Stop Nuclear Power Network

Visit our new website: stopnuclearpoweruk.net

2011-10-06T07:32:00.001+02:00

The new website of the Stop Nuclear Power Network is now online.
It provides resources and info for anti-nuclear power activists, as well as more general info about nuclear power.

Check it out!

Hinkley Point nuclear power station to be targeted in mass blockade - 3rd Oct

2011-09-29T20:47:00.006+02:00

Stop New Nuclear website

Nuclear power station to become target for mass blockade

Stop New Nuclear Press Release - Wednesday, 28 September 2011

People from all over the UK are set to descend on Hinkley Point nuclear power station to protest again EDF Energy’s plans to build two new mega-reactors next to the existing site.

More than 100 people have already pledged to join a symbolic mass blockade at the entrance to Hinkley Point in Somerset [south-west England] next Monday, October 3rd. On Saturday 1st October, anti-nuclear protesters will also join local residents in a march and rally close to EDF Energy’s regional HQ in nearby Bridgwater.

The new reactors at Hinkley will be the first of eight new nuclear power stations to be built in the UK. Spokesperson, Andreas Speck, said: ‘This blockade is designed to warn the government and EDF that those who understand the real dangers of nuclear power are not prepared to stand by and allow these untried, untested, reactors to be built.’

‘The blockade demonstrates that people are prepared to use civil disobedience to stop the bulldozers from coming in and paving the way for a potentially lethal technology that has no place in the 21st century,’ he added.

Local resident, Nikki Clark said she fears for her children’s future. ‘There is already a lot of concern in the area about the radiation being discharged into the sea and air from the current nuclear power station at Hinkley Point.’

She continued: ‘We know from Chernobyl that children are particularly vulnerable to radiation in both large and small doses. Now the disaster at Fukushima has shown that even in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, the rights of children to be protected from radiation have been ignored. We don’t trust nuclear power and a lot of local people are saying enough is enough.’

In a message of support to the campaigners, leading environmentalist, Jonathon Porritt, said, ‘The position of the UK government is extraordinary, given how the rest of the world has reacted to the Fukushima disaster. Nuclear has no part to play in the UK's energy mix.’

Porritt continued, ‘We can achieve everything we need in terms of secure, low-carbon energy primarily from energy efficiency, renewables and modern technologies like Combined Heat and Power. So we don't need it and I believe that we can still persuade UK citizens that it's the wrong thing for us to be doing.’

ENDS

Notes to the editor:

For further information about the blockade and march, please contact Camilla Berens on 07811- 451417 or Crispin Aubrey from Stop Hinkley on 01278 732921.

Journalists are invited to meet key activists at the weekend protest camp from 2-3pm on Sunday 2nd October.

The blockade will begin outside the main entrance of Hinkley Point at 7am on Monday 3rd October and will continue all day.

The rally in Bridgwater is on Saturday 1st October and will run from 1-4pm.

Stop New Nuclear is a campaign to stop new nuclear power stations and is an alliance of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND Cymru, Stop Nuclear Power Network UK, Kick Nuclear, Stop Hinkley, Sizewell Blockaders, Shutdown Sizewell, South West Against Nuclear, and Trident Ploughshares.

Nuclear New Build and Hinkley – Important update from South-West Against Nuclear (SWAN) and Stop Nuclear Power Network (SNPN)

2011-08-21T17:56:00.004+02:00

Things are hotting up with the government and nuclear industry’s plans for nu-killer new build in Britain. If we want to put the brakes on their insane plans to build a fleet of new potential Fukushimas at up to eight sites around England and Wales, we need to get active TODAY!

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BETTER ACTIVE TODAY THAN RADIOACTIVE TOMORROW!

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Here are a few ideas for getting involved. We’re sure you’ll have more of your own: feel free to share and discuss!

Get informed

You’ll find a brief summary of where things are at with nuclear new build in Britain after the action suggestions below.

For more regular updates, you can subscribe to the SNPN and SWAN mailing lists (if you’re not already on them).

For SNPN, contact: network[at]stopnuclearpoweruk.net
For SWAN, contact: swanactive[at]gmail.com

Also, No2NuclearPower produces comprehensive daily and monthly e-bulletins. You can subscribe here:
www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/maillist/ind...

Blockade Hinkley

A mass blockade of Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset – where Britain’s first new nuclear reactor is planned to be built – is to take place on Monday 3rd October. It has been called by the Stop New Nuclear alliance, which includes SWAN, SNPN, Kick Nuclear, Sizewell Blockaders, Stop Hinkley, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Trident Ploughshares and Shutdown Sizewell, and is supported by, amongst others, Rising Tide UK and the Public and Commercial Services Union.

For more details, see: stopnewnuclear.org.uk

You can pledge to take part in the action, either as an ‘arrestable’ blockader or ‘non-arrestable’ supporter: stopnewnuclear.org.uk/pledges

Everyone’s contribution, solidarity and support is valuable, whether you choose to blockade or not :o)

Mobilise locally

You can order flyers for mobilising and raising awareness in your area:
stopnewnuclear.org.uk/fliers

Get trained up for action

You can take part in one of the non-violent direct action training sessions being put on to help folks (blockaders and supporters alike) prepare themselves for this and/or future actions. At the moment, trainings are planned in Bristol, London, Glastonbury, Compton Dundon, Bridgwater and Swansea – check out stopnewnuclear.org.uk/training for further details and updates.

There is also an outdoor skill-share gathering taking place in South Lanarkshire, Scotland over the August bank holiday weekend:
outdoorskillshare.noflag.org.uk

Petitions

- Help Stop Hinkley get its petition up to 10,000 signatures. Only 1,000 left to go! Please spread the word within your networks.
stophinkley.org/PETITION.htm

- Petition on 38 Degrees website: tinyurl.com/38degNuclear

- Petition on UK government website: epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1035

Boycott EDF

boycottedf.org.uk

EDF Energy is spearheading the push for nuclear new build in Britain. Spread the word about the campaign for customers of the French-owned energy giant to switch to a green / non-nuclear energy provider. You can now order campaign postcards to help get the word out:
boycottedf.org.uk/contact

Join SWAN

SWAN now organises weekly meetings in Bristol, every Wednesday from 7pm, at the Smiling Chair, 40 Stokes Croft
bristol.indymedia.org/article/705296

SWAN is not, however, an organising group for the whole of the south-west. It wants to mobilise with you, so if you have ideas, suggestions or feedback for the group, or if you want to be added to the mailing list, get in touch at: swanactive[at]gmail.com
Counter the greenwash

Environmentalist and nuclear convert Mark Lynas is to speak at the Watershed in Bristol on September 1st, 6-7pm (free entry). SWAN will be there to show that not all greenies think building new Fukushimas is going to help save the planet! Join them if you can.

Get active in your area

Why not start a group in your area and connect with others doing similar work? Let SWAN and SNPN know about your activities so we can help publicise them.

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UK nu-killer new build: where things are at

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

In July, the government was caught with its pants down conspiring with the nuclear industry to mislead the public by down-playing the seriousness of the Fukushima disaster. Clearly they fear the repercussions the Japanese crisis could have on the UK’s nu-killer new build programme.
See: www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun...

Westminster gives the nod to a new fleet of nu-killer white elephants

Last month, the UK parliament approved a series of National Policy Statements (NPSs) for new nuclear and other major energy infrastructure. Under new planning legislation (introduced under Labour), these allow for the construction of new nuclear power stations at eight named sites in England and Wales. Barring any legal challenges before the end of the month, the public will no longer have any say in whether or not the new reactors are actually needed.

Local council okays the trashing of the Somerset countryside

Just days after the NPSs were rubber-stamped by the formerly anti-nuclear Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, West Somerset Council (WSC) gave NNB GenCo, a subsidiary of EDF – the industry’s cheerleader-in-chief for nuclear new build in Britain – the green light to prepare the land for its proposed Hinkley C mega-reactor.

These ‘preliminary works’ are to involve massive ground-works on over 400 acres of greenfield land on the West Somerset coast. The beautiful site lies within an area of major ecological importance: it sits within the Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve, and borders the Severn Estuary RAMSAR site, Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and terrestrial and marine habitats of every kind of environmental designation. The fields and woodlands provide important habitats for pipistrelle bats, badgers, birds, and plenty of other precious flora and fauna. The site is also popular with walkers, lying along the South-West Coast Path. More soil and rocks are to be dug up than for the site of the London Olympics and the hole filled in with concrete in preparation for the as yet unconsented reactor. The land would become one of the biggest construction sites in Europe.

More details:

stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2011/08/e...
stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr110729.htm

SWAN mobilised fifteen people from Bristol, with many more coming from elsewhere (one from as far as Cornwall) to support Stop Hinkley at the planning committee meeting. Over 400 letters of objection were received (with only around a hundred in support), with opposition to EDF’s plans coming from right across the community, from both pro- & anti-nuclear camps. Despite this, the pro-nuclear councillors voted through EDF’s countryside-wrecking plans by a majority of 11-1, showing just how in the pocket of the energy giant the local politicans are.

EDF jumping the gun?

Even if EDF goes ahead with its ‘preliminary works’, there’s no guarantee any new reactor would actually be built. Hinkley C has been stopped before and, with any luck, it will be again:

- The French reactor design chosen by EDF, the Areva EPR, has yet to be approved by UK regulators, with serious safety issues remaining. The nuclear regulators in the UK, Finland and France have all expressed concerns.

- EDF has yet to submit an application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) for the construction of Hinkley C. The company’s Somerset boss, David Eccles, admitted at a recent community forum meeting he is not at all confident the IPC will grant planning consent for the new reactor.

- Hinkley C could always get shelved for economic reasons. The coalition government is trying to push through energy market reforms that would provide hidden subsidies to the nuclear industry. Without these and other major hidden state subsidies, like accident liability coverage, nuclear new build would not be economically viable.

- Centrica (which trades as British Gas and Scottish Gas) – EDF’s (potential) junior partner for the Hinkley C project, has been warned away from investing in nuclear energy by City analysts, citing the company’s lack of ‘institutional knowledge’ in the field.
See: ‘City presses Centrica to cancel plans for building nuclear power plants’ www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/25...

Speech for Nagasaki Day Ceremony in London by Kick Nuclear's Dan Viesnik

2011-08-11T15:45:00.003+02:00

Nagasaki Day Ceremony, Battersea Park Peace Pagoda, London
– Tuesday 9^th August, 2011

Notes from speech by Dan Viesnik (Kick Nuclear and Trident Ploughshares)

- 66 years since manmade nuclear disasters at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

- 5 months since nuclear disaster at Fukushima, the worst since Chernobyl, 25 years ago

- Russian ambassador to Japan, in Hiroshima for a ceremony to remember the annihilation of the city in 1945, said that while Hiroshima was a disaster caused by humans, the Fukushima nuclear crisis is “a disaster by natural causes.” [1]

- The latter is simply not true: earthquake / tsunami not the cause of 3 reactors going into meltdown and a 4^th also in crisis: human origin, predictable and preventable: failure of cooling systems due to:

a) Loss of power b) Known design flaws c) Corner-cutting by TEPCO, the plant operator

Result: Since March 11 radiation has leaked into air, soil and sea and forced tens of thousands to leave their homes, leading to massive public anger. Radiation also continues to rise in food samples from beef to rice and seafood – all staples of Japan’s diet. [2]

- Cancer and birth defect risks likely to persist for generations due to radioactive contamination of the environment

- Japan only too familiar with long-term health risks from such contamination – experiences of Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors)

- Even if every possible safety measure were to be adopted, still would not eliminate risk of such a catastrophe happening again, whether in Japan, Britain or elsewhere.

- Nuclear power is inherently risky and unsafe. Other countries are finally starting to recognise this:

- Following massive popular protests in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed to shut down the last German reactor by 2022.

- Switzerland plans to follow suit and close down all five of its reactors by 2035.

- Italy, which doesn’t have any nuclear reactors in activity, turned out in surprising force in June for a referendum on nuclear power in which 95% of voters elected to outlaw nuclear power in the country.

- On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan became the first senior Japanese official to speak in favour of the country moving away from its reliance on nuclear power:

Addressing those gathered to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Kan said the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant… means Japan must turn to other energy sources.

"I will reduce Japan's reliance on nuclear power, aiming at creating a society that will not rely on atomic power generation," he added. [2]

- Mayor of Nagasaki, Tomisha Taue, wrote yesterday about doing away with myths regarding both nuclear power and nuclear weapons and facing reality. He said:

“The myth that nuclear plants are completely safe has crumbled because of the Fukushima plant disaster. However, Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been fighting with a different myth for over half a century: that the United States was justified in dropping the atomic bombs because they saved more lives than they took. Journalist Akira Naka shows that this myth is not based in fact in his book "Mokusatsu" (Ignore by silence), but it is nonetheless still vigorously propagated.” [3]

The sentiments of the Japanese Prime Minister and the Mayor of Nagasaki were echoed by the words of the Mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, who said on Saturday:

“The continuing radiation scare has made many people live in fear and undermined people's confidence in nuclear power,” adding that the government must review its energy policy. [2]

Meanwhile, Greenpeace worker Sakyo Noda, who spent Saturday’s Hiroshima anniversary carrying out sampling work at a kindergarten in Fukushima City, reported:

“It was such a hot day that for a second, I was reminded of the more usual Hiroshima Day. But I couldn't talk about that in front of the parents who were desperate to protect their own children in Fukushima in 2011.” [4]

The Japan Congress against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs recently organised a 1700-strong rally in Fukushima City – joined by some of the 85,000+ residents evacuated from areas around the crippled power plant. AFP reported:

It was the first time that the leading anti-nuclear organisation staged a rally in Fukushima to observe the anniversaries of the World War II atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Koichi Kawano, a Nagasaki atomic-bomb survivor who heads the organising group, told the rally:
“We have tended to focus on abolition of nuclear weapons while being weak in our campaign against nuclear power plants," before adding ‘Let there be no more nuclear plant accidents.” [5]

Writing about the Japanese nuclear industry a month after the accident at Fukushima, Robert Jay Lifton said:

…there was… a pattern of denial, cover-up and cozy bureaucratic collusion between industry and government, the last especially notorious in Japan but by no means limited to that country. Even then, pro-nuclear power forces could prevail only by managing to instill in the minds of Japanese people a dichotomy between the physics of nuclear power and that of nuclear weapons, an illusory distinction made not only in Japan but throughout the world. [6]

Trident

Meanwhile, the UK Government continues to show its contempt for parliamentary democracy on the nuclear weapons issue by proceeding with its Trident nuclear weapon system replacement programme, including:

- A multi-billion pound upgrade to the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment’s nuclear warhead facilities, without no parliamentary debate or vote

- Signing contracts worth billions of pounds with arms giants BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Babcock Marine to begin work on a new generation of Trident submarines years ahead of any parliamentary decision to proceed with Trident replacement, making a mockery of the coalition agreement on Trident.

Nuclear power

- Only last month, Parliament gave the green light to the nuclear industry to build new nuclear power stations at eight sites in England and Wales.

- The first of the new reactors is planned at Hinkley Point in Somerset

- The Stop New Nuclear alliance, which includes CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) and Trident Ploughshares, is mobilising for a blockade of Hinkley on 3^rdOctober, to stop the UK’s nuclear new build plans in its tracks.

- I urge you all to join the action, whether as a blockader or supporter

[More info: flyers + website http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk ]

- There’s also a campaign for electricity customers to boycott EDF Energy, the UK subsidiary of French energy giant EDF, which is spearheading nuclear new build in England.

- Finally, I have recently returned from an international walk along the Loire River in France against both nuclear power and nuclear weapons, organised by Footprints for Peace and the French anti-nuclear network Sortir du Nucleaire.

- This linked in with a two-month walk about to start in Western Australia, also organised by Footprints for Peace, with aboriginal communities affected by uranium mining, just as indigenous communities around the world, from North America to Niger are affected. [7]

- I’m happy to provide more information on any of these events and campaigns.

References

1. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110806p2g00m0dm018000c.html

2. http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2011/Kan_nonuke

3. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110808p2a00m0na004000c.html

4. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/remembering-hiroshima-in-fukushima/blog/36271/

5. http://www.france24.com/en/20110731-protesters-fukushima-city-call-end-nuclear-energy-demonstrations-earthquake-japan

6. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/opinion/16iht-edlifton16.html

7. http://footprintsforpeace.org

http://nuclearfreefuture.com

EDF gets green light to trash 400 acres of greenfield land in Somerset

2011-08-07T09:26:00.004+02:00

The greenfield land EDF plans to trash (D. Viesnik)

EDF Energy (the UK subsidiary of Electricite de France) has been granted permission by West Somerset District Council to trash over 400 of acres of beautiful greenfield coastal land at Hinkley Point, which sits within the Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve, overlooking the Severn Estuary RAMSAR site.

EDF plans to uproot all the trees and vegetation, which provide important habitats for birds, bats, mammals and other precious flora and fauna. It also plans to dig up more soil and rock than was done for the preparation of the London 2012 Olympic site. And all of this before EDF has even submitted an application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission for its planned new nu-killer power station. But worry ye not, because EDF says that if it doesn't get permission to build its new nu-killer reactor (or if it changes its mind for economic or other reasons), then it will restore the land to its former glory.

More photos of the beautiful land EDF wants to trash here: http://tinyurl.com/44e8vow

Nuclear power plant decision branded a travesty by campaigners

29/07/2011

Anti-nuclear campaigners have slammed a council’s decision to allow EDF Energy to begin clearing land earmarked for a nuclear reactor. And they pledged to step-up their campaign of direct action against the energy giant.

Activists from the Stop New Nuclear network branded West Somerset Council’s decision yesterday to allow EDF to start bulldozing 400 acres next to Somerset’s Hinkley Point nuclear power station as a ‘circus and a travesty’. The planning committee’s decision paves the way for preparatory work to begin on the Hinkley C mega-reactor.

Local Bridgwater resident and activist, Nikki Clark, said campaigners are now gearing up for a mass blockade of Hinkey Point on October 3rd. ‘‘The planning committee was more concerned about the road layout that the social and environmental impact of such a huge power plant. Our only hope now is to physically stop the trashing of much-loved woodlands and pastures with our bodies.’

She added: ‘The travesty of the event was emphasized by the fact that permission for a wind farm on the same site was refused two years ago because of concerns about its environmental impacts. These will be dwarfed by the devastation planned by EDF.’

Campaigners maintain that ‘new nuclear’ power is dangerous and expensive. ‘After the Fukushima accident in Japan, the government should be pausing to consider the lessons rather than ploughing mindlessly ahead,’ said Stop Hinkley spokesman Crispin Aubrey. ‘Other countries are showing that a non-nuclear renewable future is feasible – we should be following their lead.’

The German government recently announced a complete phase-out of nuclear power within a decade. Its report, Germany’s Energy Turnaround – a collective effort for the future also rules out a increase in the use of fossil fuels.

‘The secret ingredient is an upscaling in the use of combined heat and power – a proven technology that will support a national energy efficiency programme,’ says Camilla Berens from Kick Nuclear. ‘The burning question is, if the German government can do, why can’t ours? We want a future, not a disaster.’

Notes:

The Stop New Nuclear network objects to EDF's preparatory works because:

• There is no certainty that EDF will go ahead with building Hinkley C, partly for financial reasons. The company’s prototype power station at Flamanville in France is now four years behind schedule and its cost has almost doubled to £6 billion.

• If the French company does not gain approval for the power station from the Infrastructure Planning Commission, over 400 acres of beautiful countryside will have been needlessly trashed. EDF claims that it could be returned to its original state is a nonsense.

• The amount of time allegedly to be saved – about a year – is insignificant compared with the overall timescale of building nuclear plants of up to 10 years. This is simply an exercise in EDF “jumping the gun”.

• There is no energy gap which cannot be filled by other means, as nuclear supporters claim. Other non-nuclear power stations can be built faster and cheaper while we move towards a safer, cleaner future based on renewable sources.

• Any supposed economic benefits to the area from this work will be outweighed by the disruption it will cause. The Planning Officer's report accepts, for example, that the employment benefits are “likely to be relatively small… compared to the local impacts”.

Nikki Clark, Stop Hinkley: 07736-930069
Angie Zelter, Trident Ploughshares: 07835-354652
Camilla Berens, Kick Nuclear: 07980 509986

More information on the Stop New Nuclear mass blockade can be found at: http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk

ENDS

See also:

Stop Hinkley: West Somerset Councillors Could Live to Regret Groundworks Approval http://www.stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr110729.htm

Campaigners welcome MOX nuclear fuel plant closure, call for end to reprocessing

2011-08-04T21:22:00.008+02:00

Kick Nuclear - 4 August 2011

Kick Nuclear welcomes yesterday's announcement that the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication plant at Sellafield, Cumbria is to close, but demands an end to reprocessing and to highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel transports through London and across the country.

Spokesperson Nancy Birch said:

"The MOX plant has been a disaster from start to finish. One of the reactors at Fukushima that exploded and went into meltdown was loaded with plutonium-rich MOX fuel, probably supplied by the UK. This further underlines the need to terminate all reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and production of MOX in the UK and worldwide. Reprocessing is highly polluting, generates large quantities of cancer-causing liquid high level radioactive waste, carries weapons proliferation risks and is uneconomic. No new MOX plant should be built and no new or old reactors should be allowed to use MOX fuel. Furthermore, existing transports of spent nuclear fuel, including those that pass through London, must be stopped. These present unacceptable risks from accidents and terrorist attacks."

Kick Nuclear is a London-based group affiliated to the national Stop Nuclear Power Network
http://kicknuclear.org
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net
http://boycottedf.org.uk

See also:

A Pox on Mox - Closure of the Sellafield Mox Plant
http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/2152

MOX Maneuverings
http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/2157

A glowing report for Sizewell Camp

2011-05-30T14:50:00.002+02:00

by Daniel Viesnik

On Good Friday, I headed down to a sunny Sizewell Beach on the picturesque Suffolk coast. The nuclear power station, directly overlooking the beach, was, for the third successive year, the target for the annual spring weekend camp of the Stop Nuclear Power Network.

Full article: http://www.peacenewslog.info/2011/05/a-glowing-report-for-sizewell-camp

Nuclear white elephant blown up outside Parliament

2011-04-27T21:55:00.005+02:00

Friends of the Earth action earlier today:

No, not a terrorist incident this time, but inflation of another nuclear white elephant. Olkiluoto and Flamanville anyone?

Read more here: http://www.foe.co.uk/news/nuclear_elephant_30514.html

Images from Sizewell Camp / Chernobyl 25th anniversary

2011-04-27T11:40:00.005+02:00

More photos: http://tinyurl.com/62j3qc6 and http://tinyurl.com/3cx6f42

All images Copyright (c) 2011 Stop Nuclear Power Network. They may be reproduced free of charge if credited to Stop Nuclear Power Network. For high resolution versions, please e-mail vd2012-snpn [at] yahoo.co.uk

More photos: http://tinyurl.com/62j3qc6 and http://tinyurl.com/3cx6f42

London remembers Chernobyl 25 years on

2011-04-27T11:36:00.008+02:00

More images here: https://london.indymedia.org/articles/8864

26 April 2011 - CND and Medact staged a vigil and parliamentary meeting at Portcullis House in Westminster to mark the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, the world's worst ever civil nuclear disaster.

The accident at reactor 4 took place in Ukraine on 26th April 1986, with the fallout spreading across Europe and beyond. Commemorative events were being staged all around the UK and worldwide on Monday and Tuesday to mark the occasion.

The Chernobyl sarcophagus, built to contain the further escape of radioactive material from the crippled reactor, is reported to be breaking up, and the international community is being asked to contribute billions of pounds towards the constuction of a new containment structure. It is likely that similar structures will need to be built at all four of the affected reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, crippled by a failure of the reactor cooling systems in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Speakers at the vigil on Victoria Embankment, opposite Portcullis House, included Sophie Bolt from London Region CND, Marion Birch from Medact, Linda Walker from the Chernobyl Children's Project UK and Susie Greaves from Independent WHO. The latter is an international campaign for a World Health Organisation independent of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), part of whose remit is to promote nuclear power worldwide, and who report to the UN Security Council. The two organisations have an agreement since 1959 which effectively gags the WHO from conducting independent investigations and producing independent reports into the health effects of atomic radiation. A Japanese student also circulated a petition regarding the Fukushima disaster and nuclear power in Japan.

The parliamentary meeting which took place afterwards, chaired by Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP, was addressed by Labour MP and former Minister of State for the Environment, Michael Meacher, a long-term opponent of nuclear power, Professor Dillwyn Williams (University of Cambridge) and Dr Paul Dorfman (University of Warwick, Nuclear Consultation Group).

All images are Copyright (c) 2011 Stop Nuclear Power Network, but may be reproduced free of charge if credited. For high resolution versions, please e-mail.

More images here: https://london.indymedia.org/articles/8864

Links:

Boycott EDF
Stop Nuclear Power Network
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Medact
Chernobyl Children's Project UK
Independent WHO
Nuclear Consultation Group

Contact email: vd2012-imc [at] yahoo.co.uk

Windscale, Chernobyl, Fukushima - never again? 25 years on from Chernobyl

2011-04-26T13:04:00.004+02:00

Monday, 25 April, 2011 PRESS RELEASE

On 26th April 2011, 25 years on from Chernobyl, Radiation Free Lakeland
will lay three crosses outside Carlisle Cathedral.

Windscale-Never Again?   Chernobyl-Never Again?   Fukushima-Never Again?

A letter will be delivered to the pro-nuclear Bishop of Carlisle - Bishop
James Newcome asking that the Diocese reconsiders its support for new
build and geological disposal of high level nuclear wastes. 25 years on
from Chernobyl and "there are so many radiation related health crises
occurring in the region that for the first time in Belarussian history ,
the death rate is HIGHER, than the birth rate”.

Dear Bishop Newcome,

CHERNOBYL - 25 YEARS ON.

Congratulations on your appointment as Lead Bishop on health care issues.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Radiation
Free Lakeland and representatives from other concerned groups will be
laying three crosses outside Carlisle Cathedral. The crosses will read:

Windscale- Never Again?   Chernobyl- Never Again? Fukushima- Never Again?

The Diocese is informed by the Churches Together Environment Group which
is largely advised by Supporters of Nuclear Energy SONE. “Environment
Group” publications reflect this pronuclear bias.   We feel that the
Diocese could do much more to seriously take on board legitimate concerns
about nuclear power. For two hours on the morning of your enthronement in
2009 we spoke to 150 people who had come along specially to sign a letter
voicing concerns at the Diocese’s pro nuclear stance. The letter asked:
“Will the Diocese of Carlisle consider listening to independent expert advice
(not from pro nuclear government or industry) on radiation risks of new
build and geological disposal before making further pro-nuclear
statements?”

Well, the Diocese did agree to hosting a meeting on 6th Feb 2010. We were
surprised that you chose at the meeting to reaffirm your commitment to
new nuclear build. The hope was that people would have time to go away
and reflect on all the points raised during the presentations. Even local
Parish Newsletters present the Diocese’s pronuclear view as “the green
route to secure, safe and reliable power” - no dissenting voices get a
look in.

This July children from Belarus will be spending a month in the South
Lakes to give their damaged immune systems a respite. The damage from
Chernobyl will continue through the "children of irradiated parents for as
many as seven generations." So "the genetic consequences of the Chernobyl
catastrophe will impact hundreds of millions of people."
Alexey V. Yablokov (Center for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow,
Russia), Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko (Institute of
Radiation Safety, Minsk, Belarus). Consulting Editor Janette D.
Sherman-Nevinger (Environmental Institute, Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, Michigan).

“In Belarus cancer of the thyroid is so prevalent that the scar left
after a thyroid operation is now chillingly referred to as a Belarussian
Necklace, thus marking them forever as Chernobyl's victims.
Since the disaster there has also been an increase of 800% in the
incidence of cancers in children living near to the reactor plus there has
been a dramatic increase in the rate of babies born with substantial
physical disabilities. Babies born limbless, deformed and with severe
brain damage. There are so many other radiation related health crises
occurring in the region that for the first time in Belarussian history ,
the death rate is HIGHER, than the birth rate”.
The South Lakeland branch of Friends of Chernobyl’s Children

Given the ongoing Chernobyl catastrophe and since your enthronement, now
Fukushima, will the Diocese of Carlisle withdraw its support for new
build and geological disposal?

….. and join us in saying NEVER AGAIN!

yours sincerely,
Marianne Birkby
on behalf of Radiation Free Lakeland
Note:
Sent by email attachment is the document :
Why a deep nuclear waste repository should not be sited in Cumbria: a
geological review
by David Smythe Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, University of Glasgow
11 April 2011

Refs:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2010/10/bishop-of-carlisle-appointed-as-lead-bishop-on-healthcare-issues.aspx

http://www.sone.org.uk/content/view/394/30/

http://www.churchestogethercumbria.co.uk/UK%20Energy%20Policy%20and%20the%20Environment%20paper.pdf

http://www.churchestogethercumbria.co.uk/nuclear_energy_discussion.htm

Friends of Chernobyl’s Children
http://focc.org.uk/South_Lakes.html

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment
Written by Alexey V. Yablokov (Center for Russian Environmental Policy,
Moscow, Russia), Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko
(Institute of Radiation Safety, Minsk, Belarus). Consulting Editor Janette
D. Sherman-Nevinger (Environmental Institute, Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, Michigan). Volume 1181, December 2009
http://www.nyas.org/publications/annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1

Following delivery of the letter, Radiation Free Lakeland will be in
Carlisle town centre with a petition - No Nuke Dump!
http://web.mac.com/mariannebirkby1/iWeb/Radiation%20Free%20Lakeland/Radiation%20Free%20Lakeland%20.html

The No Nuke Dump petition can also be signed online - or more petition
forms can be found at:
http://101-uses-for-a-nuclear-power-station.blogspot.com/

Contact : Marianne Birkby - Radiation Free Lakeland
rafl [at] mariannebirkby.plus.com

UK anti-nuclear campaigners set for weekend of seaside action

2011-04-18T10:38:00.003+02:00

Campaigners from the national Stop Nuclear Power Network are planning a packed programme of activities at Sizewell over the Easter weekend (22-25 April). (1).

The annual beach camp beside the nuclear power station in Suffolk, England, now into its third year, will have added significance this year due to the unfolding disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, and because it marks 25 years since the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in the Ukraine. (2)

The weekend will include a national rally at the entrance to the power station (3) and a public meeting in nearby Leiston, both on Saturday, workshops, discussions and guided tours on the beach on Sunday, and Chernobyl commemorations on Monday.

Local campaigner and camp organiser Mell Harrison, from Beccles, said: “Around the world, people are questioning the safety of nuclear power in the wake of events in Japan. We may not have many major earthquakes in England, but the low-lying Suffolk coast is highly vulnerable to flooding, and rising sea levels and storm surges can be expected in years to come due to climate change. What right do we have to gamble with our children’s future? What we need are community-based energy solutions, not more nuclear dinosaurs.”

Notes:

1. The weekend’s events are being organised by the Stop Nuclear Power Network, a UK-based network of groups and individuals campaigning against nuclear power and supporting sustainable alternatives.
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

More details of the programme can be found at:
http://www.sizewellcamp.org.uk
E-mail: camp [at] sizewellcamp.org.uk

2. For details of Chernobyl 25th anniversary commemorations taking place in the UK and around the world this month, see:
http://www.chernobyl-day.org/?lang=en
http://www.chernobyl.org.uk/activities.php

3. Confirmed speakers for the rally include Kate Hudson, General Secretary of CND, Charles Barnett, Shutdown Sizewell, Ron Bailey, No Need for Nuclear and Mell Harrison, Stop Nuclear Power Network and Boycott EDF.

Sizewell Camp 2011

2011-04-15T21:47:00.008+02:00

Photos from the camp and demo:
http://tinyurl.com/62j3qc6

http://tinyurl.com/3cx6f42

Skill Share, Network, Protest and Remember

Power for the people, not profits for the few

Fri 22 – Mon 25 April

with

NATIONAL DEMO - SAT 23 APRIL

Which tent would you choose?

Spend Easter weekend camping on the beach at Sizewell, on the picturesque Suffolk coast, eastern England, to show your opposition to new nuclear power and highlight the need for sustainable energy solutions.

The weekend will also mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It includes a protest at the power station entrance, A public meeting, skill-sharing and info workshops, woodland and beach walks, vegan grub and networking. Now is the time to take action against new nuclear build. Come and join us to say:

Nuclear power? No thanks!
Come join us for a weekend of networking, protest, skill-sharing and remembrance.

Contact:
camp [at] sizewellcamp.org.uk
http://sizewellcamp.org.uk

The camp is organised by activists from the Stop Nuclear Power Network

The Camp
Good Friday, 22nd April (from 6pm) - Easter Monday, 25th April
Bring your own tent, bowl, spoon, mug, and anything else you might need.
Food provided by MouthMusic – suggested donation of £6 per day for 3 meals.- more if you can- less if you can't...

National demonstration
Saturday 23rd April, 12noon at the entrance to Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations. A demonstration and rally against nuclear power, and supporting sustainable alternatives.

12:00 Start Demo
12:30 Speakers Charles Barnett - Shutdown Sizewell, Ron Bailey – no need for nuclear
13:00 Theatre of war, music, radioactive man, tea and cakes - lunch , etc..
14:00 Speakers, Kate Hudson, Jeremy Corbyn and Mell Harrison (Stop Nuclear Power Network) and Camilla Berens (Boycott EDF) (double act)
14:30 Symbolic Blockade, Porta Party mk2 to dance too.

COACH FROM LONDON

Seats will be available on the day: just turn up BEFORE 8.30am outside the CND Office at 162 Holloway Road N7 (near Holloway tube, Piccadilly line) BEFORE 9am outside Redbridge Station (Central Line) on the 23rd, and pay £20 (waged) or £10 (unwaged) for a return ticket. (Cash or cheque made out to “LRCND”.)

If you are coming, please phone David Polden on 020-7607 2302 by Thursday at the latest to tell him that you intend to come and whether you are joining the coach at Holloway Road or Redbridge.

Public Meeting
Saturday 7.30pm, Leiston Community Centre, King Georges Avenue, Leiston IP16 4JX, Suffolk (next to the fire station). See map here.

Workshops and Walks

Easter Sunday, 24th April
A number of workshops on the beach, including basic nuclear physics, why some environmentalists support nuclear power, alternative energy supplies and walks along the beach and into the woods EdF intend to destroy

Chernobyl - 25 years on. Nikki S.W.A.N
quick consensus decision making - Mell and Andreas SNPN
Basic nuclear physics - Pete-Sizewell Blockaders
What does risk mean and whats a sievert and other dose questions - Pete
Beach art activities for kids – Lou – Ringsfield Eco centre
Banner making workshop ; Gill and Matt – unclear-power
Tour around the Sizewell nuclear power station... with a map!
And anything anyone else would like to add.

Cinema 'after dark'.... Films include "COUNTDOWN TO ZERO", "THE WAR GAME" and other films both long and short...

Easter Monday, 25th April, 12noon
Remembering the many thousands of victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 25 years ago, as well as the current and future victims of the unfolding catastrophe in Japan, and of all nuclear 'incidents'.

Pack up camp.

Getting there
Sizewell is on the Suffolk coast, about 8 miles from the A12 and 100 miles from central London. The nearest train station is Saxmundham, which is 7 miles from Sizewell.

The postcode for Sizewell is: IP16 4UE‎, if you want to look it up on the internet. View a map here.

About The Camp
We want as many people as possible to feel comfortable at the camp, so please no heavy drinking or loud music. The camp will not be run for you but by you, so please be prepared to help out with the running of the camp.

Please let us know (contact details below) if you are thinking of coming. For more info, or to book your place, please contact: camp [at] sizewellcamp.org.uk

National Demo - No to Nuclear Power! Power for the People, Not Profits for the Few! - Sat 23 April

2011-04-15T21:46:00.003+02:00

For a sustainable, safer energy future.

Saturday 23 April, 12noon-3pm
Sizewell nuclear power station, Suffolk

No more Fukushimas
No more Chernobyls

Concerned by what’s happening at Fukushima?
Think that nuclear power is not the answer to climate chaos?
Want to be part of a sustainable energy future?

Be part of the growing anti-nuclear power movement in the UK. Protest and mass mobilisation is working for the anti-nuclear movement in Germany: the government is planning to quit its nuclear addiction and swap over to sustainable energy.

Join us to say:

Nuclear power? Not if we can help it!

Saturday 23 April, 12noon-3pm

Sizewell Nuclear Power Station, Suffolk

Speakers include:
Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament;
Charles Barnett, Shutdown Sizewell;
Mell Harrison, Stop Nuclear Power Network.

The afternoon will also include tea and cake, street theatre, music and dancing.

Contact: demonstration [at] sizewellcamp.org.uk

Transport is being organised from London and probably elsewhere. Get in touch for details.

The protest is part of the action camp happening on Sizewell Beach from 22 to 25 April - http://sizewellcamp.org.uk

EDF protest in Bridgwater

2011-04-12T21:45:00.010+02:00

12 April 2011 - Campaigners from South West Against Nuclear were in Bridgwater town centre this lunchtime as part of a series of national events called for by the Stop Nuclear Power Network in response to the events unfolding in Japan. Sir Vile & his Personal Assistant Miss Information were recruiting unwitting victims on behalf of EDF for their great green rip off – new nuclear build. (1)

Says Ornella Saibene “We believe that EDF will make no permanent contribution to jobs in Somerset – increases in temporary employment over the construction phase will more than likely be offset by job detriment in the local business sector. Particularly hard hit will be the tourist industry as the A39, the gateway to the south west tourist destinations, will be affected by gridlock on roads caused by such a development, not to mention tourists being put off holidaying near nuclear power stations in the wake of the Japanese crisis.”

Dr Ian Fairlie says “The reality is any kind of economic activity creates jobs...the issues isn’t jobs it’s what kind of jobs ...you could say building concentration camps creates jobs” Dr Fairlie goes onto say “In Germany the renewable industry employs 340,000 workers, 10 times more than the UK nuclear industry.” (2)

Local resident Nikki Clark says “I’m absolutely disgusted that Sedgemoor District Council are still prattling on about jobs, yes Somerset needs jobs, we need sustainable jobs with a living wage not jobs where the prospects are cancer, ill health, being experimented on by the nuclear industry (3) and all the time living with the possibility of having to clean up nuclear accidents. What kind of a prospect is that?”

References

1 - http://38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1505815-new-nuclear-energy-the-great-green-rip-off?ref=title

2 - http://medwaygreenparty.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/interview-with-dr-ianfairlie-re-nuclear-power/

3 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-11768944

All images courtesy of South West Against Nuclear

Activists blockade EDF in London

2011-04-11T09:24:00.015+02:00

Credit: Mini_Mouse

ACTIVISTS BLOCKADE QUEEN’S BACK YARD TO BRAND ENERGY GIANT’S NUCLEAR POWER BID A ‘RIGHT ROYAL RIP-OFF’

Click here for video of the action

Credit: Mini_Mouse

Campaigners brought rush hour traffic to a standstill this morning to protest against EDF Energy’s plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK. All four lanes of the A302 outside EDF Energy’s headquarters in Grosvenor Place – which runs alongside the gardens of Buckingham Palace – were sealed off shortly after 8am using 14-foot tripods. The cleared zone was then declared a ‘nuclear disaster area’.

Credit: Mini_Mouse

Campaign group, Boycott EDF, says the energy giant is spearheading a ‘nuclear renaissance’ which could see the construction of at least ten new nuclear reactors – a move spokeswoman, Bella Benson, claims will spell disaster for the UK.

“EDF has spent a massive amount of money marketing itself as an environment-friendly company,” says Benson. “But the truth is that it’s planning to lumber us with an outdated form of energy that is incredibly dangerous, extremely expensive and completely unnecessary. As the company’s HQ Is opposite Buckingham Palace, it would be fitting to call their plan a right, royal rip-off.”

Benson apologised to motorists delayed by the protest but adds, “The inconvenience caused today pales into insignificance compared with the dangers that EDF Energy is planning to impose on the British public. The government is trying to slip the nuclear energy issue through the back door and this is the only way we can get our voice heard.”

Boycott EDF says a ‘nuclear renaissance’ will mean soaring electricity bills. Says Benson: “Nuclear power is so dangerous that millions has to be spent on safety measures. The government claims that the public won’t have to subsidise the costs of ‘new nuclear’ but you can be sure we will end up taking a hit – through hidden subsidies such as fixed-price contracts and a hike in our electricity bills (1).”

Recent research in Germany has found that young children are more than twice as likely to contract leukemia if they live near a nuclear power station (2). “The nuclear industry has been trying to down-play the effects of radiation after the tragedy at Fukushima,” Benson adds. “But decades of mismanagement by the nuclear sector has left us with a legacy of cancers and hundreds of tonnes of toxic radioactive waste that nobody know what to do with. Nuclear energy has no place in the 21st century.”

And the campaign insists that nuclear power is the worst possible option for combating climate change. Benson explains: ‘The new EPR reactor is untried and untested and will produce waste that is even more toxic. Moreover, documents leaked from EDF Energy show that there are serious design flaws.’

EDF has already caused great concern - even before construction of ‘new nuclear’ has started. An independent report published last year found that land designated for EDF’s two new mega-reactors at the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Somerset is heavily contaminated with enriched uranium. But EDF has dismissed the report. “With such a hazardous form of energy, best practice must be observed at every stage. We find EDF’s attitude shocking,” Benson concludes.

Cheaper, greener alternative strategies have been put forward by respected organisations including Greenpeace, the Sustainable Development Commission and the New Economics Foundation (3). Says Benson, “The billions earmarked for new nuclear power stations should be invested in further developing safe forms of energy such as renewables and the type of district heating plants (combined heat and power plants) that can be run on biogas. It’s a scandal that there hasn’t been an informed public debate about this issue.”

The campaign is urging customers of EDF Energy to say ‘no to new nuclear’ by switching to other energy providers. It is also asking the public to boycott events and attractions - such as the London Eye - sponsored by the company.

Boycott EDF Energy’s blockade continues.

Notes

1. The government’s recent decision to artificially increase the carbon floor price was ostensibly to encourage investment in the ‘nuclear renaissance’. It has been estimated that the increase will add at least 4% to electricity bills by 2016.

2. Evidence by Dr Ian Fairlie to the House of Commons:

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmenergy/memo/nps/uc8202.htm

3. The reports can be found at:
www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=344
www.greenpeace.org.uk/climate/solutions/combined-heat-and-power-chp
www.neweconomics.org/publications/mirage-and-oasis

For more information on the campaign go to: http://boycottedf.org.uk

All images (c) mini_mouse. More available at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mini_mouse/sets/72157626440104200/

‘I do not believe a single word that issues from the mouth of a single spokesperson for the nuclear industry.’ JONATHON PORRITT, June,2010.

Update: The blockade lasted around seven hours in total. The police called a specialist team to erect scaffolding to bring down the pair of women who were on top of the bamboo tripods. Once down, the pair were arrested and taken to Belgravia police station. They were released in the late evening, having been charged with obstructing the highway and an offence under section 14 of the Public Order Act (failing to move o the designated protest area). They pair are due to appear in court in June.

Video of the action:
http://www.youtube.com/v/bPhJwp4WZfQ?fs=1&hl=en_US

See also:

Morning Star
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/103384

Morning Star editorial

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/layout/set/print/content/view/full/103371

Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-11/anti-nuclear-protesters-block-entry-to-edf-s-london-offices-1-.html

LBC website
http://www.lbc.co.uk/nuclear-protest-causes-victoria-delays-38504

Telegraph blogs
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100083350/the-spoilt-greenies-who-are-bringing-central-london-to-a-standstill/

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/rowenamason/100009970/is-chris-huhne-preparing-or-his-second-u-turn-on-nuclear/

Business Green
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2042375/energy-minister-admits-post-fukushima-nuclear-challenge

City Unslicker blog
http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com/2011/04/uk-nuclear-protests-must-try-harder.html

(Last updated: 09.45 GMT+1, 13 April 2011)

Norwegians set up camp at Sellafield

2011-04-10T23:00:00.000+02:00

Image from neptunenetwork.org

By Martin Wainwright, guardian.co.uk , 8 April 2011:

It's a sort of Greenham Common in Cumbria. Plus lots of women professors and the election candidate who puts dog-mess before votes

It's a long time since the Vikings were a regular nuisance along our northern seaboard, but a group of them are back at last.

A small band of Norwegians has set up a Greenham Common-style camp near the railway sidings at Sellafield, to protest against potential risks from the huge nuclear plant.

Their arrival coincided with a more official Norwegian delegation; the country's environment minister and two district mayors were shown round the site yesterday. Everyone was very polite and the protesters held a peaceful picket plus flag-waving at one of the works entrances before retiring to their longships.

Sorry, I meant tents.

Their spokesman Frank-Hugo Storelv, of Neptune Network, said: "Sellafield is positioned at an almost constant wind direction towards Norway. Even though the plant is struggling with technical difficulties, the management has decided to continue to receive nuclear waste for reprocessing.

"Neptune Network finds these things unacceptable and therefore we have established a camp by the railway at Sellafield so we can watch over this most serious activity."

A spokesman for the plant said: "We meet regularly with Neptune and other pressure groups and are always ready to discuss concerns that are raised by such organisations. On this occasion Neptune did not seek a meeting."

Maybe they'll bob in all this sunshine, at the weekend.

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2011

See also:

Norwegian Whistleblowers - Thank You! - Marianne Birkby - 9 April 2011
http://101-uses-for-a-nuclear-power-station.blogspot.com/2011/04/norwegian-whistleblowers-thank-you.html

Protest camp set up outside Sellafield nuclear plant's main gate - Times and Star - 8 April 2011
http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/protest-camp-set-up-outside-sellafield-nuclear-plant-s-main-gate-1.825929?referrerPath=home

Whitehaven News - 8 April 2011
http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/protest-camp-set-up-outside-sellafield-nuclear-plant-s-main-gate-1.825929?referrerPath=/whitehaven-news-headlines-1.60007

Activists Deploy Buddy Electric Car to Derail British Nuke Plan - Zach McDonald - 11 April 2011 - Plugincars.com
http://www.plugincars.com/activists-deploy-buddy-nev-attempt-derail-british-nuke-plant-107017.html

9-10 April: Fukushima Solidarity / No to Nuclear: A call to action

2011-03-31T18:08:00.003+02:00

Activities will be happening around the UK on and around the weekend of 9-10 April. Organise a solidarity activity in your area and let us know about it!

You could stage a vigil, die-in, demo, non-violent direct action, street stall, street theatre, public debate, film showing, gig… Whatever takes your fancy!**

Join us as we show solidarity around the country with the people of Japan, suffering from twin catastrophes: one natural, the other man-made. Help us prevent yet more nuclear disasters as we deliver our message loud and clear to the UK Government and the big energy companies:

A GREENER FUTURE, NO TO NUCLEAR!

Also coming up:

Anti-Nuclear Camp on Sizewell Beach, Suffolk – 22-25 April
including:
National Demo Against New Nuclear, at Sizewell
Saturday 23 April, 12noon
http://sizewellcamp.org.uk

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the world watches with horror as another nightmare unfolds at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the north-east of the country. Last April we said: ‘Chernobyl – Never Again’, but with less than a month to go till the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst ever nuclear accident, it is happening again, before our very eyes.

Thousands of people have already been displaced from their homes for miles around as radioactivity levels in the vicinity of Fukushima soar. The brave irradiated workers (victims) toil night and day to try and limit fallout from the crippled nuclear reactors and spent fuel ponds.

In years to come, unknown numbers of people, and animals, will suffer yet more as they develop cancers and genetic damage, to be passed on to future generations. The surrounding environment will remain contaminated for years, perhaps thousands of years.

Recent scientific research suggests that nearly a million people have died as a result of radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, Ukraine ever since that ill-fated day at reactor 4, on 26 April 1986. (1) It is not a question of if we will have another Fukushima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Kyshtym or Windscale, but when. Where will the next major nuclear ‘incident’ take place? Sellafield? Hinkley Point? Sizewell? Wylfa? Torness? We must take action before it’s too late.

Nuclear pollution is not the solution!

**Get in touch if you would like us to list and help publicise your event:
E-mail: network [at] stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Stop Nuclear Power Network
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Ref:

1. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences – Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment –Alexey V. Yablokov (Center for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow, Russia), Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko (Institute of Radiation Safety, Minsk, Belarus). Consulting Editor Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger (Environmental Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan). Volume 1181, December 2009
http://tinyurl.com/ydw4cwk

Nuclear disaster in Japan and food safety

2011-03-30T17:53:00.009+02:00

Berlin / Munich. The consumer organisation foodwatch and the Environment Institute Munich eV have criticised the information policy of the federal government on food safety after the nuclear disaster in Japan.

Federal Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner has for days talked about "enhanced control measures" and "special protection standards" - but she does not inform the public about the fact that the EU-wide limits for the radioactive contamination of foodstuffs from the affected areas in Japan have been increased over the weekend. Was previously the maximum allowed limit of the cumulative radioactivity of cesium-134 and cesium-137 600 becquerels per kilogram, this past weekend up to 20 times higher ceilings of up to 12,500 becquerels per kilogram for certain products in Japan came into force.

Documents & Links

While in Europe there is currently no cause for concern about highly contaminated products from Japan in the trade - this does not justify the lack of information from the federal government nor the raising of the limit values. "The minister speaks only of increased controls and fails to mention that at the same time the security standards for Japanese food have been reduced. Mrs. Aigner withholds important information from the public - it certainly does not win the trust of the citizens", Thilo Bode, director ofthe consumer organization Foodwatch, said. "It is absurd in the current situation to increase the limits for Japanese food in order to introduce them into the EU", said Christina Hacker, member of the Board of the Environmental Institute Munich eV.
Both organizations were in favor of imposing a complete import ban. "Our solidarity is currently with the victims of the disaster in Japan, and this measure would certainly be no great loss to the Japanese economy," said Christina Hacker from the Munich Environmental Institute. In any case, the volume of imports of food from Japan to Europe is very low.
Usually for food and food imports apply limits for cesium-134 and 137 of typically 370 becquerels per kilogram for infant formula and milk products and 600 Bq / kg for other foods (EU regulation 733/2008). With Emergency Ordinance 297/2011, which entered into force on 27 March 2011, the European Commission has increased these limits for products from the affected regions Japanese considerably: to 400 becquerels per kilogram for infant formula, to 1000 Bq / kg for milk products and to 1250 Bq / kg for other foods. Certain products such as fish oil or spices may even exceed these limits by ten times, ie up to 12,500 becquerels per kilogram - 20-times the previous limit.
Background for the increase is EU Regulation 3954/1987, adopted in 1987 after the Chernobyl disaster in 1987. Accordingly to this regulation, in the event of a "nuclear emergency" the limits of the allowable radioactive contamination of foods can be raised to prevent food shortages. 'To bring these rules into force now is absurd, because in Europe there is no nuclear emergency, and certainly no shortage of food. Imports from Japan are of no importance for the food security of European citizens", say Thilo Bode and Chris Hacker.
Press Contacts
foodwatch eV: Martin Rucker, E-mail: presse [at] foodwatch.de, Tel: +49 (0) 30 / 24 04 76-23

Joint statement on the Japanese nuclear disaster

2011-03-30T09:54:00.004+02:00

Joint statement by 50 Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award and members of the World Future Council

We extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Japan who have experienced a devastating earthquake and tsunami followed by severe damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. We commend the brave individuals who are risking their lives to prevent the escape of massive amounts of radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi.

The disaster in Japan has demonstrated once again the limits of human capability to keep dangerous technologies free from accidents with catastrophic results. Natural disasters combined with human error have proven a potent force for undermining even the best laid plans. Reliance on human perfection reflects a hubris that has led to other major failures of dangerous technologies in the past, and will do so in the future. What has occurred as a result of the confluence of natural disaster and human error in Japan could also be triggered purposefully by means of terrorism or acts of war.

In addition to accidental or purposeful destruction, nuclear power plants pose other threats to humanity and to the human future. The large amounts of radioactive wastes that are created by nuclear power generation will remain highly toxic for many times longer than human civilization has existed, and there is currently no long-term solution to dealing with the threats these radioactive wastes pose to the environment and human health. Further, nuclear power plants, with their large societal subsidies, have diverted financial and human resources from the development of safe and reliable forms of renewable energy.

Nuclear power programs use and create fissile materials that can be used to make nuclear weapons, and thus provide a proven pathway to nuclear weapons proliferation. Several countries have already used civilian nuclear programs to provide the fissile materials to make nuclear weapons. Other countries, particularly those with plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities, could easily follow suit if they decided to do so. The spread of nuclear power plants will not only make the world more dangerous, but will make more difficult, if not impossible, the goal of a nuclear weapons-free world.

Nuclear power is neither the answer to modern energy problems nor a panacea for climate change challenges. There is no solution of problems by creating more problems. Nuclear power doesn’t add up economically, environmentally or socially. Of all the energy options, nuclear is the most capital intensive to establish, decommissioning is prohibitively expensive and the financial burden continues long after the plant is closed.

The tragedy in Japan has raised global awareness of the extreme dangers that can result from nuclear power generation. Grave as these dangers are, however, they are not as great as those arising from the possession, threat and use of nuclear weapons – weapons that have the capacity to destroy civilization and end most life on the planet.

The conclusion we draw from the nuclear power plant accident in Japan is that the human community, acting for itself and as trustees for future generations, must exercise a far higher level of care globally in dealing with technologies capable of causing mass annihilation, and should phase out, abolish and replace such technologies with alternatives that do not threaten present and future generations.

This applies to nuclear weapons as well as to nuclear power reactors.

Signatories:
Dr. h.c. Hafsat Abiola-Costello, Member of the World Future Council, Founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) and China Africa Bridge, Nigeria

Dr. Martín Almada, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2002, Founder of the Fundación Celestina Perez de Almada, Paraguay

Marianne Andersson, Member of the Board and the Jury of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, former Member of the Swedish Parliament

Dr. h.c. Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, Member of the World Future Council and National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Canada

Dr. h.c. Maude Barlow, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2005, First Senior Advisor to the UN on water issues and Chairperson of the Council of Canadians

Dipal Chandra Barua, Member of the World Future Council, Co-founder of the Grameen Bank, Former Managing Director of the Grameen Shakti, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2007, Founder and Chairman of the Bright Green Energy Foundation, Bangladesh

Nnimmo Bassey, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010, Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and Chair of Friends of the Earth International, Nigeria

Dr. Tony Clarke, Right Livelihood Laureate 2005, Founder and Director of the Polaris Institute, Canada

Dr. h.c. Riane Eisler, Member of the World Future Council and President of the Centre for Partnership Studies, USA

Dr. Scilla Elworthy, Member of the World Future Council, Founder of the Oxford Research Group and Peace Direct, Director of Programmes for the World Peace Partnership, UK

Prof. Dr. h.c. Anwar Fazal, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1982, Director of the Right Livelihood College, Malaysia

Dr. h.c. Irene Fernandez, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2005, Director of Tenaganita, Malaysia

Dr. Juan E. Garcés, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1999, lawyer, former personal adviser to Salvador Allende and former adviser to the Director General of UNESCO, Spain

Prof. Dr. Martin A. Green, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2002, Executive Research Director of the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia

Monika Griefahn, Co-Chair and Jury Member of the Right Livelihood Award, Member of the Board of Advisors of the World Future Council, Co-Founder of Greenpeace Germany, former Member of the German Parliament and former Minister of Environmental Affairs in Lower Saxony

Cyd Ho, Member of the World Future Council and Member of Hong Kong's Legislative Council

SM Mohamed Idris, Founder and President of Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1988, Founder and President of the Consumers' Association of Penang

Dr. Ashok Khosla, Member of the World Future Council, President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Chairman of the Centre for Development Alternatives and Co-President of the Club of Rome, India

Dr. h.c. Dom Erwin Kräutler, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010, Bishop of Xingu, President of the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Catholic Church in Brazil

Dr. David Krieger, Member of the World Future Council and Co-Founder and President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, USA

Dr. med. Katarina Kruhonja, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998, Founder and Director of the Centre for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights, Croatia

Dr. Ida Kuklina, Member of the Union of Soldiers Mothers Committees of Russia Coordination Council, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1996, Member of the Council of RF President for Development Civic Society and Human Rights

Prof. Dr. Alexander Likhotal, Member of the World Future Council and President of Green Cross International, Russia

Dr. Rama Mani, Member of the World Future Council, Senior Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford, and Director of the Global Project Responsibility to Protect: Southern Cultural Perspectives, France

Prof. Dr. h.c. Manfred Max-Neef, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1983, Director of the Economics Institute, Universidad Austral de Chile

Prof. Dr. Wangari Maathai, Member of the World Future Council, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1984 and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2004, Founder of the Green Belt Movement, Kenya

Ledum Mitee, President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1994, Nigeria

Prof. Dr. Raúl A. Montenegro, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2004, Professor at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, and President of the Environment Defense Foundation FUNAM

Dr. h.c. Frances Moore Lappé, Member of the World Future Council, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1987 and Founder of the Small Planet Institute, USA

Helena Norberg-Hodge, Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture and Initiator of Ladakh Ecological Development Group, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1986, UK

Dr. Katiana Orluc, Member of the World Future Council, Historian, Middle East expert and Visiting Professor at Harvard University, Austria

Juan Pablo Orrego, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998, President of the Grupo de Acción por el Biobío (GABB), Chile

Nicanor Perlas, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2003, Co-Founder and President of the Center for Alternative Development Initiatives, Philippines

Dr. Vithal Rajan, Member of the World Future Council and of the Jury of the Right Livelihood Award, Vice-President of Oxfam India and Chairman of the Confederation of Voluntary Associations, India

Dr. h.c. Fernando Rendón, Gabriel Jaime Franco and Gloria Chvatal of the International Poetry Festival of Medellín, Right Livelihood Award 2006, Colombia

Joao Pedro Stedile, President of Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1991, Brazil

Prof. Dr. h.c. Vandana Shiva, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1993, Founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology and the NAVDANYA network, India

Prof. Dr. h.c. David Suzuki, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010 and Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, Canada
Prof. Dr. Hannumappa R. Sudarshan, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1994, Karuna Trust & Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK), India

Pauline Tangiora, Member of the World Future Council and Maori elder of the Rongomaiwahine Tribe, New Zealand
John F. Charlewood Turner, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1988, UK

Alice Tepper Marlin, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1990 and President of Social Accountability International, USA

Vesna Teršelič, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998, Founder of Anti-War Campaign of Croatia and Director of DOCUMENTA, Croatia

Shrikrishna Upadhyay, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010 and Chairman of SAPPROS, Nepal

Alyn Ware, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2009, Founder and international coordinator of the Network Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), New Zealand

Prof. em. Dr. h.c. Christopher G. Weeramantry, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2007, former Judge and Vice-President of the International Court of Justice; Founder, Trustee and Chairman of the Weeramantry International Centre for Peace Education and Research (WICPER) and President of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), Sri Lanka

Dr. h.c. Anders Wijkman, Member of the World Future Council, Vice-President of the Club of Rome, former President of GLOBE EU, former Member of the European Parliament and former UN Assistant Secretary General, Sweden

Francisco Whitaker Ferreira, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2006, Co-Founder of the World Social Forum, Brazil

Alla Yaroshinskaya, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1992, Journalist and former Adviser to the Russian President, former Member of Russian delegations to the United Nations for negotiating an extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Angie Zelter, Trident Ploughshares, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2001, UK

Government faces High Court challenge on nuclear power plans

2011-03-25T09:40:00.002+01:00

Calls for latest nuclear regulations to be quashed

A LANCASHIRE man who is opposed to Government plans to introduce up to 20 new nuclear reactors across the UK has launched a High Court legal challenge against the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Rory Walker (24), who lives close to Heysham, where one or two new reactors may be built, believes that the Secretary of State has not met his obligations in law and, as a result, is putting the health of local residents at risk.

Rory, who is opposed to nuclear power, instructed law firm Irwin Mitchell to launch judicial review proceedings on 28 February 2011 to challenge the lawfulness of Secretary of State Chris Huhne’s decisions late last year that two new types of nuclear reactor were justified.

According to the Euratom Directive and UK Regulations, the Secretary of State must ensure that the health detriments from nuclear power stations are outweighed by their economic, social and other benefits before giving the go ahead to build new nuclear power stations.

This regulatory process is called ‘Justification’ and is the first of three stages designed to protect members of the public against the dangers of ionising radiation. It is followed later by ‘Optimisation’, which requires radiation exposures to be kept as low as reasonably achievable, and ‘Limitation’, which ensures exposures remain within legal limits.

Legal papers for the judicial review claim that the Secretary of State’s approach to Justification last year failed to make proper estimates of health detriment and failed fully to take into account scientific research findings showing increased leukaemia risks near nuclear facilities. The papers criticise the Government’s decision to allow health impacts to be revisited at later stages after construction commences and highlight that with estimated costs of up to £6bn each, it would be difficult for the Government not to proceed with operating these nuclear reactors once built.

Explaining his reason for launching legal proceedings, Rory Walker said: “My concern is the effect of radiation emissions on myself and my community and the potentially long-lasting impact of radiation on people like myself wanting to start a family. In order to deliver its policy of new nuclear builds, the Government suggests that justification can be carried out after building £6 billion power stations; this is unrealistic.

“Justification is the only stage at which health risks are fully analysed and compared with the benefits. The Government’s approach to justification does not appear to give the protection that the regulations were designed to provide.”

Andrew Lockley, Partner and Head of Public Law at Irwin Mitchell, said: “The fundamental purpose of the Euratom Directive is to make sure that a comprehensive and detailed assessment is made before new nuclear reactors are built. It does not permit an approach which appears generalised, generic and deferred. Justification requires that the health detriments should be considered and balanced against the economic, social or other benefits which may occur - but this doesn’t seem to have happened here”.

The judicial review seeks a declaration that the Secretary of State’s decisions were unlawful. It also asks that the Justification Decision Regulations 2010, which were agreed for the two new types of reactor (EPR and AP1000) on 29 November 2010, be quashed.

In a scientific report prepared for the court, Dr. Ian Fairlie, a consultant on radioactivity in the environment, said: “There have been numerous epidemiological studies into the increased incidences of cancer near nuclear power stations. In fact, if the risks found following the KiKK study, a report commissioned by the German Government, were applied to Heysham, infants and young children under five living within 5km would be exposed to increased risks of cancer, especially leukaemia.”

Heysham in Lancashire is one of seven sites that the Government identified for future reactors. Other sites are Bradwell in Essex, Sellafield in Cumbria, Hartlepool, Hinkley Point in Somerset, Oldbury in Gloucestershire, Sizewell in Suffolk and Wylfa in North Wales.

Ends

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Interview requests should be directed to David Shirt. Contact details below:

Q1. When was the Judicial Review launched?

The Application was lodged with the High Court on February 28 2011.

Q2. Why have you issued the press release now?

Because we needed to serve the proceedings on Government solicitors for DECC, and as a matter of courtesy, to allow time for the contents to be considered.

Q3. Is the application opposed to nuclear power?

This application for Judicial Review is not about opposing nuclear power but about how the Secretary of State failed to carry out his legal duty to ‘justify’ the proposed new reactors by weighing the health detriments of radiation emissions and discharges from nuclear plants against economic and social benefits. The Government is required to do this under UK Regulations which in turn follow the Euratom Directive.

Q4. What would happen if you won?

The Court could either issue a Declaration or a quashing Order, or both. If we won, the Government would need to reconsider its Justification decisions.

Q5. What would be the practical effect if you won? Would the Government have to stop its nuclear plans? For instance, would EdF have to stop its ground-clearing operations at Hinkley Point in Somerset?

The 2004 Regulations state that it is unlawful to introduce a new “practice” without it being justified in advance. Therefore if there were a judicial verdict against the Government’s Justification Decisions, then, legally speaking, it would be unlawful to continue to proceed. In particular, the Government would not be allowed to issue licenses under s. 36 of the Electricity Act 1999.

Q6. Parliament has already passed Regulations bringing the Justification Decisions into legal effect. Can the courts overturn a Parliamentary vote?

If the Justification Decisions were held to be flawed in law, then the Parliamentary votes based on them would also be flawed and therefore invalid.

Q7. What are the next steps?

The Government needs to respond by the end of the month. The papers will then go to a judge, who may order an early hearing.

Q8. Where will the hearing be held?

Probably in London

Contact Details:
David Shirt
PR Manager
Irwin Mitchell
Tel: 0161 838 3094
Mob: 07720 509912
david.shirt [at] irwinmitchell.com

Irwin Mitchell
Irwin Mitchell was established over 95 years ago and is one of the country’s largest law firms in the UK. The practice employs more than 2,100 staff and has over 100 partners across offices in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol and Glasgow. The firm also has two offices in Spain.

The firm offers a comprehensive range of legal services in the areas of commercial litigation, corporate and real estate law for organisations including medium-sized enterprises and large public listed companies.

Irwin Mitchell also operates a number of leading and nationally recognised teams specialising in employment, insolvency and regulatory law.

The firm was ranked in the Top 50 litigators in the world by The Lawyer magazine and in 2010 was named as one of the leading companies in the country for commitment to local communities in the prestigious Business in the Community’s (BITC) annual Corporate Responsibility Index.

For more information visit www.irwinmitchell.com

Emergency Vigils for Japan

2011-03-17T18:49:00.008+01:00

There are vigils for Japan and Fukushima taking place in the coming days in London, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh and Kendal. Details of the latter below:

Radiation Free Lakeland

Emergency Vigil for Japan

Please join us in expressing our sympathy for those affected. We will be urging the government to look at the Japanese lesson and aband

Publish Post

on plans for the burial of high level nuclear wastes in Cumbria and new nuclear power stations in the UK.

We will meet at Kendal Market Place 10.30am this Saturday - join us in an emergency vigil for Japan.

The Japanese power companies were warned that it would be dangerous to build nuclear power stations on an earthquake fault line. In response, the regulators and power companies said all possible events had been taken into account.

They said the design and safety systems of the plants assured safety even in the event of earthquake and tsunami.

The same story is being played out in Cumbria. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (Nirex) was warned by the conclusions of a public planning enquiry in 1997 that West Cumbria was geologically unsuitable for underground disposal of UK's 'legacy' nuclear waste. These findings have not been overturned. Instead the NDA and regulators have given assurances that they will engineer a solution to Cumbria's leaky geology so that they can dump high level nuclear wastes deep underground.

The petition opposing the burial of high level nuclear wastes from the worlds' spent fuel in Cumbria's leaky geology will be circulating following Saturday's Vigil

'No High Level Nuke Dump in Cumbria' petition to print off

Tel: 015395 63671
E-mail: rafl [at] mariannebirkby.plus.com

Fukushima fuels wave of protests against UK’s "nuclear renaissance"

2011-03-17T14:17:00.010+01:00

17 March 2011 - As the tragedy at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in north-east Japan continues to unfold, campaign group Kick Nuclear is joining anti-nuclear activists from around the UK to plan a series of demonstrations and direct action events.

Spokeswoman Nancy Birch says:

"Over the last 60 years, the nuclear industry has proven time and again that it is incapable of controlling such a dangerous – and expensive – form of energy. The government is about to give the green light to new nuclear reactors at up to eight different sites around the UK coastline, and we are urging people to show their opposition before it’s too late."

This Sunday, 20th March, Kick Nuclear will support a vigil organised by CND outside Downing Street, London, for the current and future victims of the unfolding disaster at Fukushima and north-east Japan, and to oppose new nuclear build in the UK.

A national rally against new nuclear build will take place outside the gates of Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk, England on Saturday 23rd April.

A weekend protest camp is to be held on the beach in front of the Sizewell plant from 22nd-25th April, organised by members of the Stop Nuclear Power Network. The camp will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Direct action events are being organised by regional groups at various nuclear power plants around the UK. Campaigners in Somerset are gearing up to make Hinkley Point the new environmental front line of protest.

Kick Nuclear is reinforcing its campaign for a national boycott of EDF Energy. The French state-owned energy giant is spearheading the push for new nuclear build in the UK, and elsewhere.

Nancy continues:

"Even prior to Fukushima, there have been at least four near-catastrophes at nuclear power plants around the world in the last 10 years, (1) and many other cases where radioactive waste has been allowed to leak into the UK’s water supplies and food chain (2).

"It may be unlikely that a high-level earthquake will affect the UK, but there are plenty of other risk factors. Floods, storm surges, acts of terrorism and human error can never be ruled out. Nuclear energy has no place in the twenty-first century."

Kick Nuclear is also calling for an independent inspection of the UK’s existing nuclear fleet. Fellow Kick Nuclear activist, Andreas Speck, says:

"Last December, nuclear reactors in the UK’s ageing fleet were granted lifetime extensions of between five and twenty years. The technology in these reactors is out of date and safety breaches are commonplace. The only way the public can be reassured is if the inspections are carried out by a completely independent panel of experts, and not the usual government suspects."

Kick Nuclear maintains that the public has been duped into thinking that new nuclear is necessary to combat climate change.

Andreas adds: "New nuclear power will offer too little, too late. There are many alternatives that do not carry such a high price in terms of safety and cost. The government must abandon its plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations."

ENDS

References:

(1) Since 2000, there have been near-disasters at nuclear reactors in Sweden(1), the Netherlands(2), Japan(3) and France(4).

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsmark_Nuclear_Power_Plant
2. http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/11/nuclear_secrets_netherlands_nu.html
3. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/earthquake-fire-and-nuclear-l/
4. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,564826,00.html

(2) Some recent accidents and incidents at nuclear sites in the UK:

April 2010: Sellafield nuclear processing facility exposed for dumping five bags of radioactive waste in a landfill site after a faulty scanner passed them as safe.

March 2010: Sizewell B shut down for seven months following failure of a pressuriser in the primary cooling circuit. In its report, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate says that it is likely that other pressurisers pose a risk too, but still allowed Sizewell B to restart.

March 2010: nuclear power station operator, Magnox, fined £250,000 for allowing 14 years of radioactive leaks from a holding tank at Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex.

January 2007: cooling water from the spent fuel pond of Sizewell A leaked into the North Sea. This was only noticed by accident.

Further information can be found at: http://www.boycottedf.org.uk
Press contact: Nancy Birch - 07506-006597

"I do not believe a single word that issues from the mouth of a single spokesperson for the nuclear industry." - Jonathon Porritt addressing a Stop Hinkley meeting May 2010.

From Fukushima to Hinkley: campaginers condemn the arrogance of the nuclear industry

2011-03-14T09:26:00.007+01:00

From Fukushima to Hinkley: SWAN Condemns the arrogance of the Nuclear Industry

Campaign group, South West Against Nuclear have come out today to express sympathy and solidarity with the people of Japan who are not only facing an unimaginable natural disaster, but also a rapidly unfolding disaster that has human handprints all over it.

Says Debbie Richards" The Japanese Authorities have known for some time that they were due for a "big one" Whilst TEPCO knew that there were problems with their backup generators following the earthquake that rocked Fukushima #1 Plant in June just last summer"(1)

Whilst we know that the governments want people to remain calm we absolutely condemn the duplicity of so-called nuclear experts for deliberately misleading the public about what is happening in Japan, their assurances are completely unfounded. (2)

This sort of misinformation happened after Chernobyl and is one of the reasons that there was so much health damage to the people of Chernobyl.(3)

It's about time the people inside the nuclear industry faced up to the facts about nuclear power it is not safe and we do not need it - No to Nuclear New build in the UK.

We will be outside EDFs offices in Bridgwater this morning (Monday) from 10am until 11am, to demand that EDF owners of British Energy cease all nuclear generation at all of their sites in the UK and put an end to half a century of nuclear madness and to express our sympathy for the Japanese victims of this double disaster. The Nuclear industry is & always has been a killer.

Media inquiries contact: 07539770007

Note to Editors

(1) http://www.nirs.org Downloadable factsheet about Fukushima available here

(2) http://sayingnotohinkleycround2.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-03-12T00%3A36%3A00Z&max-results=7 This blog has been scarily accurate as it has followed the unfolding events in Japan

(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Legasov

Japanese earthquake: A timely reminder of the dangers of nuclear waste storage in Cumbria

2011-03-11T19:33:00.005+01:00

Anti-nuclear campaign group Kick Nuclear today urged the government to cancel its planned ‘nuclear renaissance’ following the declaration of a ‘state of nuclear emergency’ by officials in Japan.

Spokeswoman Nancy Birch said the dramatic shut down of eleven nuclear reactors following the Japanese earthquakes earlier today is a stark warning of the inherent dangers of the nuclear industry.

And Nancy added that Britain could be sitting on a nuclear time bomb:

‘Only last December, Cumbria was hit by an earthquake. The quake hit an area that has been earmarked by the government to store decades-worth of cancer-causing, high-level radioactive waste. The disaster in Japan clearly demonstrates that nuclear energy is too dangerous to be considered a sustainable form of energy in the 21st century. We want a future, not a disaster.’

Kick Nuclear opposes new nuclear for the following reasons:

Not Safe

Mismanagement of nuclear waste over the last 60 years has meant that radiation has already contaminated our environment(1). Radiation causes cancer and eventually kills.

March 2010: nuclear power station operator, Magnox, fined £250,000 for allowing 14 years of radioactive leaks from a holding tank at Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex (2).

April 2010: Sellafield nuclear processing facility exposed for dumping five bags of radioactive waste in a landfill site after a faulty scanner passed them as safe (3).

August 2010: Serious fire at Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory.

Since 2000, there have been near-disasters at reactors in Sweden (4), the Netherlands (5), Japan (6) and France (7).

The nuclear industry says that the new generation of reactors will be safer. But human error, earthquakes, floods or terrorism can never be ruled out.

Not Green

The Sustainable Development Commission estimates that a nuclear power programme will only deliver a cut in carbon dioxide emissions of 2.4% by 2020 (8).

Uranium (nuclear fuel) extraction and processing is one of the most dangerous and carbon-intensive forms of mining.

Nuclear waste from new reactors will be even more toxic than existing radioactive by-products (9).

Not Cheap

The current decommissioning and clean-up costs for the UK’s existing nuclear industry is equivalent to a bill of over £1,600 for every person in the UK (10).

Construction of the first new EPR reactor in Finland is 3 years behind schedule and more than £1bn over-budget.

UK taxpayers have always subsidised the nuclear industry to manage nuclear waste, insure against accidents and provide protection against terrorism.

When David Cameron says new reactors will be built without public subsidy, he means subsidies will be provided under another name.

It’s likely that the cost of building new reactors will be transferred to our electricity use - so we’ll be billed directly. Moreover, nuclear power only accounts for around 3% of our total energy use.

What’s the alternative?

Reports by respected organisations in both the UK and Europe have shown that there are more than enough renewable sources of power to meet present and future needs. Reducing our energy demand is the key.
Renewables are cheaper, can be built more quickly and have none of the dangers associated with nuclear energy. They could also create thousands of new jobs.

The development of smart-grids will allow a much more flexible supply of power from different sources to meet different demands. Nuclear energy is a dinosaur in the mix. It has no place in our future.

A few of the alternative strategies available can be found via:
Centre for Alternative Technology’s report: Zero Carbon Britain

Sustainable Development Commission’s report: Nuclear power in a low carbon economy

Greenpeace’s report: Decentralising Power: an energy revolution for the 21st century

References:

1. http://www.atomicarchive.com/Reports/Japan/Accidents.shtmlwww.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7107865.ece

2. http://environment-agency.gov.uk/news/103626.aspx

3. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7107865.ece

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsmark_Nuclear_Power_Plant

5. http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/11/nuclear_secrets_netherlands_nu.html

6. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/earthquake-fire-and-nuclear-l/

7. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,564826,00.html

8. The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy, Paper 2: reducing CO2 emissions – nuclear and alternatives, Sustainable Development Commission, p 29

9. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/new-nuclear-reactor-s-waste-is/

10. Switching Power, Greenpeace, March 2006, p2 and http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/decentralised-energy-w

Radioactive Man visits Business Department

2011-02-22T23:53:00.010+01:00

Radioactive Man and his sidekick Fallout Boy were spotted outside the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in central London on Monday, 21st February. The venue was hosting consultation events relating to new nuclear build (nuclear waste pricing and funded decommissioning). Members of the Stop Nuclear Power Network attended the meetings to make sure the difficult questions were being asked.

Nuclear resistance teach-in and skills-share weekend, 19-20 Feb, near London

2011-02-18T15:50:00.006+01:00

A chance to learn and share info about why we urgently need to resist new nuclear build and promote sustainable alternatives, and develop skills to help us do it.

===============================
* Workshops from 10am SAT to 4pm SUN
* Crash space available Friday night to Sunday night
* Venue: Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 0JG
(Just outside London - public transport from London terminals - bus 222 from West Drayton / Uxbridge)
http://www.transitionheathrow.com/grow-heathrow

===============================

MEALS: Vegan meals will be provided (see below for details). All food will be vegetarian.

FRI: Food may not be provided
SAT LUNCH: Pot-luck picnic: please bring veggie/vegan food to share
SAT DINNER: Cooked vegan meal
SUN: Breakfast and vegan lunch provided, dinner not guaranteed

COSTS: Whatever you can afford. Donations towards food, speakers' travel expenses and use of venue; plus separate donation towards possible travel pool to help skint people who had to travel from further afield.

BOOKING YOUR PLACE: Let us know ASAP if you're coming so we get enough grub in, can assess people's needs, send you details of the programme and can inform you of any changes / public transport problems, etc. From Friday onwards, you'll need to get in touch by phone.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Please get in touch ASAP if you have any particular requirements, e.g. dietary / mobility / sensory impairment / pet llamas / children / allergy to people.

SLEEPING: Cabin crash space available Friday evening to Sunday evening, plus lots of camping space. Bring sleeping bag / thermals. Bring a tent if you want to camp - plenty of space.

You can probably stay longer if you want to - if so, please get in touch with Grow Heathrow direct, via their website (see link above).

WORKSHOPS - These will start on Saturday morning, from 10am, and finish on Sunday afternoon, around 4pm.

Possible info / discussion workshops:

- Introduction to nuclear physics
- Why is nuclear power bad and not a solution to climate change?
- What are the low/zero carbon alternatives? Are they practical?
- Current situation and resistance:
   * Hinkley Point and Sizewell
   * Boycott EDF campaign
   * Making links with other campaigns, e.g. anti-cuts,
        peace/anti-militarism, climate change
   * Other campaigns

Possible skills-sharing workshops (depending on demand):

- Planning a campaign strategy
- Basic Non-violent Direct Action (NVDA) skills - affinity groups, blockading, quick consensus, role play, etc
- Getting up trees, tripods, etc
- Legal implications of taking NVDA
- Creative action
- Public speaking
- Dealing with the media
- Other suggestions?
===============================
CONTACT:
E-mail:
london [at] stopnuclearpoweruk.net

===============================
Kick Nuclear / Boycott EDF
http://boycottedf.org.uk
------------------------------------------------
Stop Nuclear Power Network
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net
===============================

Demo at Doncaster "nuclear renaissance" event

2011-02-18T15:38:00.001+01:00

Anti-nuclear campaigners dressed in white contamination suits and facemasks staged a protest outside the "Winning business in the nuclear renaissance" corporate event at Doncaster Racecourse in South Yorkshire, England on Thursday, 17 February.

More images here

Bradwell opponents hand in 10,000-signature petition to energy minister

2011-02-10T10:57:00.005+01:00

Members of BANNG in Whitehall to hand in their petition

Nuclear plant protest group meets Energy minister

By John Perfect - http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk

THE fight against a new nuclear power station at Bradwell [in Essex] landed on the doorstep of Energy minister Charles Hendry on Tuesday.

A 10,000-name petition against the proposals was handed in by 11 members of the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG), who later sent a deputation for an hour-long face-to-face with the minister.

Read the full article here

Buried at C? Sizewell nuclear power station blockaded by anti-nuclear campaigners

2011-02-02T08:43:00.009+01:00

By 7am this morning several campaigners masked as fish locked themselves together across the entrance of Sizewell A and B. They claim that the nuclear operators and the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) have not taken the possibility of flooding and coastal erosion at the Sizewell plants into proper consideration.

Click here for more photos

Mell Harrison, 39, An Education Coordinator from Geldeston and from the Stop Nuclear Power Network said “One of the reasons we are here today is to highlight the plans and dangers of storing radioactive waste at Sizewell until 2130. That is 129 years away! We have no idea what effect climate change and coastal erosion will have on this area.”

Another protester, Emma Bateman, 42, Lowestoft added “We see coastal
erosion happening along the Suffolk and Norfolk coast everyday and yet
nuclear power stations are built virtually on the beach. One storm and
the beach in front of Sizewell can be gone and the waves will be lapping at the foundations of the nuclear plant. Will Minsmere and Thorpness be sacrificed to save EDF's investment at the nuclear site and who is going to pay for this when it happens.”

The protesters also demanded to see “firm contingency plans on how all
nuclear material would be removed from the site in a short period of
time if sea level rises and/or coastal erosion threatened the safety at the site.”

Peter Lux, 48, from Geldeston said: "Sizebell B was shut down last year from March to September because of serious problems in the primary cooling circuit. Yesterday, it was taken off line at 4am, again because of problems with a pump which is part of the cooling circuit. Cooling is crucial in a nuclear reactor, and to have problems in this part of a nuclear power station is jeopardizing safety."

They also called the current consultation process “a crude justification process for what has already been decided”. The current consultation on the siting of new nuclear power stations is currently under scrutiny since the end of submission last week (24/1/2011).

Sizewell has seen several blockades in the last couple of years since it was suggested as a possible site for new nuclear build.

Contact – on the day – Ian - 07717414435 or 07825224815
Or Mell on 07760161755

*****************************************************************************
The Leaflet says -

Buried At C
We are here today because storing radioactive waste for over 100 years
in a flood zone is a daft idea.
It does not take a genius to work out why!

Our Demands
We want concrete evidence that the nuclear operators and The Nuclear
Installations Inspectorate (NII) have taken the possibility of flooding at the Sizewell plants into proper consideration. Particularly in light of climate change.

We would like to see firm contingency plans on how all nuclear material would be removed from the site in a short period of time if sea level rises and/or coastal erosion threatened the safety at the site.

If this information is not sufficient or does not exist we call for the licences for the sites to be revoked and decommissioning of the plants to start immediately.

We have no faith in the NII who have have abrogated their mission 'To
protect people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry' in favour of the interests of the nuclear operators.

The current consultation should should not be a mere formality to back
up a decision that has already been made. We want decision based on the balance of evidence presented not just a crude justification process for what has already been decided.

http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net
network[at]stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Update 10am:

The blockaders self-released and ended the blockade at about 10am. There we no arrests.

Object to EDF's plans to desecrate 400 acres of Somerset coast!

2011-01-25T22:18:00.003+01:00

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS AND PHOTOS

Proposed new build site at Hinkley Point (Paul Glendell, 2010)

Campaigners slam energy secretary’s attempts to hide truth about nuclear energy

2011-01-24T12:00:00.013+01:00

Following Chris Huhne’s visit to Hinkley Point nuclear power station in West Somerset today, campaign group Kick Nuclear has slammed the Energy Secretary's glowing appraisal of the government’s consultation on the revised draft National Policy Statements on energy infrastructure and its plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Kick Nuclear spokeswoman Nancy Birch commented:

"It’s ironic that Huhne should be singing the praises of the nuclear industry at Hinkley Point just days after an independent report revealed that soil around the Somerset power station is heavily contaminated with cancer-causing enriched uranium. The government’s indifference to the dangers of nuclear power and its waste products is astonishing.

Members of Kick Nuclear and other anti-nuclear groups attended the three main consultations on the proposed National Policy Statements on energy infrastructure and have branded the process 'blatant greenwash.'

"The consultation process completely failed to acknowledge that there is no scientifically proven way of storing nuclear waste over the long-term,’ Nancy continued. "Until this issue is resolved, it’s irresponsible to give the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations. It’s like telling people they can carry on smoking because sooner or later someone will find a cure for cancer."

Kick Nuclear points out that nuclear power will offer too little, too late to help bridge the energy gap. Two EPR reactors being built in France and Finland are running years behind schedule and BILLIONS of pounds over budget. The EPR - designed by French company Areva, which EDF intends to build at Hinkley Point, at Sizewell in Suffolk and elsewhere - is untried and untested. Leaked EDF documents have also shown that there are serious safety flaws in the design.

"A number of well respected NGOs and research groups have shown that it’s perfectly possible to combat climate change without nuclear energy," Nancy adds. "The nuclear sector is a dinosaur that is desperately clinging on to life. The mismanagement of nuclear waste over the last 60 years is shocking. Our air, water supplies and food chains have already been contaminated with radioactive waste. The sooner the nuclear monster is put down the better."

Kick Nuclear points out that Chris Huhne’s assertion that the energy NPS consultation produced an "impressive level of public engagement" tells only half the story. "The truth is that most of the people attending the consultation events were either energy sector reps or people opposed to nuclear power," said Nancy.

Notes:

Green Audit’s report, 'Significant radioactive contamination at proposed site for nuclear power station,' is based on data provided in an environmental impact assessment commissioned by EDF Energy as part of the process towards building two new reactors next to the existing power stations at Hinkley Point.

The full report can be found at http://www.llrc.org and http://www.stophinkley.org

Further information on Prof. Chris Busby’s research into cancer rates near Hinkley Point can be found at:
http://stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr101021.htm

Kick Nuclear is a campaign group dedicated to informing the public about the underlying dangers of nuclear energy. It is part of the national Stop Nuclear Power Network

http://boycottedf.org.uk
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net
http://www.stophinkley.org

(Last modified: 26 Jan 2011, 09:35 GMT)

Reclaim the Setts

2011-01-18T11:12:00.002+01:00

An eagle-eyed member of the public found this posted anonymously on a forum frequented by badgers:

"In November, the pixies of Hinkley set about assisting the badgers of Hinkley in reclaiming their setts. The badgers had been displaced from their homes for some months after ‘UnNatural England’ colluded with the French fat cats EDF to grant them a badger badgering license.

"Bodger the Badger, spokesbadger, said, 'They’ve sealed up our setts and filled them with earth whilst providing totally inadequate temporary accommodation for us. We don’t like the stench around here and with baby badgers on the way we were missing our home.'

"EDF have submitted a planning application to West Somerset District Council to desecrate over 400 acres of badger country. The objection deadline has now been extended until Jan 31st 2011. Badgers and humans can object here: http://tinyurl.com/4dncx39

"If, however, you’re sick of seeing the heartless desecration of the Earth and the wildlife and want to be a bit more direct, then get yourselves down to Hinkley and help the pixies resist the destruction."

For more info on what’s going on at Hinkley, see:
http://www.stophinkley.org
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Anti-nuclear campaigners again walk free from court / case dismissed

2011-01-04T17:25:00.011+01:00

Blockade at Sizewell - 22 Feb 2010 (Credit: M. Harrison)

Two anti nuclear campaigners, Andreas Speck (46) from London and Ian Mills (45) from Chippenham, who appeared at Lowestoft Magistrates Court today (4 January) on charges of "failing to leave land" (S69(3)(a) CJPOA 1994) when they blockaded Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk on 22 February 2010 [1] walked free after the case was dismissed when the prosecution did not offer any evidence.

The action in February 2010 included several local campaigners, including two of the ‘Sizewell Blockaders’ who where found not guilty of Aggravated Trespass in 2009.

After almost a year, and seven case management hearings, the prosecution applied for an amendment to the charge from S69 (failing to leave land after an order had been given by a senior police officer) to S68 (Aggravated Trespass), because the “wrong charge” was apparently a “computer error”. However, district judge Cooper rejected the change of charge, because it was “not the same misdoing” and “not in the interest of justice”.

After a ten minute adjournment, the prosecution returned and offered no evidence on the charge, so the case was dismissed.

Andreas Speck, a member of Kick Nuclear, the London group of the Stop Nuclear Power Network [2], says: "This outcome is obviously great news for us. But in any case – even a conviction would not have deterred us from taking more nonviolent action at Sizewell or other nuclear power stations, as we did at Hinkley Point in October 2010 [3]. Given the fanaticism of the government in going for new nuclear, nonviolent direct action will be an indispensible part of the repertoire of our resistance."

“In February 2010 we blockaded Sizewell to highlight the end of a flawed government consultation on nuclear. The current government is presently re-consulting in an equally flawed way. Nevertheless, it is still important that we make our voice heard, whether they want to hear it or not. I also urge everyone to respond to the consultation by 24 January, but also to take nonviolent action”, says Ian Mills.

The defendants had been on bail for almost a year.

The trial was originally listed for 4th, 5th, 10th, and 11th January 2011.

- Andreas Speck, 07580-320627

- Mell Harrison 07760161755

Email - network [at] stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Notes:

[1] For information on the action itself, see

http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2010/02/local-democracy-dumped-sizewell-nuclear.html

[2] The Stop Nuclear Power Network is a UK-based non-hierarchical

grassroots network of groups and individuals campaigning and taking

nonviolent action against nuclear power and its expansion and supporting

sustainable alternatives.
See: http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

[3] See: http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2010/10/press-release-anti-nuclear-campaigners.html

Sizewell blockaders on trial

2010-12-29T20:06:00.011+01:00

Anti-nuclear campaigners in court in Lowestoft

Trial dates: 4th January 2011, 10am (plus 5th, 10th, and 11th January)

Blockade at Sizewell - 22 Feb 2010 (Credit: M. Harrison)

Two anti nuclear campaigners, Andreas Speck (46) from London and Ian Mills (45) from Chippenham, will be tried at Lowestoft Magistrates Court from 4 January 2011, for "failing to leave land" (S69(3)(a) CJPOA 1994) when they blockaded Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk, England on 22 February 2010 [1].

The blockade, which lasted eight hours, coincided with the end of the former government's consultation on National Policy Statements on Energy (including nuclear power), which the protestors said "were flawed".

Andreas Speck, a member of Kick Nuclear, the London group of the Stop Nuclear Power Network [2], says: "The present government is presently having to re-consult on the National Policy Statements, which shows that one of our criticism from February was true - the consultations were flawed. However, far from really consulting about our future energy system, the present consultation, which ends on 26 January 2011, is equally flawed, and designed to push through new nuclear. This shows that nonviolent direct action of the kind we did on 22 February 2010 at Sizewell is still necessary."

The trial is listed for 4, 5, 10, and 11 January 2011.

Information:

- Andreas Speck, 07580-320627

Notes:

[1] For information on the action itself, see http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2010/02/local-democracy-dumped-sizewell-nuclear.html

[2] The Stop Nuclear Power Network is a UK-based non-hierarchical grassroots network of groups and individuals campaigning and taking nonviolent action against nuclear power and its expansion and supporting sustainable alternatives.

See http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

How to object to EDF's plans to desecrate 400 acres of Somerset coast

2010-12-21T01:31:00.023+01:00

MORE PHOTOS OF THIS BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE

Register your objection to EDF's planned desecration of over 400 acres of pristine coastal land and coastline of ecological and scientific importance. Details below. West Somerset District Council has said it will accept submissions up until the relevant planning committee meeting.

From Stop Hinkley:

EdF's Application for Hinkley C “Preliminary Works”:

How To Object

Make sure you register your objection to EdF's application to carry out “Preliminary Works” for Hinkley C - in advance of receiving consent to build the power station itself. Full details of how to object can be found at the West Somerset Council website: Click here. A “non-technical summary” can be downloaded here and you can read the full application documents at WSC's Williton offices.

Public meetings about the application will be held in Stogursey (Friday 17 Dec, Victory Hall, 6.30-9.30pm) and Cannington (Wed 5 Jan, Cannington College , 6.30-9.30pm).

The Preliminary Works involve pre-construction activity across an area of more than 420 acres stretching from the Severn Estuary to the village of Shurton , filling in a beautiful valley and even starting excavation of the power station foundations down to a depth of up to 11 metres.

The plans include:

Removal of the majority of trees and hedges
Filling in a valley with excavated earth
Closure of existing footpaths and bridlepaths, including the coast path
Security fencing round the whole area
Stripping topsoil and vegetation to make a terraced area for the proposed nuclear reactors
New roads built across the site
Underground streams re-routed
The excavation of more than 2.3 million cubic metres of soil, sub-soil and rocks. This would be enough to fill Wembley Stadium twice over.
Noise and dust from the excavation work and thousands of heavy goods vehicle movements
Construction of new flood protection along the coast
Construction of a jetty out into the sea (separate application to the Maritime Management Organisation)

This work will also affect wildlife and protected areas:

The coastline bordering this land is part of the Bridgwater Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest. Bridgwater Bay 's shallow waters and mudflats are a sanctuary for thousands of waders, ducks and other sea birds, especially in winter.
The site is also bordered by Special Protection Areas, Special Areas of Conservation and a National Nature Reserve. Bridgwater Bay is designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
Bird species found in the area include skylark, lesser whitethroat, Cetti's warbler and nightingale.
Many species of bat frequent the site, including the relatively rare lesser horseshoe variety.

You should object to the application on all these grounds, as well as the overall point that EdF are jumping the gun, there is no urgency and they will never be able to return the land to its original state should they fail to get approval for Hinkley C.

"No Nuclear" bloc at London Climate March

2010-12-04T09:00:00.013+01:00

Images of the "No Nuclear" bloc can be viewed here:

http://tinyurl.com/26dmdjg

Invitation to join "Green Energy Not Nuclear Greenwash" bloc
@ National Climate March, London, Sat 4 December 2010

Join Kick Nuclear, London Rising Tide and others from the Stop Nuclear Power Network [1] to form a vibrant "Green Energy Not Nuclear Greenwash" bloc at the National Climate March for a Zero Carbon Britain in London on Saturday 4th December 2010. [2] Help us bring home the point that nuclear power undermines the real solutions to climate change [3] and has no place in a Zero Carbon Britain.

What to wear? What to bring?

Bring white overalls (the all-in-one kind you can get
from a pound shop) and a gas mask or white dust mask if possible. We'll be bringing banners, Stop Nuclear Power Network broadsheets [4] and Boycott EDF Energy [5] leaflets - but the more banners, bells and whistles the better.

Where and when?

Meet at 11.00am by the Christmas fun fair at Hyde Park Corner (to the right of the entrance arch by the fake Christmas trees) - 1 minute walk from EXIT 1 of HYDE PARK CORNER tube Station.

Please be on time so that we are together as a bloc for the special "aerial" photos that will be taken before the march moves off.

Hope to see you there, and please spread the word!

Kick Nuclear
Campaigning against the UK's addiction to nuclear power
http://boycottedf.org.uk

Notes

1. Stop Nuclear Power Network website: http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

2. See: http://www.campaigncc.org/climatemarch2010

3. See the following report: http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/reports/NewNuclearDamagesClimate.pdf
and
http://www.noneedfornuclear.org.uk

4. You can view the broadsheet here: http://andreasspeck.info/files/NuclearPeoplePower-Supplement.pdf

5. Boycott EDF website: http://boycottedf.org.uk

Anti-nuclear campaigners brand Government energy view a 'fantasy'

2010-11-30T12:31:00.010+01:00

See also: Nikki's report on her blog

PRESS RELEASE - 29 November 2010

Activists interrupt public meeting to read out ‘cautionary tale’

West country members of the Stop Nuclear Power Network, have slammed a government consultation on the future of the UK’s energy supply - held today (Monday) in Bristol - as ‘trying to sell a fantasy’. And activists attending the public meeting, held by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), interrupted this afternoon’s event to read out their own ‘cautionary tale’ - which outlines the nightmare future that could be created if a new generation of nuclear power stations is given the go-ahead.

Local activist, Nikki Clark, says preliminary statements on nuclear power published by the DECC prior to today’s meeting acknowledge the huge negative impact that nuclear new-build will have on communities, biodiversity and water resources. ‘Yet despite this, they are continuing to push their nuclear agenda - claiming that it’s in the public interest,’ she says.

In response, activists opposed to EDF’s bid to build two new reactors at Hinkley Point, Somerset, halted the meeting to read out their own ‘cautionary tale’. The story described the plight of a greedy king who buys a dragon that breathes endless supplies of fire from its mouth - but also creates a mountain of highly poisonous waste from its rear end.

‘We can't believe that a Government in the 21st century can get away with telling fairy stories about nuclear energy to the nation and dressing it up as fact,’ Nikki explained. ‘In response, we’ve created our own cautionary tale which clearly illustrates the fatal flaws in nuclear energy production. The problems associated with the long-term storage of radioactive waste remains unsolved and we feel outraged at the government’s blindness to this issue. The nuclear industry has already left us with a terrible legacy for future generations – and now the Government wants to compound the problem.'

Fellow campaigner, Zoe Smith, added: 'They're promoting nuclear power as a sustainable option and claiming that we can't meet our carbon reduction targets without it. Yet only three years ago the Sustainable Development Commission produced a report that reinforced the widely held position amongst academics and scientists that carbon reduction targets can be met without new nuclear build (2).'

Nikki Clark, who lives close to Hinkley Point, added: 'People need to be reminded that the nuclear industry is still as dangerous as it is ever was and that more reactors will just increase the possibility of more radioactive leaks or another Chernobyl-style disaster.'

ENDS

For further details contact Nancy Birch on: 07506-006597

1 - EN 6 draft statement on energy policy nuclear main report

2 - Sustainable Development Commission positon paper on the role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy

Protest over South Gloucestershire nuclear plant scheme

2010-11-27T13:34:00.004+01:00

From BBC Bristol:

The current power station at Oldbury is due to close next year.

A demonstration against plans for a new nuclear power plant in South Gloucestershire is taking place.

Continue reading the main story

Government consultation branded a con by campaigners

2010-11-26T15:08:00.013+01:00

Call to protest outside Bristol public meeting on Monday 29th November

West country members of the Stop Nuclear Power Network are urging people to join them in a protest at a Government public consultation meeting they brand as undemocratic, which will discuss the Government’s revised draft National Policy Statements on energy infrastructure (1) – they include the role of nuclear power in the UK’s future energy mix. The event is one of only three that will take place around the country.

"This so-called public meeting is highly undemocratic and has all the hallmarks of the secrecy (2) the nuclear industry is renowned for," said Nikki Clark, a campaigner who lives near Hinkley Point in north Somerset. "It has not been widely publicised and only 100 people have been allowed to attend."

The protest will take place this Monday (29th) outside the Armada House Conference and Events, Armada House, Telephone Avenue, Bristol at 1pm.

Local Stop Nuclear Power Network campaigners argue that the consultation does not acknowledge that nuclear power is dangerous, undemocratic and unaffordable.

"The high-level waste from nuclear power stations cannot be safely stored in the long term," said Nikki. "The Government has no clue how to deal with it - except for deep geological storage, a method that is deeply flawed, leaving the problem for future generations to deal with."

"Nuclear power originated as a way of producing material for atomic weapons and has never lost its link with the arms industry and war,” added Nikki. “Depleted uranium from the nuclear cycle is used in weapons that cause cancers and birth defects in places like Iraq and Bosnia."

Nikki said the Bristol meeting is being held during the daytime, making it difficult for working people to attend. Scheduled for two and a half hours, campaigners say the event will not allow enough time for attendees to question the extensive range of documents included in this consultation (a staggering 168 documents in total - of which 148 relate to the Government's plans for new nuclear.)

The campaigners say the true costs of producing energy from nuclear have never been honestly calculated and put before the public: for instance, they say the costs of decommissioning (at least £70bn for the existing reactors) are not included.

"This consultation exercise is a sham. The Government has no interest in what we have to say. It’s simply a box-ticking exercise so that it can avoid legal challenges in the future," said Nikki.

Susan Newland, another member of the Stop Nuclear Power Network, said, "We are going to be protesting about the Government’s proposal to build a new generation of nuclear power stations, starting with Hinkley Point."

"This proposal, if carried through, will pose a threat to our health and that of future generations. Nuclear power stations will poison the environment with radioactive waste and emissions. Even if the Government says it will not use public subsidies for the next generation of power plants, you can be sure the public will be paying for it one way or another."

Nikki added, "Caroline Lucas, our only Green MP, has slammed nuclear new build as unsafe and unnecessary.(4)( 5) We say it's a strategy the British people simply can't afford."

ENDS
=========================================================
Photo opportunity for attendees of meeting between 1:00 – 1:30pm
Further photo opportunities outside the venue at 4:30pm.

Notes

1. Power trip (article by Paul Dorfman on Government consultation in 2007)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/may/23/nuclearin...fairs

2. Brown given drubbing over nuclear (Greenpeace UK)
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/nuclear/brown-gets-a-...80103

3. Sustainable Development Commission position paper
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/...6.pdf

4. Caroline Lucas on new nuclear
http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/2008/01/10/green-eur...ment/

5. Nuclear power is not the solution to climate change - Pete Roche, Nuclear-Free Local Authorities, 2005
http://www.nuclearpolicy.info/docs/nuclearmonitor/c4h.pdf

(Last modified: 26 Nov 2010, 23:34)

Leading Greens sign up to anti-nuclear coalition

2010-11-25T21:09:00.008+01:00

Green Party of England and Wales Press Release
- 25 November 2010

Key Green Party figures, including leader Caroline Lucas MP, Green MEPs Jean Lambert and Keith Taylor, and Green London Assembly Members Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson, have signed up to the Kick Nuclear coalition.

They have signed up both as individuals, and on behalf of the Green Party.

The London group is part of the Stop Nuclear Power Network, which was formed earlier this year to campaign against government plans to commission a new generation of nuclear power stations next spring.

In October, the group launched the Boycott EDF campaign, calling on EDF Energy customers to switch energy providers, as a protest against the company's position as the principal promoter of nuclear energy in the UK.

Note

1. The campaign website offers information on switching providers, and a list of more environmentally friendly energy providers. For more details of the Boycott EDF campaign, visit their website at http://boycottedf.org.uk/.

Anti Nuclear Lecture Day and Action March in Thornbury, near Bristol - Sat 27 Nov

2010-11-24T09:00:00.001+01:00

Via Indymedia UK:

Anti Nuclear Lecture Event in Thornbury , near Bristol

We have a lecture day planned on Saturday 27th November in Thornbury, nr Bristol and will also include a march against new nuclear. If you can make it for either the lectures or the march or both you will be welcome.

Speakers include Prof Stephen Thomas, Prof Andy Blowers, Prof Tom Burke, Prof Gareth Williams, Dr Ian Fairlie

Details can be found on our blog:
http://www.shepperdineagainstnuclearenergy.blogspot.com

Power to the little people!

Reg
e-mail: Oldburynuclear [at] btinternet.com

EDF Energy slammed for cruelty to Hinkley badgers

2010-11-23T12:58:00.008+01:00

Pressure group warns of future safety risks at nuclear power plant

Energy giant EDF Energy has been blasted for breaching conservation guidelines and forcing a colony of badgers off land earmarked for controversial new nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point in north Somerset. Environmentalists warn that future corner-cutting could put lives at risk if construction of the two new reactors gets the green light.

According to the Badger Trust, the legally-protected animals should only be moved ‘as a last resort’. However, EDF Energy has begun blocking off the badgers’ burrows or ‘setts’ - even though the company has not yet applied for planning permission for the 400-acre Hinkley C power station.

‘This is a clear warning of how EDF Energy intends to operate in the future,’ says Nancy Birch, spokeswoman for the anti nuclear energy campaign, Kick Nuclear. ‘The company is using its commercial muscle to cut corners. At the moment it’s badgers that are suffering. But our concern is that the same attitude may cause people to suffer if Hinkley C gets the go-ahead and there is an accident or radioactive leak.’

Spokesman for the Badgers Trust, Jack Reedy, said badgers can suffer distress and violence if they are dislodged. “If it’s not done very carefully, it can be very stressful for the animals and unbelievably cruel,’ he explained. ‘There is no guarantee they will use artificial setts and if the badgers try to move in with a new colony, they can fight and sustain quite severe injuries.’

Kick Nuclear has slammed EDF Energy for persuading environmental watchdog, Natural England, to grant a premature licence to block off the setts. Natural England’s policy guidelines states that it will only issue a licence, ‘after detailed planning permission has been granted.’ However EDF Energy has already been given the go-ahead – even though the company has not yet formally applied for planning permission.

Nancy Birch points out that nuclear energy generation is dangerous and difficult to control. ‘The safety of the British public can’t be assured when we see EDF Energy behaving in this way,’ she says.

Natural England claim that the Hinkley project is ‘an exceptional’ case and that granting an early licence will avoid delays in planning applications and construction. But as Nancy points out, ‘Natural England is meant to protect wildlife – not the interests of powerful multinationals. They must share responsibility for the cruelty being imposed on these poor creatures.’

In recent months, there has been a growing wave of opposition to the new reactor. In October, local protestors blockaded the entrance to the current reactor site at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Meanwhile a new campaign was recently launched calling for a Boycott of EDF Energy across the UK.

‘Deep concern about the storage of large amounts of radioactive waste at Hinkley has not been resolved and the development of Hinkley C is by no means cut and dried,’ says Nikki Clark a member of Somerset-based campaign group, Stop Hinkley. ‘With such a dangerous form of energy, EDF should be showing best practice at every stage. Their approach to the local badger population does not bode well for the future.’

Natural England has said that if planning permission were to be refused, the badgers would be allowed to return to their original burrows. In response Nikki says, ‘This is no consolation to the badgers. The damage has been done and clearly demonstrates EDF Energy’s contempt for wildlife. There is a good chance that there will be no badgers left to return to the burrows.’

Despite being the national experts in the protection of badgers, the Badger Trust says it was not consulted over the removal of badgers from the site.

For more information: contact Nancy Birch at Kick Nuclear on 07811 451417 or
Crispin Aubrey, spokesman for Stop Hinkley on 01278-732921

ENDS

Notes:

Images attached are of land earmarked for EDF Energy’s proposed 400 acre development. Photographer: Paul Glendell.

Kick Nuclear is a national campaign group which aims to highlight the dangers of nuclear energy.

The government is planning to give the green light to a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK next spring.

There are many reasons why this must not happen:

*Nuclear energy is not safe*

Mismanagement of nuclear waste over the last 60 years has meant that radiation has already contaminated our environment(1). Radiation causes cancer and eventually kills.

The nuclear industry is struggling to deal with 500,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste being stored around the UK. There is no approved method of long-term storage.

March 2010: nuclear power station operator, Magnox, fined £250,000 for allowing 14 years of radioactive leaks from a holding tank at Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex (2).

April 2010: Sellafield nuclear processing facility exposed for dumping five bags of radioactive waste in a landfill site after a faulty scanner passed them as safe (3).

Since 2000, there have been near-disasters at reactors in Sweden (4), the Netherlands (5), Japan (6) and France (7).
The nuclear industry says that the new generation of reactors will be safer. But human error, earthquakes, floods or terrorism can never be ruled out.

*Nuclear energy is not green*

The Sustainable Development Commission estimates that a nuclear power programme will only deliver a cut in carbon dioxide emissions of 2.4% by 2020 (8).

Uranium (nuclear fuel) extraction and processing is one of the most dangerous and carbon-intensive forms of mining.

Nuclear waste from new reactors will be even more toxic than existing radioactive by-products (9).

*Nuclear energy is not cheap*

The current decommissioning and clean-up costs for the UK’s existing nuclear industry is equivalent to a bill of over £1,600 for every person in the UK (10).

Construction of the first new EPR reactor in Finland is 3 years behind schedule and more than £1bn over-budget.
UK taxpayers have always subsidised the nuclear industry to manage nuclear waste, insure against accidents and provide protection against terrorism.

When David Cameron says new reactors will be built without public subsidy, he means subsidies will be provided under another name.

It’s likely that the cost of building new reactors will be transferred to our electricity use - so we’ll be billed directly. Moreover, nuclear power only accounts for around 3% of our total energy use.

*There are alternatives*

Reports by respected organisations in both the UK and Europe have shown that there are more than enough renewable sources of power to meet present and future needs. Reducing our energy demand is the key.

Renewables are cheaper, can be built more quickly and have none of the dangers associated with nuclear energy. They could also create thousands of new jobs. What we need is a government that has the vision and courage to make this happen.

The development of smart-grids will allow a much more flexible supply of power from different sources to meet different demands. Nuclear energy is a dinosaur in the mix. It has no place in our future.

A few of the alternative strategies available can be found via:

Centre for Alternative Technology’s report: Zero Carbon Britain

Sustainable Development Commission’s report: Nuclear power in a low carbon economy

Greenpeace’s report: Decentralising Power: an energy revolution for the 21st century

References

1. http://www.atomicarchive.com/Reports/Japan/Accidents.shtmlwww.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7107865.ece
2. http://environment-agency.gov.uk/news/103626.aspx
3. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7107865.ece
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsmark_Nuclear_Power_Plant
5. http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/11/nuclear_secrets_netherlands_nu.html
6. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/earthquake-fire-and-nuclear-l/
7. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,564826,00.html
8. The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy, Paper 2: reducing Co2 emissions – nuclear and alternatives, Sustainable Development Commission, p 29
9. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/new-nuclear-reactor-s-waste-is/
10. Switching Power, Greenpeace, March 2006, p2 and http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/decentralised-energy-w

Kick Nuclear
Campaigning against the UK's addiction to nuclear power
http://boycottedf.org.uk
campaign [at] boycottedf.org.uk

Kick Nuclear is affiliated to the Stop Nuclear Power Network
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Stop Hinkley website: http://www.stophinkley.org

Protest at Queen's visit to Rotherham nuclear 'death park'

2010-11-18T17:17:00.012+01:00

Source: Indymedia UK

Protesters greeted the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as they visited the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham to officially launch building work on the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC).

"Protest at Queens [sic] visit to the Nuclear Death Park in Rotherham" - Indymedia UK feature
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/11/468296.html

More photos: https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/11/468162.html

More background info:

"nuclear dawn at rotherhams advanced manufacturing park"

http://sheffield.indymedia.org.uk/2010/11/467270.html

"1pm tomorro party for peace at royal visit to death park"
http://sheffield.indymedia.org.uk/2010/11/468104.html

Official press release from Nuclear AMRC website regarding royal visit:
http://namrc.group.shef.ac.uk/nuclear/nuclear-amrc-construction-launched-by-her-majesty-the-queen

Scandalous police repression against nonviolent activists in France

2010-11-09T18:15:00.005+01:00

From "Sortir du nucléaire" network (France):

Nuclear State, police state: scandalous repression against non-violent activists.

Following a mobilisation on an unprecedented scale, the transfer of eleven containers of highly radioactive waste from La Hague (Manche) to Gorleben (Germany) took twice as long than expected.

In France, state repression and police raged against seven militants from GANVA (Group of Anti-nuclear Non-Violent Actions) who were attached in arm tubes under the rails to stop the "train from hell" in Caen(Normandy). The Network "Sortir du nucléaire" calls supporters and all citizens to support the Ganva. Financial assistance is urgent. The trial will take place on 8 December in Caen.

Police violence and state repression: the authorities under the heel of the nuclear lobby.

It is unacceptable in response to a non-violent action that the police use violence and deliberately injure people. GANVA activists have decided to file a complaint. The decision of the prosecutor and the judge clearly shows the will power to suppress acts of civil disobedience that would prejudice the interests of the nuclear lobby. This decision follows the current trend of systematic repression of protests and acts of political protest.

These facts show us once again that nuclear power is incompatible with democracy and can not withstand true transparency. If the population had actually been informed of the risks and dangers inherent in using the atom, the nuclear industry could not develop so easily in France

Background

On November 5, 2010, a convoy of German vitrified highly radioactive compound of 11 containers "Castor", left Valognes (France) to reach the storage site in Gorleben, Germany. At 3:40pm , 5 GANVA activists attached themselves under the rails with arm tubes at 100 m from a Viaduct, just before the Caen train station, forcing the train to stop. It remained stationary for 3 and a half hours. The philosophy of this action was peaceful and non-violent and not having to physically confront the police. The actual blocking of the train was based on physical barriers. Five militants were attached inside metal tubes passed under the tracks. It was the responsibility of the "gendarmes" and police to remove everyone safely!

Instead facing pressure from their superiors, the police lost their cool and injured three people by cutting the tubes. Even after the first person was injured, they continued in the same brutal manner. One of them had two severed tendons in his hand and had to undergo surgery, the other two were burned and must undergo a skin graft. Both directly burned were placed in custody and could not consult a doctor again until much later the next day. The militant who had two severed tendons was directly led into custody under police escort when leaving the hospital. In the end, six activists were kept in custody for 24 hours and seven are subject to bail before the case with 16 500 € to pay before November 15.

If they don't pay they will be incarcerated until their trial, to be held on 8 December 2pm at the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) in Caen.

Faced with this injustice , Network "Sortir du nucléaire" , calls for financial solidarity and massive support for the GANVA activists in Caen on 8 December.

Our resistance knows no boundaries!
Notre résistance ne connait pas de frontière !
Unser Widerstand kennt keine Staatsgrenzen!

Press Contacts:
Steven Mitchell +33 (0)952 495 022
Sophie Morel + 33 (0)6 83 55 15 24

Information, online donation:
http://groupes.sortirdunucleaire.org/blogs/train-d-enfer-transport-la-hague/article/action-de-blocage-du-ganva-a-caen

To support the GANVA, cheque payable to the APSAJ (in euros) - Association for Solidarity and Legal Aid: APSAJ, 6 during the Allied 35000 - Rennes

Code IBAN : FR76 4255 9000 5541 0200 1473 207
Code BIC : CCOPFRPPXXX

Contact GANVA: ganva [at] riseup.net
http://ganva.blogspot.com (in French)
English version of website

EDF Energy targeted by anti-nuclear campaigners

2010-10-11T09:30:00.003+02:00

Press release: for immediate use

11.10.10

Activists opposed to the government’s plans for a new generation of nuclear power plants today launched a nationwide campaign to boycott EDF Energy.

The Boycott EDF Action Group is calling for customers of the energy giant to switch their accounts to rival companies. ‘EDF Energy is the biggest player in the UK nuclear sector. We’re asking the public to show their opposition to the company’s plans to build at least four new reactors by hitting them where it hurts most – in their pocket,’ says spokeswoman Camilla Berens.
EDF Energy claims that nuclear energy is clean and safe but this is clearly not the case. ‘There have been four recorded near-catastrophes at power stations around the world in the past decade and frequent reports of mismanagement and radiation leaks at plants in the UK,’ Berens explains.
The nuclear industry is currently struggling to deal with more than 500,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste being stored in the UK and there is no approved method of long-term storage. ‘The UK needs nuclear power like it needs a flood of Hungarian red sludge,’ Berens concludes.
The Boycott EDF Action group was set up to counter the growing misconception that new reactors are needed to bridge the imminent energy gap. ‘There are plenty of other alternatives such as combined heat and power plants used by Woking Borough Council and in many cities in Scandinavia,’ says Berens. ‘Regionally-based energy solutions are more democratic and don’t leave us with the threat of another Chernobyl hanging over our heads.’
The boycott will allow people to actively demonstrate their opposition to EDF’s bid to profit from a new era in nuclear power. ‘Switching energy provider online is easy these days,’ says Berens. ‘If you aren’t an EDF customer, you’re sure to know people who are. We’ve also put this out on Twitter and Facebook so we hope it will go viral.’
The boycott launch comes just days after anti-nuclear activists blockaded the entrance to EDF Energy’s plant in Hinkley, Somerset, to protest at plans to build a new reactor on the site and a flawed consultation.
The campaign’s website gives a step by step guide to switching energy providers online and can be found at http://boycottedf.org.uk/
For more information contact Camilla Berens on 07506 006597

Notes to the editor

The Boycott EDF Action Group is calling for a nationwide boycott of EDF Energy because:
EDF Energy is a world leader in nuclear energy and has most to gain from the proposed development of a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK
EDF Energy dominates the UK market: it owns 8 of the 10 active nuclear power plants and plans to build at least four new reactors.

The campaign's demands to EDF are:

1. Cancel all plans for new nuclear plants in the UK.

2. Shut down of all EDF-owned or controlled nuclear power stations in the UK.

3. No replacement of nuclear with coal or oil-fired power stations

4. EDF to decarbonizes by 2030 by shifting its focus onto renewables. The seeds are already sown: EDF Energy owns two wind farms and is developing an off-shore site. It has invested £3m in tidal energy research and is building a combined heat and power plants in Nottinghamshire.

The Boycott EDF Action Group opposes new nuclear for the following reasons:

Not Safe

Mismanagement of nuclear waste over the last 60 years has meant that radiation has already contaminated our environment(1). Radiation causes cancer and eventually kills.

March 2010: nuclear power station operator, Magnox, fined £250,000 for allowing 14 years of radioactive leaks from a holding tank at Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex (2).

April 2010: Sellafield nuclear processing facility exposed for dumping five bags of radioactive waste in a landfill site after a faulty scanner passed them as safe (3).

August 2010: Serious fire at Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory.

Since 2000, there have been near-disasters at reactors in Sweden (4), the Netherlands (5), Japan (6) and France (7).

The nuclear industry says that the new generation of reactors will be safer. But human error, earthquakes, floods or terrorism can never be ruled out.

Not Green

The Sustainable Development Commission estimates that a nuclear power programme will only deliver a cut in carbon dioxide emissions of 2.4% by 2020 (8).

Uranium (nuclear fuel) extraction and processing is one of the most dangerous and carbon-intensive forms of mining.

Nuclear waste from new reactors will be even more toxic than existing radioactive by-products (9).

Not Cheap

The current decommissioning and clean-up costs for the UK’s existing nuclear industry is equivalent to a bill of over £1,600 for every person in the UK (10).

Construction of the first new EPR reactor in Finland is 3 years behind schedule and more than £1bn over-budget.

UK taxpayers have always subsidised the nuclear industry to manage nuclear waste, insure against accidents and provide protection against terrorism.

When David Cameron says new reactors will be built without public subsidy, he means subsidies will be provided under another name.

It’s likely that the cost of building new reactors will be transferred to our electricity use - so we’ll be billed directly. Moreover, nuclear power only accounts for around 3% of our total energy use.

What’s the alternative?

Reports by respected organisations in both the UK and Europe have shown that there are more than enough renewable sources of power to meet present and future needs. Reducing our energy demand is the key.

Renewables are cheaper, can be built more quickly and have none of the dangers associated with nuclear energy. They could also create thousands of new jobs.

The development of smart-grids will allow a much more flexible supply of power from different sources to meet different demands. Nuclear energy is a dinosaur in the mix. It has no place in our future.

A few of the alternative strategies available can be found via:

Centre for Alternative Technology’s report: Zero Carbon Britain

Sustainable Development Commission’s report: Nuclear power in a low carbon economy

Greenpeace’s report: Decentralising Power: an energy revolution for the 21^st century

References

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Reports/Japan/Accidents.shtml, www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7107865.ece
http://environment-agency.gov.uk/news/103626.aspx
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7107865.ece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsmark_Nuclear_Power_Plant
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/11/nuclear_secrets_netherlands_nu.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/earthquake-fire-and-nuclear-l/
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,564826,00.html
The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy, Paper 2: reducing Co2 emissions – nuclear and alternatives, Sustainable Development Commission, p 29
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/new-nuclear-reactor-s-waste-is/
Switching Power, Greenpeace, March 2006, p2 and http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/decentralised-energy-w

ENDS

Anti-nuclear campaigners blockade EDF's Hinkley Point nuclear power plant

2010-10-04T09:20:00.011+02:00

Hinkley Point, Somerset, Monday 4 October 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Anti-nuclear campaigners blockade EDF's Hinkley Point nuclear power plant

Photos: Stop Nuclear Power Network

Since 7am this morning, anti-nuclear campaigners from different anti-nuclear groups which are part of the Stop Nuclear Power Network [1] are blockading the access road to EDF's Hinkley Point nuclear power station in protest against EDF's plans for nuclear new build and what they are calling a flawed consultation.

Dressed in badger costumes, and locked on across the only access road to Hinkley Point nuclear power station, the activists protest against a flawed EDF consultation for a new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, which ends today. "This EDF-led consultation is a con" says Mell, a teacher from Suffolk "While it is good to involve the local community, the main question - whether a new nuclear power station should be built or not - is not part of the consultation. What kind of democracy is this if the most important question - whether we want to expose ourselves and coming generations to nuclear danger and radioactive waste - is not part of the consultation?".

Even before EDF has secured planning permission for Hinkley Point C, the company wants to begin with 'enabling works', which has upset the local community. Nikki, a Bridgwater Mum said: "From this autumn on, EDF wants to dynamite and bulldoze 435 acre of green fields - habitats for badgers, bats, and other wildlife, and in close proximity to Bridgwater Bay, which is a sanctuary for thousands of waders, ducks, and other sea birds. It is a joke to think this land could be restored - as EDF claims - should Hinkley C not be built."[2]

"To resist EDF's plans for nuclear expansion, not only here at Hinkley Point, but also at Sizewell, Bradwell, Hartlepool, and Heysham, we call for a boycott of EDF [3]. EDF might try to greenwash itself, but however hard they try, EDF still stands for nuclear power, and here in Hinkley Point also for Eagerly Destroying Fields. As consumers, we have the power to make our opinion known by boycotting EDF, but also by taking nonviolent direct action. If EDF wants to nuke the climate and the planet, the nonviolent resistance is not just an option, but a duty - at Sizewell, and here at Hinkley Point" [4], says Nicola Deane from Suffolk.

Press contacts:
- 07973-683936 (on site)
- 07976-705127 (on site)

Notes for journalists

[1] The Stop Nuclear Power Network is a UK-based non-hierarchical grassroots network of groups and individuals taking action against nuclear power and its expansion and supporting sustainable alternatives. We encourage and seek to facilitate nonviolent direct action, as well as more conventional forms of campaigning. For more information see http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

[2] See Stop Hinkley's press release from 13 August 2010: EdF to dynamite and bulldoze Hinkley 44 acre greenfield site, http://stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr100813.htm

[3] For more information on the campaign to boycott EDF, see http://boycottedf.org.uk

[4] Some of the activists involved in today's blockade also blockaded Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk on 22 February 2010. See http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2010/02/local-democracy-dumped-sizewell-nuclear.html

[5] Recently leaked documents of EDF show that the reactor technology chosen for Hinkley Point C is all but safe, and that a Chernobyl style catastrophe is possible.
See Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire": EXCLUSIVE: Confidential EDF documents show serious accident risks with the EPR reactor, 30 September 2010, http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/index.php?menu=english&sousmenu=presse&page=index#

Stop Nuclear Power Network national gathering, Bristol, 23-24 October

2010-09-17T12:06:00.010+02:00

The Stop Nuclear Power Network is a grassroots network of groups and individuals taking action against nuclear power and its expansion and supporting sustainable alternatives.

Date for your diaries:
National network gathering, Saturday 23rd to Sunday 24th October, Bristol (venue tbc)

Meet people from your region and from around the country who are taking action against nuclear power. Make plans together and build solidarity with people who live next door to Hinkley Point.

Saturday: Plot and plan for the future, and make plans for Sunday.

Sunday: This is up to you. Perhaps a skill share, a direct action workshop, or even taking our message to the street in Bristol.

Lunch and dinner Saturday, and Sunday lunch.

Crash space available on a dry, warm and quiet floor space. If you need a bed, please get in contact ASAP and we'll try and help you out.

For a telephone number to contact during the weekend, send us an email.

Please help by letting us know you are coming so we can plan for space, food and logistics.
Email: nonewnuclear [at] aktivix.org

Solidarity with Stop Hinkley

If EdF get their way, Hinkley C in Somerset will become the first nuclear power station built in Britain for 20 years. Stop Hinkley is a long running community campaign to stop deadly nuclear sites being built near their homes. Their struggle is our struggle.

Demo at Hinkley Point, Sept 2010 (D. Viesnik)

Action against EDF

EDF is one of the largest electricity companies and is 85% owned by the French state. In Britain, EDF wants to build new nuclear reactors at four sites, the first being at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk.
http://boycottedf.org.uk

Campaigning on the re-re-re-CONsultation

The government is taking its pro-nuclear propaganda on tour around the UK for the third time this autumn in an attempt to escape legal challenges to its nuclear ambitions. We'll be at the CONsultations, letting everyone know the greenwashed, profit-driven agenda they are spewing out.

For more info about the weekend, contact: nonewnuclear [at] aktivix.org

Sign up to the mailing list by e-mailing: stopnuclearpower-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Stop Nuclear Power Network

London nuclear conference demo calls for EDF boycott

2010-09-13T21:44:00.010+02:00

Demo outside QEII Conference Centre (D. Viesnik) *

Delegates to a nuclear suppliers’ conference taking place in central London this morning (Monday) were greeted by ten anti-nuclear activists displaying banners calling for a boycott of energy giant
Électricité de France (EDF), the organisers of the conference.

The campaigners had travelled from Suffolk, Wiltshire and London to attend the hour-long demonstration, organised by Kick Nuclear (part of the Stop Nuclear Power Network), outside the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) Conference Centre in Westminster. In addition to leafleting visitors to the conference; the activists, some of whom were dressed in white overalls, targeted delegates arriving at a World Nuclear Association symposium taking place opposite, as well as members of the public.

Debt-ridden EDF (85%-owned by the French taxpayer) is steaming ahead with its plans to build new nuclear reactors at four sites in England, the first of which would be at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Even before any planning application has been submitted for a new reactor at Hinkley, and well before the ill-fated European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), designed by French multi-national Areva, is likely to be approved by safety authorities in the UK (or any other country), EDF has begun to leave its mark on the landscape. The company has spent the past few months drilling and carrying out underground explosions and tests at the greenfield site earmarked for Hinkley C, which lies adjacent to two existing reactors situated a few miles north of Bridgwater, on the north Somerset coast.

Activists visiting the site on Sunday as part of a weekend gathering organised by Stop Hinkley saw at first hand how badger setts had been recently filled in with cement. They saw where EDF intends to continue to wreak its trail of destruction on this beautiful landscape, including the tearing down of ancient hedgerows and the loss of habitats for rare species of bat and other wildlife.

Demo at Hinkley Point (D. Viesnik) *

Badger setts cemented in (D. Viesnik) *

The next national gathering of the Stop Nuclear Power Network will take place in Bristol on the weekend of 23-24 October 2010. For more details, contact nonewnuclear [at] aktivix.org

Boycott EDF website: http://boycottedf.org.uk

*Images are copyright but may be reproduced free of charge for non-commercial use if credited. For high resolution versions / commercial use, please e-mail: vd2012-npp [at] yahoo.co.uk

Successful Hinkley Demo - report and pics

2010-09-12T23:16:00.010+02:00

http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/693446

A large group of campaigners, together with local residents including children, held banners and placards in front of Hinkley Point, preventing any traffic movements. The Hinkley main gates were forced to shut from 11.45 to 12.45pm and no traffic entered or left during that time. Some of the protestors wore face paint images of sunflowers, the Stop Hinkley logo and anti-nuclear signs. Others dressed as nuclear 'boffins' and with a loudhailer led a march through the ear-marked greenfield site.

The 'nuclear boffins' highlighted badger setts which had been cemented over or had been covered with metal grills, beautiful old woodlands and individual trees destined to be bulldozed and they walked down some of the scores of sunken lanes criss-crossing the fields lined by ancient hedgerows brimming with wildlife.

At the coast the tour-guides showed where the so-called 'temporary' jetty will be built over the 200 million year old fossil-filled rocky beach.

At the beach destination of the march, one campaigner read aloud a poem on the need to respect nature and its part in global ecology.

Crispin Aubrey, spokesman for Stop Hinkley who marshalled the demonstration, said: "There is obvious strong feeling against destroying this beautiful area. Despite being close to the existing power stations there are large expanses of beauty and tranquility. It's wrong for EdF to jump the gun by trashing the area such a long time before it receives major consents for the two reactors."

The protest was part of a two day Action Weekend. Yesterday a series of talks and workshops took place in Bridgwater for campaigners around the region. Three national-level speakers gave talks:

Greenpeace

Ben Ayliffe, nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace said: "Greenpeace is opposed to new nuclear power stations because they would make a minimal contribution towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they have multiple dangers from long-lived radioactive waste through to nuclear proliferation, and they are a distraction from real solutions such as renewable energy."

"In particular we see two major problems - waste disposal and economics – both could sink the proposal for Hinkley C," he said.

"The coalition government has said that there will be no subsidies for new nuclear plant. Economics could be the thing that makes it impossible for Hinkley C to go ahead. No nuclear power station has ever been built without public subsidy.”

On waste he said that the amount EDF were being asked to pay for disposing of the radioactive legacy from Hinkley C was not enough to cover the true cost. “It amounts to a £1 billion subsidy to the company per year, according to our calculations,” he said.

He also referred to delays and cost over-runs on similar projects in both Finland and France, where the first reactors like the one proposed for Hinkley C are being built.

The Greenpeace strategy was to challenge the process of approving new nuclear power stations all the way. This included exposing the risky economics, promoting the alternatives and legal challenges.

Health

Professor Chris Busby talked about studies that he, and Somerset Health authority in the eighties, had shown that there was a higher incidence of cancers round Hinkley Point and other nuclear power stations. He said the international model used by regulators to estimate the effects of radiation on human health is being widely challenged, and a former head of the international radiation commission accepted that their model did not stand up in the case of a serious accident.

"Our studies have shown raised levels of cancer along the downwind coast from Hinkley to Burnham-on-Sea. Health officials have objected to our findings on spurious grounds including random clusters in other areas but year on year we keep finding an entrenched problem near Hinkley. The officials have got it wrong."

Alternatives

Neil Crumpton, former Friends of the Earth energy campaigner, presented an alternative vision of the UK’s electricity supply in which nuclear power was marginalised and new sources of renewable energy, such as concentrated solar power imported from North Africa, were developed on a large scale. He also dismissed the suggestion that the lights would go out without nuclear, listing the many other options, including gas-fired plants, which were queueing up to fill any gap in supply.

"Friends of the Earth and other organisations are confident we can put forward a reasonable low carbon energy network based on current technology. More than that we can very soon tap resources like Clean Coal Technology and solar-power from the Sahara to boost our own abundant natural elements of wind, tide and wave driven electricity."

Jim Duffy

Stop Hinkley Coordinator

www.stophinkley.org

07798 666756

Quotes from Crispin Aubrey who coordinated the Action weekend: 01278 732921 / 07920 523673

Professional photographs for the media available immediately from

Simon Chapman: 07889 747916

Dozens "dead" after nuclear waste train incident in London

2010-07-19T00:59:00.008+02:00

Die-in in front of Stratford train station (D. Viesnik)

More images from the demo:
http://tinyurl.com/nuketrainsdemopics10July2010

What if: "Dozens died immediately and thousands more have been exposed to dangerous levels of cancer-causing radiation after a train carrying high level nuclear waste exploded as it passed through the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London this afternoon. The public is being warned to steer well clear of the area as the radioactive plume makes its way across the capital and the southern half of England."

The risk of just such a scenario, whether caused by an accident or terrorist attack, prompted the Nuclear Trains Action Group to organise a die-in in front of Stratford station in east London as part of a demonstration on Saturday, 10 July 2010 against nuclear waste being transported by rail through the Olympic Park and densely populated areas of north London.

The protest started with a rally in Victoria Park, led by Kate Hudson, chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Other speakers included London Green Party MEP Jean Lambert, and Dan Viesnik and Mell Harrison from the Stop Nuclear Power Network (SNPN).

Around 70 protesters then marched for around three miles around the perimeter of the site for the London 2012 Olympics, along a canal, accompanied by a significant police presence. Carrying placards, and banners from the Nuclear Trains Action Group, local CND groups, the Green Party, SNPN and Action East End.
Upon arrival at Stratford station, the marchers proceeded to "die" in front of the entrance (although it was difficult to tell whether they had not in fact fainted from the exhaustion of walking in the sweltering heat). Some of those who remained on their feet, seemingly impervious to the pervasive radiation, handed out hundreds of leaflets to curious passers by, whilst others chalked around the outlines of the corpses.

After around half an hour of this carnage, the corpses transformed into zombies, rising to their feet and promptly moving off to quench their terrible thirst.

Images are Copyright (c) 2010 D. Viesnik, but may be reproduced free of charge for non-commercial use if credited. For high resolution versions / commercial use, please e-mail vd2012-picasa[at]yahoo.co.uk

More images from the demo:
http://tinyurl.com/nuketrainsdemopics10July2010

Related articles:

Olympics nuclear waste trains are potential terrorist target, warns London MEP
http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2010/07/16/olympics-nuclear-waste-trains-are-potential-terrorist-target-warns-london-mep/
Transcript of Jean Lambert MEP's speech
http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/news_detail.php?id=576
Tonnes of radioactive waste casts doubt over London's Olympic stadium legacy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/20/radioactive-waste-olympic-site

'Radioactive waste threat' to future of Stratford site
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23847172-radioactive-waste-threat-to-future-of-stratford-site.do
'Terror risk' over nuclear cargo
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5202024.stm

Links:
Nuclear Trains Action Group
http://www.nonucleartrains.org.uk
Stop Nuclear Power Network
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net
Action East End
http://actioneastend.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/on-the-wrong-track

Olympics nuclear waste trains are potential terrorist target, warns London MEP

2010-07-18T15:53:00.006+02:00

* Click here for photos from the rally, march and die-in *

Die-in in front of Stratford train station (D. Viesnik)

From The Hackney Citizen, 16 July 2010:

Olympics nuclear waste trains are potential terrorist target, warns London MEP

Jean Lambert slams toxic transit through Hackney

Last weekend Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP, supported renewed calls from campaigners to end the running of trains transporting nuclear waste through Hackney.

Trains carrying radioactive nuclear fuel rods run at least once a week alongside passenger services on the North London Line – right through the 2012 Olympic Park site – en route to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria.

(Article continues)

© 2010 Citizen Media

Full article: http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2010/07/16/olympics-nuclear-waste-trains-are-potential-terrorist-target-warns-london-mep/

More info: Nuclear Trains Action Group

Stop Hinkley Campaign At Glastonbury

2010-06-25T23:00:00.023+02:00

(Image: S. Aubrey)

*Click here for more photos*

From Jack FM:

Festival goers are being asked to support a campaign against plans for a nuclear power station in Somerset.

French energy company EDF is proposing to create an £8 billion nuclear power plant 24 miles away from the festival site at Hinkley Point.

The "Hinkley C"development would be the largest site of its kind in the UK, if it gets built.

Throughout this weekend's Glastonbury Festival members of the Stop Hinkley Campaign will be on site at Worthy Farm to raise the public's awareness of the proposals.

Read full article here: http://www.jackbristol.com/newscentre/bristols-news/stop-hinkley-campaign-at-glastonbury-4486

Stop the Great Nuclear Rip Off! Demo, 15 June, London

2010-06-08T11:19:00.015+02:00

Demonstration outside the Nuclear Industry Forum, Westminster, London, Tuesday 15 June 2010

Images from the demo (D. Viesnik)

Tuesday 15 June, 2010, 8.30am – 10am, One Whitehall Place (adj. to The Royal Horseguards hotel), Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EJ (Embankment / Charing Cross tube)

Conference website: http://www.marketforce.eu.com/Conferences/nuclear10/

Map: http://www.guoman.com/en/hotels/united_kingdom/london/the_royal_horseguards/location/index.html

(n.b. police notified in writing, as required under existing SOCPA legislation)

E-mail: london [at] stopnuclearpoweruk.net

http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

The new Con-Lib coalition government supports the building of up to ten new nuclear power stations in the UK, but has pledged that there will be no public subsidies for new nuclear build. The new Energy Secretary, Lib Dem Chris Huhne, has been strongly opposed to new nuclear build in the past, but now he is in government he and his party seem to have changed their tune and have agreed not to vote against new nuclear.

As for the 'no subsidies' pledge, no nuclear power station has ever been built anywhere in the world without public subsidies. It is clear that the taxpayer would be left with a hefty bill if nuclear new build goes ahead through a host of hidden subsidies [1,2]: these include the proposed hike in ‘carbon pricing’ that would favour new nuclear, major cash from the public purse to pay for decommissioning the power stations and dealing with the waste, and underwriting the massive insurance liabilities of an accident or terrorist attack. Decommissioning the existing nuclear facilities alone is estimated to cost the UK taxpayer well in excess of £70bn.

Multinational nuclear corporations - among them France’s EDF and Areva, and Germany’s E.ON and RWE Npower - in collaboration with their political sympathisers / cronies in Westminster, are seeking to capitalise on increasing public concern over climate change with attempts to rebrand nuclear power as a “green” source of electricity. They know that the general public will not accept new nuclear reactors if they learn the truth about this secretive and dirty industry.

The long history of cover-ups, deceit and shoddy and dangerous practices stretches back over fifty years, when nuclear power was first developed as a means of producing plutonium for the atomic bomb. The industry wants us to believe that a leopard can change its spots, but the only thing that really seems to change is the PR tactics.

Nuclear expansion would lead to a greater risk of global nuclear weapons proliferation, more and deadlier radioactive emissions, a legacy of even more nuclear waste being dumped indefinitely on local communities with no permanent solution in sight, and the ever-present risk of a Chernobyl-style nuclear catastrophe or terrorist attack. Nuclear power is a dirty, dangerous and expensive distraction from the wholesale changes needed to bring about a safe and sustainable low-carbon future and green industry, based on more modest consumption, energy efficiency and conservation, and renewable and decentralised energy; a future in which we no longer have to rely on non-renewable and unsustainable uranium, plutonium and fossil fuels.

Join us as we demonstrate outside the Nuclear Industry Forum in central London to send a clear message to the industry and the Government that we don’t buy the greenwash and we reject false solutions like nuclear power.

Organised by Stop Nuclear Power London & SE, part of the Stop Nuclear Power Network - fighting for a nuclear-free, sustainable energy future for the UK and the world.

http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Footnote

1. See Nuke Subsidies Galore, Paul Flynn MP: http://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/nuke-subsidies-galore.html

2. Nuclear Subsidies - report by Energy Fair, Dec 2009 http://www.mng.org.uk/nsubsidies.pdf
http://www.energyfair.org.uk

Chernobyl memorial at Sizewell Camp - video

2010-06-08T10:49:00.006+02:00

Click here for the Chernobyl (twinned with Sizewell) - 24 year Memorial video
- filmed at Sizewell anti-nuclear camp in Suffolk in April

Film and edit: da100thmonkey
Music: David Rovics, Gaea Knight

National network gathering, Sat 19 June, London

2010-06-07T12:49:00.000+02:00

3rd National Gathering of the Stop Nuclear Power Network

Jeff J Mitchell-Getty Images

Saturday 19 June, 10.30am - 5.30pm

London Action Resource Centre

62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES

Venue details: http://www.londonarc.org

Nearest tube: Aldgate East / Whitechapel*

Map: http://tinyurl.com/mapLARC

[* Due to engineering works on several of the lines serving Whitechapel and Aldgate East, you may need to allow extra time for your journey across London. You can use the Transport for London journey planner to help you plan your journey: http://bit.ly/7GVZCy ]

Please get in touch ASAP if you need a bed or crash space for one or more nights, or have specific access requirements.

Lunch: Please bring vegetarian / vegan finger food to share. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

As ever, there’s lots to discuss and share, including:

* Nuclear new build update
* Update on recent actions and campaigning activities
* How we can be even more effective and make the best use of our skills, resources and networks
* Ideas and proposals for future activities and network building
* Planning for future actions

History of our network

Activists from various anti-nuclear, environmental and peace campaigns from around the UK, plus representatives from France, came together in November 2009 and March 2010 in response to national call-outs to discuss and plan taking action against nuclear new build. Over twenty activists attended each gathering. They have kick started a flurry of activity, including a blockade and four-day camp at Sizewell in Suffolk, a banner action inside Parliament, various demonstrations, the production of an info broadsheet, plus various other campaigning activities around the country. This is a good start, but we need larger numbers of committed activists, representing various different groups (or none), who share our concerns about nuclear power and unsustainable energy policies to get involved and help us expand and develop the network.

To find out more about us and our activities, please visit:
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Nuclear white elephants on the charge!

The nuclear industry is steaming ahead with its plans for a “fleet” of dangerous, expensive and unnecessary new nuclear reactors in the UK. The first application, for Hinkley Point in Somerset, is due to be submitted later this year. But only recently, the French Nuclear Phase Out Network exposed secret documents showing that defects in the design of Areva's EPR, the reactor chosen by EDF for Hinkley, and Sizewell in Suffolk, could lead to a Chernobyl-style nuclear catastrophe. [1] Scores of academics, politicians and campaigners are now calling for a public inquiry on the justification process for new reactors. [2]

Meet the new Government, same as the old

The new Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition government, like its Labour predecessors, supports the building of up to ten new nuclear power stations in the UK, but has pledged that there will be no public subsidies for new nuclear build. Chris Huhne, the new Energy Secretary, and his Liberal Democrat party were strongly opposed to new nuclear build before entering into government last month, but now they are in bed with the Tories, they seem to have changed their tune and have agreed not to oppose new nuclear.

No subsidies for nuclear?

As for the 'no subsidies' pledge, no nuclear power station has ever been built anywhere in the world without public subsidies. It is clear that the taxpayer would be left with a hefty bill if nuclear new build goes ahead through a host of hidden subsidies [3,4]: these include the proposed hike in ‘carbon pricing’ that would favour new nuclear, major cash from the public purse to pay for decommissioning the power stations and dealing with the waste, and underwriting the massive insurance liabilities of an accident or terrorist attack. Decommissioning the existing nuclear facilities alone is estimated to cost the UK taxpayer well in excess of £70bn.

Nuclear spin

Multinational nuclear corporations - among them France’s EDF and Areva, and Germany’s E.ON and RWE Npower - in collaboration with their political sympathisers / cronies in Westminster, are seeking to capitalise on increasing public concern over climate change with attempts to rebrand nuclear power as a “green” source of electricity. They know that the general public will not accept new nuclear reactors if they learn the truth about this secretive and dirty industry.

The long history of cover-ups, deceit and shoddy and dangerous practices stretches back over fifty years, when nuclear power was first developed as a means of producing plutonium for the atomic bomb. The industry wants us to believe that a leopard can change its spots, but the only thing that really seems to change is the PR tactics. The vested interests of the multinational energy corporations will always come before concerns for the environment and the health and safety of the public. Needless to say, with nuclear energy and waste the consequences can be devastating, as seen at Chernobyl and Windscale, for example.

Green solutions not nuclear greenwash

The fact is that new nuclear reactors would do too little too late to meet our carbon reduction targets, and at too high a price in terms of economic, health and environmental costs. Nuclear expansion would lead to a greater risk of global nuclear weapons proliferation, more and deadlier radioactive emissions, a legacy of even more nuclear waste being dumped indefinitely on local communities with no permanent solution in sight, and the ever-present risk of a Chernobyl-style nuclear catastrophe or terrorist attack. Nuclear power is a dirty, dangerous and expensive distraction from the wholesale changes needed to bring about a safe and sustainable low-carbon future and green industry for the UK and the world, based on more modest consumption, energy efficiency and conservation, and renewable and decentralised energy; a future in which we no longer have to rely on non-renewable and unsustainable uranium, plutonium and fossil fuels.

*Come and join us in London on Saturday 19th June as we work to build a powerful movement to resist nuclear expansion.*

If you want to be involved but can’t make the meeting, please ask to be added to our e-mail list.

For more info and updates and suggestions for additional agenda items, contact:

network [at] stopnuclearpoweruk.net
Mobile: +44 (0)7506 234 091
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net

Refs:

1. EDF nuclear reactor carries 'Chernobyl-size' explosion risk - Guardian, 7 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/07/edf-nuclear-reactor-chernobyl-risk

2. Academics demand independent inquiry into new nuclear reactors – Guardian, 11 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/11/independent-inquiry-nuclear-power-stations

3. Nuke Subsidies Galore, Paul Flynn MP http://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/nuke-subsidies-galore.html

4. Nuclear Subsidies - report by Energy Fair, Dec 2009 http://www.mng.org.uk/nsubsidies.pdf
http://www.energyfair.org.uk

Nuclear Power Conferences Hit by Protests

2010-05-18T19:49:00.006+02:00

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 - CAMPAIGNERS from London and SE England Stop Nuclear Power protested outside the Financing Nuclear Power and Nuclear Interim Storage conferences in central London today. They invited delegates to invest in a green future instead of nuclear energy and demanded an end to nuclear waste production.

The first port of call for the three protesters, two of whom were dressed in white overalls, was the Financing Nuclear Power conference at the plush Crowne Plaza hotel near St James's Park. They held up a banner that read "Green Solutions Not Nuclear Greenwash" and leafleted delegates and passing members of the public outside the main entrance to the hotel for over an hour and a half, closely watched by hotel security staff throughout.

Two of them then moved on to the Nuclear Interim Storage conference, which was taking place at Dexter House at Royal Mint Court, adjacent to Tower Bridge. Standing in the courtyard outside the entrance/exit to the building hosting the conference, they held up a larger banner that read "Green Our Future, No to Nuclear" and exchanged banter with delegates and other users of the building on their lunch break. Security guards were called and the protesters were told they were on private property and had to leave, but the protesters stood their ground. A Police Community Support Officer then appeared and also tried to get the protesters to leave, but they refused. Further back up was called, but the protesters left before it arrived, having been there for an hour.

The incoming Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government has said it will continue with the Labour government policy of allowing ten new nuclear power stations to be built in England and Wales. Ministers have said that no direct public subsidies will be offered for new nuclear build, although a carbon floor price is proposed. Nowhere in the world has a nuclear power station ever been built without public subsidy.

For five decades, the nuclear industry has failed to find a permanent solution for its radioactive waste, which remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years. [2] With current waste storage facilities at Sizewell B in Suffolk nearly full, plans are in place to build a new "temporary" store where waste from the reactor will be kept indefinitely in the absence of a permanent solution. This is before considering the waste from any new reactor(s), which would be more radioactive and remain too hot to transport for 160+ years.

Campaigner Daniel Viesnik, 35, from London, says: "Contrary to the nonsense that you hear from the nuclear spin doctors and their political mouthpieces, nuclear power is a dirty, dangerous and expensive technology that diverts essential investment from genuine green alternatives like energy efficiency and renewable and decentralised energy. It carries the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation, nuclear terrorism and a Chernobyl-type catastrophe [3,4]. Why waste money on nuclear white elephants and dump more nuclear waste on local communities when we could build a genuinely sustainable, nuclear-free, zero carbon future?"

(Images by D. Viesnik)

Notes:

1. London and SE England Stop Nuclear Power is part of the Stop Nuclear Power Network, a UK-based non-hierarchical grassroots network of activists taking action against nuclear power and supporting sustainable alternatives.
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net
network[at]stopnuclearpoweruk.net

2. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Oxide Fuel Topic Strategy (2010) indicates that serious questions remain within the nuclear industry itself over whether any solution for permanent disposal of radioactive waste will ever be found.
http://www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/draft-oxide-fuel-topic-strategy-gate-0.pdf

3. EDF nuclear reactor carries 'Chernobyl-size' explosion risk - Guardian, 7 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/07/edf-nuclear-reactor-chernobyl-risk

4. Academics demand independent inquiry into new nuclear reactors – Guardian, 11 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/11/independent-inquiry-nuclear-power-stations

Anti-nuclear protest interrupts Prime Minister's speech

2010-05-03T23:17:00.006+02:00

3 May - Anti-nuclear protester Stuart Holmes interrupted Gordon Brown as he addressed an audience at London's Methodist Central Hall three days before the general election.
Stuart leapt to the stage and revealed a placard reading "NuKiller Power NO" midway through the Prime Minister's speech, before being wrestled away by security. The leaders of the two main opposition parties had earlier spoken at the event. Stuart was interviewed by police for half an hour before being released without charge. The incident received a lot of coverage in the mainstream press, e.g.:
The Sun
Press Association
Times Online
ITN video (50 seconds in)

Stuart was arrested on 20 April for another unauthorised protest against nuclear power outside Parliament. You can read Stuart's own account of the incident on his blog.

Londoners protest nuclear waste trains

2010-04-30T23:09:00.003+02:00

17 April - A protest against trains taking highly toxic radioactive waste through densely populated North London was given added moment by President Obama's recent warning that nuclear terrorism is the gravest threat to global security.

Read the full story (with photo) HERE

Peace group brings 'nuclear waste' to Yorkshire street

2010-04-30T22:50:00.003+02:00

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group highlighted the dangers of nuclear power on Saturday 24 April 2010. They were marking the 24th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and urged Rochdale's shoppers to oppose the government's plans to build more nuclear power stations in Britain.

You can read the full story (with photos) HERE

Sizewell Camp - An account

2010-04-29T12:08:00.007+02:00

Contact network[at]stopnuclearpoweruk.net for copies of our fantastic brand spanking new colour broadsheet - jam packed with useful info - to hand out in your area. We have just printed 30,000 copies

Preview here

Photos from camp
Video of Chernobyl commemoration

Mell Harrison of the Stop Nuclear Power Network gives her account of the Camp Against Nuclear New Build, held on Sizewell Beach, Suffolk over Chernobyl Weekend, 23-26 April 2010:

Friday 23rd at around 2pm people arrived to set up the camp on the beach in front of Sizewell A and B in Suffolk. A kitchen, welcome tent, workshop spaces, toilets, tents, a info board and a fire pit were all in place by the evening.Letters were posted to all local residents in sizewell explaining the about why the cam...p was happening and giving a contact in case they had any issues over the four days. People from all over the UK arrived to take part in the camp against nuclear power, including a nuclear white elephant that had been cycled 30 miles on a bike trailer, plus the local council, police and local residents came to see what was going on. As more people arrived and more snakes (adders) where spotted it became clear that we would need to squat the land that belonged to sizewell A (as the adders preferred to hide and sunbath in the dunes). So we informed the civil nuclear police that we had now squatted the site and that if they wanted us to move an eviction would be needed. But no eviction came. Saturday after breakfast and a meeting people started to head to the gates of the nuclear power station and blocked the road with tape saying ‘ nuclear hazard’. Porta-party arrived and the tea stall was set up. We had some big boy visitors from London pop down- Ian from the National Extremist Tactical coordination unit (NETCU) and some FIT squad which made us feel very special and caused a little booo- hiss from the protesters for the ‘bad NETCU man’ Speakers at the demo included Charles Barnet from Shut down Sizewell and a spokes person from the stop nuclear power network. After this we blocked the entrance and danced to the sounds of the porta party, tunes included ‘there coming to take me away- ha ha-’ and Batman….After a few tunes and a little creative chalking and taping we headed back to the beach for a tour and info guide of the stations. Info was shared about what building did what, where the nuclear dump was being built and on the reasons behind sizewell B being shut down at the moment. The tour ended with a look over the large area of woodland that EDF plans to chop down to build sizewell C. After dinner a few from the camp jumped on their bikes and headed to Leiston for the public meeting where people from the camp spoke about why they are against nuclear power and why there had been more direct action and camps happening at Sizewell over the last year. Invites had gone out to local people and workers. Some of the camp spokes people were nervous about this meeting… but the meeting went well and attendees included ex workers, councillors and local residents. The meeting was 2 hours long and discussions were had about future solutions and the need for social change.Campers then headed back to camp and had a de brief…. around the fire. Sunday was the day of workshops which included a session on nuclear physics, what is energy, how to build a bike generator and a walk of the proposed site for sizewell C. A meeting was then held to discuss what we would do the next day to commemorate Chernobyl day. As everyone was ‘ saving themselves’ we decided to do a media stunt and to build a cairn out of pebbles from the beach which could be leaflet there and added to by passers by.The plans began and the fire pit gathering commenced. At midnight a spontaneous Chernobyl remembrance occurred. It started with a flaming torch and a few minutes of thought for all those killed by and effected by Chernobyl plus other nuclear disasters and finished with, and I quote ‘we must support each other as workers to tell the boss to fuck off- as if the workers at Chernobyl had been able to do so the disaster would never of happened’ Sunday morning we painted the recycling bins and began to build a cairn. The press arrived and we had a final circle around the cairn. All over the weekend we had local people visit the camp, it was great to be able to chat to them about our views on nuclear power and what we thought the solutions to the ‘energy crisis’ would be.The most successful thing about smallish camps is that we get to outreach and communicate to local residents. All sustainable campaigns need support from local people. All in all we had over 100 people come and stay at the camp. Some came for the day, others the night and some all four days, but everyone involved made the camp a really welcoming and enjoyable space to be. Some have gone away with plans for the next few months campaigning against new build, others with piles of the new tabloid produced by folk from the nuclear power network and sooty and sweep have gone away with some video footage… As we drove home I spotted some writing across the entrance of sizewell it said ‘We will be back- and next time you won't know we are coming’. Watch this space.

More media coverage online:

Call for a C change at Sizewell protest - Morning Star

Protest camp at Sizewell N-plant - East Anglian Daily Times

Voluntary Sector: Taking Action ... Stop Nuclear Power Network vs British Energy - PR Week

Sizewell Camp Against Nuclear Power - Chernobyl Weekend - pics - Indymedia UK

Radioactive Wasters - Schnews

Sizewell Campers Mark Anniversary of Chernobyl Disaster

2010-04-26T15:58:00.015+02:00

Stop Nuclear Power Network Press Release – Monday, 26 April 2010

*MORE PHOTOS*

Around twenty activists from the Stop Nuclear Power Network [1] have held a ceremony on the beach in front of Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk (England) this afternoon to mark the 24th anniversary of the world's worst ever civil nuclear disaster, at Chernobyl (Ukraine). [2] They are looking to highlight the risk of a similar catastrophe happening in Suffolk, due to a reactor meltdown [3,4] or major radioactive waste incident.

A silent procession was led by people in white coats with their faces painted yellow and black with radiation symbols who banged a large “nuclear waste” drum and carried another containing pebbles of “radioactive waste”. The participants then formed a circle and individually deposited pebbles with messages and symbols into a pile to form a cairn in memory of the victims of Chernobyl and the nuclear industry. A banner was held that read “CHERNOBYL – 26 April 1986 – NEVER AGAIN”

A protest camp has been taking place on Sizewell beach since Friday as part of an international weekend of action to remember Chernobyl and oppose expansion of nuclear power. [5] On Saturday, a demonstration was held at the entrance to the power station. Over the weekend, campers have also hosted a public meeting in nearby Leiston, held information and campaigning skills workshops on the beach and toured the flood-prone site where EDF, the owners of British Energy, plan to build Sizewell C.

The UK government is pushing ahead with its plans for ten new nuclear power stations across the country, with Sizewell planned to host one of the first new reactors. This despite the fact that even after 50 years, the nuclear industry has failed to come up with a permanent solution for its radioactive waste, which will remain dangerous for tens of thousands of years. [6] With current facilities at Sizewell B nearly full, plans are in place to build another temporary store where waste from the reactor would remain indefinitely in the absence of a permanent solution. This is before even considering the waste from any new reactor(s), which would be even more radioactive and too hot to transport for up to 160 years or longer.

Campaigner Mell Harrison from the Stop Nuclear Power Network, who lives in Beccles, Suffolk said: “We have left a cairn of stones on the beach to remember the many thousands of victims of Chernobyl and the nuclear industry. We hope this will remain as a permanent memorial and invite local people to add their own stones of remembrance. Marking this sad anniversary reminds us of the toxic legacy of our consumerist generation. With the nuclear industry unable to come up with a permanent solution to nuclear waste even after 50 years, we must stop producing any more waste and work within our communities to start living in more sustainable ways.”

Press contact: Mell Harrison 07760 161 755

Photos by Chipper.

Notes

1. The Stop Nuclear Power Network is a UK-based non-hierarchical grassroots network of activists taking action against nuclear power and supporting sustainable alternatives.
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net/
network[at]stopnuclearpoweruk.net

2. Total deaths and predicted deaths from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster range from 4000 to half a million. Doctors in the Ukraine and Belarus are seeing “highly unusual” rates of cancers, mutations and blood disease, which are thought to be linked to Chernobyl.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/10/chernobyl-nuclear-deaths-cancers-dispute

3. EDF nuclear reactor carries 'Chernobyl-size' explosion risk - Guardian, 7 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/07/edf-nuclear-reactor-chernobyl-risk

4. Academics demand independent inquiry into new nuclear reactors – Guardian, 11 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/11/independent-inquiry-nuclear-power-stations

5. Chernobyl International Days of Action – 24-26 April 2010
http://chernobyl-day.org/?lang=en

6. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Oxide Fuel Topic Strategy (2010) indicates that serious questions remain within the nuclear industry itself over whether any solution for permanent disposal of radioactive waste will ever be found.
http://www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/draft-oxide-fuel-topic-strategy-gate-0.pdf

Camp Against New Nuclear Build - 23-26 April 2010, Sizewell, Suffolk

2010-04-08T08:00:00.018+02:00

Chernobyl Weekend - Fri, 23 April, 12noon - Mon, 26 April 2010, 3pm

Sizewell Nuclear Power Station, Suffolk, England

Sizewell B, Chernobyl weekend 2009 (Photo: D. Viesnik)

New Nuclear Build - A Distraction from the Real Solutions

Come and join us for a weekend of networking, protest, commemoration and info and skill sharing!

More detailed info HERE

To book your place at the camp (we need numbers for catering), to ask about transport from Saxmundham station or for other info, contact:

----------------------------------------------------------

0845 337 0282 (before camp)

sizewell [at] stopnuclearpoweruk.net

(Contact number during camp: 07976 705 127)

----------------------------------------------------------

Both Labour and the Tories plan to push ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations, starting with Hinkley (Somerset) and Sizewell (Suffolk). Nuclear power is plagued with problems and is a false solution to climate change. It diverts attention and much-needed investment from more environmentally-friendly and sustainable strategies to address the twin challenges of climate change and energy security.

Sizewell - by Ziggy Norton

The camp, which will be based very near the existing power stations, will include workshops, a demo, a tour of the proposed sites for the new reactors, Chernobyl Day commemorations and more.

This event is being organised by the Stop Nuclear Power Network (formerly Nuclear People Power), a UK-based non-hierarchical grassroots network of groups and individuals taking action against nuclear power and its expansion and supporting sustainable alternatives.

London short film and discussion night

2010-04-07T19:00:00.002+02:00

Resist Nuclear New Build in Britain

Wednesday, 7 April 2010, 7 - 9.30pm, London Action Resource Centre, Whitechapel

(Photo: M. Harrison)

Join us for an evening of short films and presentations about nuclear power followed by a discussion on how we can build strong resistance to nuclear new build in the UK.

London Action Resource Centre
62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES
Venue details: http://www.londonarc.org/
Nearest tube: Aldgate East / Whitechapel
Map: http://tinyurl.com/LondonARC

Background

The nuclear industry and British government are steaming ahead with their plans for a fleet of dangerous, expensive and unnecessary new nuclear reactors. The first application, for Hinkley Point in Somerset, is due to be submitted as early as August of this year. But only a few weeks ago, the French Nuclear Phase Out Network exposed secret documents showing that defects in the design of Areva's EPR, the reactor chosen by EDF for Hinkley, Sizewell in Suffolk and elsewhere, could lead to a Chernobyl-style nuclear catastrophe. [1] Scores of academics, politicians and campaigners are now calling for a public inquiry on the justification process for new reactors. [2]

Nuclear Spin

The nuclear industry has a long and colourful history of secrecy, lies and cover-ups that continue to this day. As the saying goes, a leopard doesn't change its spots. The vested interests of the multinational energy corporations will always come before concerns for the environment and the health and safety of the public. Needless to say, with nuclear energy and waste the consequences can be devastating, as seen at Chernobyl and Windscale, for example.

Green Solutions not Nuclear Greenwash

The fact is that new nuclear reactors would do too little too late to meet our carbon reduction targets, and at too high a price in terms of economic, health and environmental costs. Our vision is of a nuclear-free low carbon future for the UK and the world based on more modest consumption and an ambitious programme of energy efficiency measures and renewable and decentralised energy.

More info:
vd2012-npp [at] yahoo.co.uk
Mobile: +44 (0)7506 234 091
http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/

Refs:

1. EDF nuclear reactor carries 'Chernobyl-size' explosion risk - Guardian, 7 March 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/07/edf-nuclear-reactor-chernobyl-risk

2. Academics demand independent inquiry into new nuclear reactors –
Guardian, 11 March 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/11/independent-inquiry-nuclear-power-stations

Anglesey protest over plans for new nuclear power plant at Wylfa

2010-03-31T14:05:00.002+02:00

From BBC:

"Protesters dispute economic and safety claims for a new nuclear plant at Wylfa

About 30 campaigners have held a protest over plans to build a new nuclear power plant on Anglesey.

It follows the announcement on Tuesday by the Horizon Nuclear Power company that it wants to see a new station on the island by 2020."

Full report and pic on BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8596392.stm

Nuclear protest planned on Anglesey

2010-03-19T13:18:00.004+01:00

From Daily Post, March 19, 2010:

ANTI-nuclear demonstrators will protest against the proposal to build a Wylfa B on Anglesey.

People Against Wylfa B (PAWB) will demonstrate at the Menai Suspension Bridge between 8am and 9am on March 31.

Spokesman Dylan Morgan said: “As the British General Election draws closer, it is important that politicians are not deluded by economic arguments for building new nuclear power stations.

“The problems associated with nuclear power are far too numerous and serious for any government to decide to give substantial financial assistance to the companies who wish to build new nuclear power stations. There is great uncertainty surrounding the two reactor designs being considered by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.”

Anglesey is a front runner for a new generation of nuclear build. The Government will chose the selected sites once it completes its Strategic Site Assessment.

© 2010 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited.

UK planning meeting, 27 March, London

2010-03-13T16:50:00.010+01:00

Stop the Charge of the Nuclear White Elephants!

Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

National Grassroots Anti-Nuclear Power Network Meeting

Saturday 27 March, 10.30am - 5.30pm
London Action Resource Centre
62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES

Venue details: http://www.londonarc.org
Nearest tube: Whitechapel
Map: http://tinyurl.com/mapLARC

Please get in touch ASAP if you need a bed or crash space for one or more nights, or have specific access requirements.

Lunch: Bring vegetarian / vegan finger food to share. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

There’s lots to discuss and share, including:
The latest situation on nuclear new build in the UK
Updates on recent actions and campaigning activities
How we can be even more effective and make the best use of our skills, resources and networks
Planning for future actions, including Sizewell Camp in late April and a possible summer camp at a strategic location
Pull-out for publication in late April – work on concept and content
Ideas and proposals for future activities and network building
International dimension – overseas networking, French update, UK-India nuclear deal and proliferation implications, waste transport, etc

History of our network

Around twenty activists from various anti-nuclear, environmental and peace campaigns came together last November in response to a national call-out to discuss and plan taking action against nuclear new build. Facilitated by Seeds for Change, the meeting was a great opportunity for people to come together, share their experiences and ideas and work out a way forward. It kick started a flurry of activity, including a blockade of Sizewell, a banner action inside Parliament and various demonstrations and other campaigning activities around the country. But this is just the beginning. We need you to get involved and help us grow.

Nuclear White Elephants on the Charge!

The nuclear industry and British government are steaming ahead with their plans for a fleet of dangerous, expensive and unnecessary new nuclear reactors. The first application, for Hinkley Point in Somerset, is due to be submitted as early as August of this year. But only this week, the French Nuclear Phase Out Network exposed secret documents showing that defects in the design of Areva's EPR, the reactor chosen by EDF for Hinkley, Sizewell in Suffolk and elsewhere, could lead to a Chernobyl-style nuclear catastrophe. [1] Scores of academics, politicians and campaigners are now calling for a public inquiry on the justification process for new reactors. [2]

Nuclear Spin

The nuclear industry has a long and colourful history of secrecy, lies and cover-ups that continue to this day. As the saying goes, a leopard doesn't change its spots. The vested interests of the multinational energy corporations will always come before concerns for the environment and the health and safety of the public. Needless to say, with nuclear energy and waste the consequences can be devastating, as seen at Chernobyl and Windscale, for example.

Green Solutions not Nuclear Greenwash

The fact is that new nuclear reactors would do too little too late to meet our carbon reduction targets, and at too high a price in terms of economic, health and environmental costs. Our vision is of a nuclear-free low carbon future for the UK and the world based on more modest consumption and an ambitious programme of energy efficiency measures and renewable and decentralised energy.

Come and join us on 27th March as we work to build a powerful movement to resist nuclear expansion.

If you want to be involved but can’t make the meeting, please ask to be added to our e-mail list. For more info and updates and suggestions for additional agenda items, contact:

vd2012-npp [at] yahoo.co.uk
Mobile: +44 (0)7506 234 091

http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/NukePeoplePower

Refs:

1. EDF nuclear reactor carries 'Chernobyl-size' explosion risk - Guardian, 7 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/07/edf-nuclear-reactor-chernobyl-risk

2. Academics demand independent inquiry into new nuclear reactors – Guardian, 11 March 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/11/independent-inquiry-nuclear-power-stations

Dinner welcome for nuclear cheerleaders

2010-03-04T13:42:00.007+01:00

Big bods from the nuclear industry were in London this week for yet another nuclear new build conference.

Credit: D. Viesnik

A small 90 minute demo was held outside a gala dinner for the nuclear industry on Tuesday (3 March) at the Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair, which (unelected) Business Secretary Peter Mandelson was due to speak at. Participants wearing white overalls, a gas mask and a construction helmet held up a banner reading "Green Solutions Not Nuclear Greenwash" and handed out flyers explaining why nuclear power is a false solution to climate change.

Sizewell Blockade updates

2010-02-22T12:49:00.017+01:00

More photos from yesterday's blockade HERE

One of the male blockaders was getting the chills after lying in the rain for four hours and decided to self release. He was immediately arrested without warning on suspicion of aggravated trespass and taken to Lowestoft police station. The remaining blockaders were still in position as of 10.40am. One TV crew and several journalists were on the scene.

Mainstream coverage: http://bit.ly/d9ALSd

As of 11.10am, three blockaders remained in the road. A police cutting team had arrived and had erected a marquee around the remaining blockaders.

As of 12.10pm, another male had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass, with the two remaining blockaders still being cut out of lock-ons by police.

As of 1.20pm, the two remaining blockaders (a female in her sixties and a male in his twenties) are still being drilled out of a concrete block lock-on. The police cutting team says it will take them at least another hour. They have now been in place for nearly seven hours.

2:40pm: Last blockader just drilled out and arrested after 8 hours in the cold and wet. Four people arrested in total.

Approx. 9.30pm: The four arrestees are released after being held in police custody for up to 11 hours and interviewed. They have been bailed to return to Lowestoft police station on 30th March, at 2pm.