It’s official – investment in nuclear power blocks investment in renewable energy technology. The proof? It comes straight from the mouth of the nuclear industry itself.

French nuclear giants EDF have declared that a target of 35% of electricity generated by renewable sources in the UK threatens the push for nuclear energy. Instead, in a submission to the UK government’s renewable energy consultation, it advocates a ‘25% electricity target will provide the best platform for further decarbonisation of electricity generation in the period beyond 2020, through a combination of further renewables, new nuclear and coal and gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS)’.

It adds up to little more than a display of blackmail and greed by the nuclear industry, an attempt to bounce government ministers into accepting nuclear power. It’s a show of bad faith – the UK national electricity grid can accept well over 30% of electricity from renewables.

This attitude from the nuclear industry is nothing we didn’t already know – see the likes of Finland spending a massive 85% of its current energy investment budget on the joke that is the OL3 reactor - but at least we now have the admission from the industry itself.

In fact, there was another, quieter, admission last year when EDF chief executive Carlo de Riva, of EDF said: “If you provide incentives for renewables that will displace the incentives built into the carbon market. In effect, carbon gets cheaper. And if carbon gets cheaper, you depress the returns for all other technologies like nuclear power.”

‘The returns for all other technologies like nuclear power’? There’s another admission: it’s all about the money not about the future of us all. The game is up. Nuclear just can’t compete. The industry knows it. And now so do we.

(More at Greenpeace UK)