Going nuclear is not the answer to clean energy, Greenpeace chief says

The city has been warned not to opt for more nuclear power to meet its climate change challenges, but instead should expand investment in renewable energy.

The warning comes amid emerging debate over whether the city should tackle its air pollution and global warming with more nuclear power imported from Guangdong where new reactors are being planned.

Environmental officials said on Monday that a study was under way on whether Hong Kong could take part in nuclear power development across the border. Half of the city's power comes from burning coal, which generates more carbon emissions than gas-fuelled electricity.

But Dr Kumi Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace International, yesterday said it was unwise to spend a huge amount of money on a technology which not only delivered little but was inherently unsafe.

'Nuclear is a false hope. It is too expensive, too dangerous, too little and too late,' said Naidoo, who arrived in the city on the last leg of his first China visit after he took up his post in November last year. The green group, established after a successful mission to stop nuclear testing in Alaska in 1971, has been firmly against nuclear power which is increasingly seen as a solution to climate change challenges such as the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Naidoo said Hong Kong could not afford a single nuclear accident because it was a highly concentrated city, citing the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986.