New Morecambe and Lunesdale MP David Morris was quick to reaffirm his support for the nuclear power industry in his maiden speech to the House of Commons last week.
Commenting on plans for a low-carbon energy policy in the Queen’s Speech he noted the decommissioning of Heysham 1 and expressed his hope that a new power station would be built in its place.
“The power stations are the major employer in the Heysham area of my constituency, which accounts for 20% of the constituency’s electorate,” the new Conservative MP told the House. “I am pro-nuclear power, as I said I would be from day one on the doorsteps.
“I will always fight the corner of the nuclear power industry, because I believe it is the future. The House should recognise that, because if we do not, in 10 years’ time the lights will go out.”
In a wide-ranging speech complimenting former MP Geraldine Smith and noting the Morecambe area’s historical connections with the abolition of slavery, he also called for trains to again stop at Carnforth ralway station.
“Carnforth station is the centre of the railway universe in this country,” he argued. “Everything goes through Carnforth, but it does not stop there. One of my campaigns as a candidate was to say that I would like the Virgin trains to stop there.
“It is a form of madness that the train stops there for 20 minutes in the morning, afternoon and evening but cannot take on passengers. We are trying to be more efficient in our transport policies in this country – we are trying to get more people on to trains and public transport of all kinds, yet that happens at Carnforth.”
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David Morris also added, in his maiden speech, "The decommissioning of Heysham 1 has been ordered, and a new power station will, I hope, be built in its place."
He hasn't grasped the long term consequences of nuclear reactors. Nobody will be building anything on the Heysham 1 site for a very, very, very, very, very long time.
The new reactor is planned to take up a large adjacent area, twice the size of that occupied by the first 2 reactors and currently a golf course and a neighbouring nature reserve (RIP).
Presumably this will also accomodate the essential very long-term underground refrigerated-storage nuclear waste dump. Spent fuel waste remains hazardous to humans and other creatures for hundreds of thousands of years. These wastes must be shielded for centuries and isolated from the living environment for millennia. Guarding and maintaining that will certainly keep generations employed. A hundred thousand years from now, if people still understand how they came to be guearding this toxic curse, they will curse our memory for this crime planned here.
Beautiful Sunderland Point, of which he sings the praises, will be dwarfed by this toxic monstrosity on its doorstep which would, along with the first two, dominate the coastline from every viewpoint from here to Barrow.
He seems to think a few (relatively temporary) wind farms on land that can soon be reclaimed constitute a bigger environmental threat.
This is not the spirit that drove our parents to fight and make sacrifices for a better world for their children.
Morris expresses the views of the nuclear industry, whose employment argument is deceptive. Renewable energy technology, as well as being safer, offers the promise of many, many more jobs – and jobs that local people can actually aspire to, not just people shipped in by EDF to live in their little enclaves while the area falls apart around them. As happened last time.
Find out about the Heysham Anti-Nuclear Alliance at:
http://www.virtual-lancaster.net/hana.