election for the LibDems may set them wondering if they have paid too high a price for their chance of serving in Government.
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary said his one issue “is what the economics of nuclear power post-Fukushima will be”. I continue to press the Government to include cost, timetable and danger of terrorist attack in the review. If they are, nuclei's goose is cooked.
Meltdown
The media have again played down the deepening disaster of Fukushima. We have had 20 days of half-truths and honeyed reassurances. The truth has been a disaster falling out of control.
Where now is the ubiquitous Malcolm Grimson who played down the dangers on all TV channels in the first days of the calamity. His line was that it was reassuring that only one reactor had problems after the earthquake proving the safety of nuclear power. He was presented as an impartial expert. No channel made clear that he worked for years as the Information Officer of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. His independence was never challenged.
The government today admitted that the battle to save the stricken reactors is lost. A U.S. engineer said the radioactive core may have melted through the bottom of the containment vessel. We know that the leak of radiation is continuous.
Robert Peter Gale, a US medical researcher who was brought in by Soviet authorities after the Chernobyl disaster, said recent higher readings of radioactive iodine-131 and caesium-137 should be of greater concern than the plutonium found.
There is a further worry for the Japanese. Analysts said a prolonged crisis at the Fukushima plant could place intolerable pressure on the economy. "The worst-case scenario is that this drags on not one month or two months or six months, but for two years, or indefinitely," said Jesper Koll of JPMorgan Securities in Tokyo. "Japan will be bypassed. That is the real nightmare scenario."
We have been told we need nuclear so that the lights do not go out.
Tell them that in Tokyo.
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