Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans called on people in Wales to back the development of a nuclear free Wales at a speech in Wrexham last night.

The all-Wales MEP was speaking at a meeting organised by the Wrexham Peace and Justice Forum at the North East Wales Institute in Wrexham. A long standing anti-nuclear campaigner, Mrs Evans visited Chernobyl earlier this year to mark the twentieth anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

She highlighted the link between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons and criticised the UK Government's plans to rearm.

Jill Evans told the meeting:

"If for no other reason, Chernobyl is a chilling reminder as to why we have to have a nuclear free Wales.

"Nuclear power belongs to the past. It is an experiment that failed and it can have no place in our future. It’s not sustainable, it’s not cheap and it’s not safe."

She also spoke of the link between civil and military nuclear programmes:

"But the other aspect to nuclear power that cannot be excluded from the debate is that nuclear power stations were built to provide plutonium for nuclear weapons. That was their purpose. The separation of civil and military uses is a myth.

"That is why there has been such a reaction to Iran developing nuclear power – because it gives them the capacity to build nuclear weapons. But at the same time as condemning Iran, the British government is planning new nuclear weapons of its own.

"Last year in New York there was a review conference on the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. This treaty is not just about stopping the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries. It places an explicit legal duty on nuclear states like Britain to disarm. Britain is signed up to the treaty but is not only NOT disarming but preparing to rearm."

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