International

SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard spoke yesterday in the European Parliament on the subject of nuclear waste, arguing that while member states certainly had a responsibility in relation to the storage or processing of atomic waste, this meant principally that each country should "clean up its own nuclear rubbish.".

“The fundamental right of other countries to refuse to accept nuclear waste must in no instance be undermined by European regulation, " Ms Liotard said, adding that "as far as I'm concerned each country's own responsibility goes somewhat further than that. Whoever produces nuclear waste has a continuing responsibility to ensure that it is processed and stored in a correct fashion, even if the processing and storage physically takes place in another country."

The way in which member states currently send their waste to Russia, for instance, where it is then stored under dreadful conditions, is absolutely scandalous, making the local population and the environment the victims of European laxity: “If countries insist on choosing a dangerous and environmentally unfriendly source of energy such as nuclear," she said, "then they must also tidy up their own rubbish instead of dumping it on people in poor countries outside the EU.”

Anyone who really wants to tackle the problem of nuclear waste in Europe, must in the first place look to its source, the SP Euro-MP continued. "It is for this reason disturbing to see how nuclear energy, which has for some time been marginalised in the energy debate, has crept once again right back on to the European agenda. But nuclear power is no environmentally-friendly, safe, cheap and therefore acceptable alternative. The waste problem is a good example of why this is the case."