Areva's uranium mining grab in Namibia could devastate the Kalahari

The hidden cost of Britain's new generation of nuclear power could be the destruction of the Kalahari desert in Namibia and millions of tonnes of extra greenhouse gas emissions a year, The Observer reports. French nuclear giant, Areva, and Rio Tinto are leading the charge to ravage the precious desert ecosystem with new uranium mines in Namibia. The Observer quoted Bertchen Kors, director of the Namibian environment group, Earthlife, who said of the proposed mines: "Large areas of the desert will be inevitably devastated. They will do immense damage. We fear that there will be major contamination of the ground water supplies." A similar situation already exists in Niger, north west Africa, where Areva has mined uranium for 40 years, leaving a legacy of radioactive contamination, water depletion and disease. Areva also won the contract to open Africa's biggest uranium mine - at Imouraren in Niger.

Jeremy Leggett reveals the fallacies behind the UK plan for new French reactors

Responding to the U.K. government's announcement that it will press ahead with potentially 15 new nuclear reactors at 10 sites - many if not all of which would be the French EPR - , Jeremy Leggett lists 12 compelling reasons why this is a  rash and reckless plan. (Social entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett is founder and Chairman of Solarcentury, the UK's largest solar solutions company, and SolarAid, a charity set up with Solarcentury profits. He is author of The Carbon War and Half Gone.)