No early decision on nuclear power

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 3

No early decision on nuclear power

(New Zealand Press Association) NELSON, September 5. The Minister of Electricity (Mr Bailey) will not he stampeded into making a decision on the nuclear power issue before 1977. But possible sites for a nuclear station were being! investigated, he told the Nelson Rotary Club last evening.

Electricity Departement staff was now overseas studying various aspects of the nuclear world, Mr Bailey said. He believed that no decision on nuclear power generation should be made until the value of New Zealand’s indigenous resources was fully realised.

. I The annual report from .'the Electricity Planning ’ i Committee had mentioned 5 1 that, if there was to be a ' chance of meeting a 1988 commissioning date for a nuclear station, a firm deci- ’ sion would have to be made ■iby 1977. '! Never before had the word. 3 ; environment played such an! 3 1 important part in national I . opinion as it did today, he said. i ‘EMOTIVE TALK’ I “There is a lot of emotive, talk about environmental! matters, and the way in! i which industry can affect i I the balance of nature or a I iparticular community. I “I believe that New Zea-’ (landers are, on the whole,; [adopting a responsible ap- | preach to the problems aris-l ling out of environmental! (issues that we face in the; electrical field” Mr Bailey .said. | “But there can be no doubt: (that we must strike a bal-l (ance between our need fori (electricity, and our need to' ■ (preserve the environment. i “I would point out that j while we must strike this ; I happy medium, and will (strive to do so, we certainly ; cannot afford to be staler I mated by unreal, and unrea--(sonable, demands made in ■ (the name of the environmen-i ■ I tai cause,” he said. ,( Since his announcement j | earlier this year that an area ion the southern side of the .(Manukau Harbour was to be ■ [ investigated as a possible {.site for an Auckland thermal ji station, he had been assailed II from every direction. He had been accused of

piupuMiig inc cnviioniiiciiiai equivalent of mass murder. ! “The thing which is amaz- ( ing is that already Auckland 1 , Thermal One has been the’ subject of an environmental! impact report,” Mr Bailey! said. “Local interested parties have been co-opted members: of the investigating com-1 mittee, and by the time the investigation has been completed, we will have spent about $lOO,OOO on environmental considerations,’* he said. This sort of planning was necessary to ensure that New Zealand had adequate supplies of electricity in the! future. “Yet our critics still say that our planning is inadequate, and our considerations too superficial,” Mr: Bailey said. HEARING SOUGHT Action for Environment! wants a public hearing to. precede any decision to in-j troduce nuclear power into Nev Zealand. The organisation’s chairman (Mr B. G. Henderson); said last evening that it was absurd for power-board members, and others to talk) as if the matter was already settled and to dismiss the problem of waste disposal. The immense problem of protecting nuclear stations from sabotage, earthquakes, and risks of war remained unresolved. “Whatever solution 'is ( found is bound to increase the capital cost, already at I least double that of conventional power stations,”' he said.