Azazia
11-02-2006, 16:43
From the Georgetown Gazette (online)
Christiansen Proposes Ban on Nuclear Ships
Wants to Keep Nuclear-Powered and –Armed Ships out of UK Waters
By Arabeth Benning
The Georgetown Gazette, Imperium
________________________________________
In an uncommon move early this morning, Green Party chairman Joshua Christiansen tabled a bill that if passed would ban nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships from entering UK ports as well as UK territorial waters. Excluded from the ban are the hundreds of ships of the Royal Navy that harness the power of the atom for both propulsion and combat.
Christiansen’s proposal highlights a growing divide between the Green Party and its traditional ally, the Democratic Socialist Party. While the DSP plans to introduce legislation encouraging businesses to build more nuclear power plants and to increase spending on nuclear-powered warships, the Green Party has begun to rally around the case of the HMS Breningrad.
Sunk during the Lindimese Civil War, the Breningrad was a modernized cruiser of late 1970’s design that suffered an unimaginable catastrophe – the breach of its reactor shielding. Now resting in waters shallower than 200m, the ship continues to release moderate amounts of toxic-levels of radiation into the coastal waters of Booni Island.
Opening the early morning debate on the bill in the House of Commons, Christiansen called for “Parliament to honour its obligations not as just elected officials of the people but also as the pronounced stewards of the environment.”
Conservative MP Howard Livingstone criticized the bill saying that it was “reactionary” and “inflammatory,” as the international trade reaching UK ports was still relatively small, though growing, and that no company and no government had yet to dispatch any nuclear-ships to the United Kingdom. DSP back-bencher Laura Cunningham added that the government of Lord Salisbury is attempting to draw foreign capital into the UK and to “negatively sanction nuclear power as a viable means of propulsion ultimately harms the economy of the UK.” She later went on to echo another line of attack by Mr. Livingstone, that many allies of the United Kingdom use nuclear reactors onboard their warships and that the ban would preclude allies from sending their crews on shore-leave in UK ports.
After acknowledging areas of compromise within the bill, the Green Party saw its first proposed legislation of the new year pass its first reading. However, it faces numerous difficulties in the upcoming second reading where the government is expected to send a solid defeat to a bill implying its handling of domestic energy concerns, the proposal to build more nuclear stations, is untenable and unworkable for the environment.
Christiansen Proposes Ban on Nuclear Ships
Wants to Keep Nuclear-Powered and –Armed Ships out of UK Waters
By Arabeth Benning
The Georgetown Gazette, Imperium
________________________________________
In an uncommon move early this morning, Green Party chairman Joshua Christiansen tabled a bill that if passed would ban nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships from entering UK ports as well as UK territorial waters. Excluded from the ban are the hundreds of ships of the Royal Navy that harness the power of the atom for both propulsion and combat.
Christiansen’s proposal highlights a growing divide between the Green Party and its traditional ally, the Democratic Socialist Party. While the DSP plans to introduce legislation encouraging businesses to build more nuclear power plants and to increase spending on nuclear-powered warships, the Green Party has begun to rally around the case of the HMS Breningrad.
Sunk during the Lindimese Civil War, the Breningrad was a modernized cruiser of late 1970’s design that suffered an unimaginable catastrophe – the breach of its reactor shielding. Now resting in waters shallower than 200m, the ship continues to release moderate amounts of toxic-levels of radiation into the coastal waters of Booni Island.
Opening the early morning debate on the bill in the House of Commons, Christiansen called for “Parliament to honour its obligations not as just elected officials of the people but also as the pronounced stewards of the environment.”
Conservative MP Howard Livingstone criticized the bill saying that it was “reactionary” and “inflammatory,” as the international trade reaching UK ports was still relatively small, though growing, and that no company and no government had yet to dispatch any nuclear-ships to the United Kingdom. DSP back-bencher Laura Cunningham added that the government of Lord Salisbury is attempting to draw foreign capital into the UK and to “negatively sanction nuclear power as a viable means of propulsion ultimately harms the economy of the UK.” She later went on to echo another line of attack by Mr. Livingstone, that many allies of the United Kingdom use nuclear reactors onboard their warships and that the ban would preclude allies from sending their crews on shore-leave in UK ports.
After acknowledging areas of compromise within the bill, the Green Party saw its first proposed legislation of the new year pass its first reading. However, it faces numerous difficulties in the upcoming second reading where the government is expected to send a solid defeat to a bill implying its handling of domestic energy concerns, the proposal to build more nuclear stations, is untenable and unworkable for the environment.