Legal threat to Nuclear Plans in the UK

Environmental group Greenpeace has issued a formal warning to the British government that any decision next month to approve a new generation of nuclear power stations will face a new legal challenge. An announcement to replace the country’s ageing nuclear plants would “not be lawful,” Greenpeace said in a letter to government lawyers.
The environmentalist is arguing that the government has seriously failed in its consultation process, leaving itself open to a second legal challenge.
The government lost a legal challenge earlier this year, when the High Court ruled that it had failed to consult the public sufficiently and ordered a second round of consultations that ended last month.
But Greenpeace led a coalition of environmentalist groups in October to withdraw from the new consultations, saying the process was biased in favour of nuclear power.
The Liberal Democrats also described the consultations as a “total sham.”
The renewed warning comes after new construction sites have been identified and a number of energy companies have signalled their enthusiasm for multi-billion-pound projects.
The government has been hoping to publish a white paper to legislate for nuclear power just before parliament starts its Christmas recess on December 17 but this has already been put back until January.
The plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations come as Britain is facing an energy gap due to oil reserves drying up in the North Sea and as the country becoming for dependent on imports.
The government faces an extensive lobby opposed to nuclear plants, based upon fears about their safety, the astronomical costs and problems associated with dealing with nuclear waste.