Report queries nuclear role in beating global warming

[jpak]

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-03-26T051911Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-292268-1.xml&archived=False

LONDON (Reuters) - The surge in political popularity of nuclear power as a quick-fix, zero-carbon solution to global warming is misguided and potentially highly dangerous, a group of academics and scientists said on Monday.

In its report "Secure energy, civil nuclear power, security and global warming", the Oxford Research Group said there was not enough uranium available and nuclear nations would therefore tend to opt for reprocessing spent fuel to obtain plutonium.

"A multiplication of reprocessing and the resulting international trade in weapons-useable materials would create more opportunities for states, criminal organisations or terrorists to acquire weapons-useable materials," it said.

Juergen Trittin, former German environment and nuclear safety minister, writing a foreword to the report, said the spread of nuclear power technology would automatically lead to weapons proliferation, threatening global security.

<more>