Minister Sammy Wilson has confirmed Northern Ireland will stay Nuclear free and renewable focused.

 Eddie McGrady MP said;

“There had been much speculation that Northern Ireland Executive and certain Departments would  become nuclear friendly. The current Environment Minister Sammy Wilson stated clearly last year that he was a supporter of Nuclear power when he welcomed the announcement by the British Government of their plans for a new wave of nuclear power stations to be constructed by 2020. Mr Wilson said the policy was the [1]“correct one”.

 “I am therefore pleased to have received an assurance from the Minister for the Environment stating clearly that Northern Ireland will not be a location for nuclear waste disposal, under the scheme offered by the British Government to our local councils last year, whereby the local community in exchange for offering up nuclear waste storage sites could avail of Government support for infrastructure projects.

Further to this the Minister confirmed that any assessment of future nuclear sites will be restricted to Great Britain and that Northern Ireland will continue to focus on developing local sources of renewable energy for power generation.

 I welcome this confirmation and assurances by the Minister for the Environment and I will be making further representations regarding the need for investment in the renewables sector, especially at this time of economic down turn when we could be harnessing our island status to create jobs in the renewable energy production and construction sectors.

Ends.