6 December 2002

PRESS RELEASE

GREENS WELCOME BELGIUM’S DECISION TO PHASE OUT NUCLEAR POWER

The Green Party today welcomed the Belgium Government’s decision to phase out nuclear power.

Green Party Environment spokesperson, Ciaran Cuffe TD, said today,  “The Green Party welcomes this Belgium decision to phase out nuclear power.  The Greens have always promoted safe clean energy through renewable technologies such as wind, wave and solar power.  Nuclear power is uneconomical, outdated, dangerous and creates massive nuclear waste problems.” 

In an historic vote, the Belgian coalition of Liberals, Socialists and Greens voted for a ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants and limited the license of the existing seven nuclear reactors to a maximum of 40 years.

Mr. Cuffe said that a majority of EU countries are either non-nuclear or have now agreed to phase out nuclear power.  “Belgium is now one of five EU states planning to phase out nuclear energy. The others are Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.   In all, eight EU states have nuclear plants.  

Belgium's lower house of parliament voted early today to phase out nuclear energy progressively between 2015 and 2025.  The decision, which will have to be approved by the senate in the next few weeks, will lead to the closure of Belgium's seven nuclear power plants. The draft law aims to close power plants when they are 40 years old, implying the first closure from February 2015 and the last in 2025.

INFORMATION

CIARAN CUFFE TD                                                    087 265 2075

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