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In USA Catholic priests, some in gaol, some facing gaol – for dramatic opposition to nuclear weapons

Why we brought hammers to a nuclear fight, https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article231300873.html, BY PATRICK O’NEILL, JUNE 16, 2019, On April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s assassination, I joined six other Catholic pacifists in an attempt to symbolically enflesh the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares” (Is. 2:4).

After cutting a lock, we entered Naval Station Kings Bay in St. Marys, GA with hammers, baby bottles of blood and crime scene tape to expose the horrific D-5 nuclear weapons aboard the Trident submarines that imperil life as we know it on Planet Earth.

Kings Bay is home port to six Trident submarines. Each Trident can carry 24 D-5 missiles, each of which can carry up to eight 100-kiloton nuclear warheads. Trident is the most insidious and evil weapon of mass destruction ever constructed.

Once inside Kings Bay, in an attempt to smash an idol, I hammered and poured blood on a cement statue of a D-5 at a missile shrine display. The government charged the seven of us with three felonies (depredation of government property, destruction of government property, conspiracy) and misdemeanor trespass.

Three of our group — Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J., Elizabeth McAlister (widow of the late Catholic anti-war prophet, Philip Berrigan), and Catholic Worker Mark Colville, remain incarcerated in the Glynn County Jail in Brunswick, GA. McAlister turned 79 and Kelly turned 70 while incarcerated.

The others, Martha Hennessy (granddaughter of Catholic Worker Movement founder, Dorothy Day), Clare Grady, Carmen Trotta, and I, have been out under a cash bond and on house arrest with a curfew and electronic ankle monitors for more than a year. Kelly, McAlister and Colville refused the bond conditions.

For more than a year the case has been tied up in pretrial motions. We are expecting to go to trial this summer. If convicted, the seven of us will likely go to prison.

Efficacy was not my motivation for joining this group. My faith led me to address the sinfulness of nuclear weapons. We live in a world where nuclear weapons on perpetual hair-trigger alert have become “normal.”

We used high drama as a wake-up call to hopefully get people thinking about the fate of the earth and human survival. Never before has our world been more at risk of the prospect of nuclear war. The Doomsday Clock, maintained by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, stands at two minutes to midnight.

President Donald Trump frequently engages in chest-thumping, and he bragged that he has the “biggest button,” a reference to nuclear weapons. Trump alone, under the vested power of the executive branch, can decide to use nuclear weapons under any circumstances.

Trump backs nuclear weapons expansion, and he has vowed to pull the U.S. out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty that was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. INF led to nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles being eliminated, and an end to a dangerous standoff between U.S. and Soviet nukes in Europe. In addition, in July, 2017, an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations — but not the United States — voted to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons — a landmark international agreement that establishes a pathway to nuclear disarmament.

The seven Kings Bay defendants are parents of 20 children. We want to assure a nuclear-free world for the generations to come. Humans must turn away from war-making, and find ways to embrace nonviolent solutions to international conflicts. I don’t relish a prison sentence, but I consider it a small price to pay if we peacemakers can help prevent the use of nuclear weapons.

We should take to heart the warning of Dr. King: “The choice today is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”

(Patrick O’Neill and his wife, Mary Rider, cofounded the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner, an intentional community that provides hospitality to women and children in crisis.)

June 17, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Shelby Surdyk, Alaska’s nuclear disarmament youth campaigner

From NYC to Sitka, this Alaskan is taking on nuclear disarmament https://www.ktoo.org/2019/06/13/alaskans-chip-away-at-nuclear-disarmament/

By Sheli DeLaney, KRNN, June 13, 2019 On Wednesday’s Juneau Afternoon, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weaponswas a topic of discussion as host Sheli DeLaney sat down with nuclear disarmament advocate Shelby Surdyk.Nuclear disarmament became Surdyk’s cause when she was in high school in Skagway and met a new teacher who had previously taught at the U.S. military base on Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands. The central Pacific Ocean nation was the site of U.S. nuclear testing between 1946 and 1958.

The teacher educated students about the history and impact that nuclear weapons testing had on the Marshallese people, and their story left a lasting impression on Surdyk.

“I think that once you become connected to people whose lives have been touched by nuclear weapons testing, it’s a path you can’t turn back from,” she said.

Today, Surdyk is the project manager for HOPE: Alaska’s Youth Congress for the Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, a five-day conference for high school students to be held in Sitka in April 2020. The idea for the youth congress was introduced by Veterans for Peace, an organization that opposes the proliferation of nuclear weapons as part of their philosophy.

Surdyk recently attended the 2019 NPT PrepCom, a conference held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City this spring. She will be speaking about her experience over a brown-bag lunch hosted by Veterans for Peace this Friday at noon at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

June 15, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, PERSONAL STORIES, USA | Leave a comment

30 years ago, voters forced shutdown of Rancho Seco nuclear plant in Sacramento County

30 years ago, voters forced shutdown of Rancho Seco nuclear plant in Sacramento County, Sacramento Bee, Mila Jasper.June 6 is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, but in Sacramento, the date has another important meaning.Thursday is the 30th anniversary of the vote that permanently closed down the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant in southern Sacramento County. With the defeat of Measure K, Sacramento became the first community in the world to close a nuclear plant by public vote.

Phil Angelides, the former state treasurer, was a local businessman in Sacramento at the time, and he was involved in the movement to close Rancho Seco.

“The plant was an enormous liability for Sacramento,” Angelides said. “It was first generation plant technology, it just didn’t function.”

Angelides said Rancho Seco was preventing Sacramento from developing a diversified, forward-looking energy portfolio capable of sustaining the region’s growth because of how costly and inefficient the plant was.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District opened the Rancho Seco power plant, about a 30-minute drive from downtown Sacramento, for commercial operation in 1975, but for years it was plagued by a series of outages.

In 1985, operators lost control of the plant during an “overcooling” event, which forced an automatic shutdown. The resulting 27-month outage cost SMUD $400 million, according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

SMUD also paid $745,000 in federal fines for various violations related to the facility through 1989, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Outcry against Rancho Seco unfolded when the safety of nuclear energy was in question. In 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa. suffered a partial meltdown, and in 1986, the accident at Chernobyl became the worst nuclear disaster in human history……..

Just days after the Three Mile Island disaster, people climbed over the fence at Rancho Seco during a protest demonstration.

More than 100 other demonstrators cheered with cries of “shut down now, no meltdown later” as 13 protestors climbed the main gate of the plant. The 13 people were arrested for trespassing, and some demonstrators vowed to go on a hunger strike until the 13 were released from jail………

After the plant shut down, SMUD diversified its energy supply and increased investment in energy efficiency programs that have resulted in customer savings of more than $600 million, SMUD officials said.

While the plant was still running, SMUD built one of the first utility-scale solar plants at Rancho Seco, which was decommissioned and replaced in 2016. The solar array powers downtown buildings like the state Capitol and the Golden 1 Center.

SMUD is now constructing the Rancho Seco Solar 2 project, a second array of solar panels that will be the largest facility in the county when it comes online. Construction is scheduled to start in August……..

Still, the shutdown process for the plant was long and arduous. It took 20 years for the plant to be fully decommissioned by the federal government, costing ratepayers $500 million, The Bee reported.

Disposal of the radioactive waste at the plant hasn’t yet been settled, either. SMUD spends $5 million per year to provide security and oversee proper storage of spent uranium.

The materials have been in dry storage at Rancho Seco since decommission and will remain there until the federal government can come up with a solution, according to SMUD.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, on Thursday introduced a bill that would initiate a program for both decommissioned plants like Rancho Seco and active plants to store spent nuclear fuel in a consolidated program at the Department of Energy. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article231253743.html

June 8, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Despite misogyny, women continue to fight the reckless spending on nuclear weapons

Women Fighting Nuclear Arms, NYT, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/opinion/letters/women-nuclear-arms.html, 24 May 19,

The founder of a women’s peace group recalls being dismissed by male nuclear experts in the 1980s.

May 24, 2019 To the Editor:

Thank you, Carol Giacomo, for your support for female experts on nuclear weapons (“The Nuclear Weapons Sisterhood,” Editorial Observer, May 19).

Let someone try starting a women’s antinuclear weapons group, as I did with Dr. Helen Caldicott in the 1980s. The insults we took from male experts were legion, but we persisted and are still strong today, fighting enormous sums pledged to our defense budget for recklessly dangerous “smaller, more usable” new nuclear weapons.

As women we learn the facts and send our members out to challenge the so-called experts.

Sayre Sheldon
Washington
The writer is the founding president of WAND, a national women’s peace group.

May 25, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA, weapons and war, Women | Leave a comment

Hibakusha: Nagasaki activist, 79, looks to entrust nuclear movement to next generation

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190522/p2a/00m/0na/013000c

May 22, 2019 (Mainichi Japan) NAGASAKI — On May 9, there was a sit-in hibakusha gathering in front of the Peace Statue at Nagasaki Peace Park. The meeting takes place on the ninth of every month, marking the Aug. 9, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. This month’s congregation marked the 444th time for such an event.

Koichi Kawano, 79, took to the microphone to speak about the stand-off between the United States and Iran. “This is a crisis,” he said to the around 100 people in attendance, continuing, “Our hearts are one when wishing for the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

Born in North Pyongan Province on the Korean Peninsula, now part of North Korea, Kawano was brought back to his parents’ hometown Nagasaki as a child. Aged 5 in August 1945, he was around 3.1 kilometers away from the atomic bomb’s hypocenter. Now a resident of the nearby town of Nagayo, he has been an activist for the end of nuclear weaponry in roles including his long tenure as chairman of the Hibakusha Liaison Council of the Nagasaki Prefectural Peace Movement Center.

“While enduring untold misery, we have won our rights with our own strength,” he says, looking back on the messages their hibakusha meetings have sent against the government’s constitutional amendment policies and security legislation designed to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense in a limited manner.

“Perseverance is power” has been Kawano’s guiding motto in engaging in the movement’s activities, but this spring he faced a difficult reality. Masanori Nakashima, president of the Nagasaki Prefecture A-bomb Health Handbook Friendship Society, died aged 89 on March 15. The two men were allies in peace activism. Representatives of five local hibakusha groups, including Nakashima and Kawano, announced a joint statement on peace issues and handed a written request to the prime minister on Aug. 9.

Of the five hibakusha group representatives who were alive in 2015 on the 70th anniversary of the bombing, three including Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council chair Sumiteru Taniguchi have passed away. Taniguchi died in 2017 at 88 years of age. “Even with his limp, he dragged himself to that office to hear other hibakusha speak,” Kawano reminisced, while looking ahead to an uncertain future, saying, “What will happen to these groups after we die?”

Kawano himself underwent surgery for esophageal cancer in 2017. Due to ill health he was forced to pull out of a survey of hibakusha in North Korea as a member of the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs in fall 2018. Despite setbacks, his drive for peace remains unchanged. Kawano confronted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over the Japanese government’s disinclination to sign and ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in a face-to-face meeting in 2017, asking, “What country’s prime minister are you?”

As time marches on from the events of August 1945, Kawano is putting his faith in the next generation. “The increasingly quiet voices of the hibakusha must not be drowned out,” he says. At the monthly sit-ins in Nagasaki Peace Park, the number of high school age attendees has increased. As he welcomes the last summer of his 70s, Kawano’s resolve remains strong. “Peace activism is powered by people. I want the movement to continue, to carry on the wish never to see another generation of hibakusha in this world.”

(Japanese original by Yuki Imano, Nagasaki Bureau)

May 23, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, opposition to nuclear, PERSONAL STORIES, Reference, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Pike County residents protest nuclear facility after Uranium detected at school

https://myfox28columbus.com/news/local/pike-county-residents-protest-nuclear-facility-after-uranium-detected-at-school, by Rachael Penton, May 22nd 2019 PIKE COUNTY, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE)

Marilyn Ison goes to the doctor next week to find out if the nodules on her thyroid are cancerous, but on Tuesday, she protested against the Pike County nuclear waste facility outside the YMCA.

Inside the YMCA, a bi-annual Department of Energy open house is happening, where people can learn more about the project.

Ison’s mother has cancer, as do many other friends and family, but she says it’s the children she’s here for today.

“I’m scared for all the kids. I’m the voice of the kids,” Ison said. “They can’t speak for themselves (or) the kids inside that are scared. And they are, they know.”

Ison says her grand kids attend Zahn’s Corner Middle School that closed early for the year after enriched uranium was detected. She says it’s simply not fair to Pike county’s kids, so she’s protesting.

“I never feared that,” she said. “I feared a tornado but not radioactive waste in my school and home and my friend’s dying.”

Crystal Glass came out to protest with her family in matching t-shirts.

“It’s just what we want- don’t dump on us,” Glass said. “Don’t dump on our future.”

Glass grew up next to the nuclear facility and went to Zahn’s Corner, and was diagnosed with a tumor at age 14 and cancer 20 years later.

“We’ve been sick for a long time and it seems like nothing is happening.”

Now she too is worried her kids will one day suffer, and hopes the

recent publicity and Tuesday’s protest will get someone’s attention.

“I’m most concerned about the people that live around the plant,” Glass said. “At what point do they realize they’re so sick in that area? Why don’t the buy them out? They can’t afford to move.”

May 23, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, PERSONAL STORIES, USA | Leave a comment

Opposition to nuclear waste in Nevada, but some impoverished communities see $$

Some in rural Nevada see benefits in nuclear repository plan, WRAL.com MIRANDA WILLSON, Las Vegas Sun 17 May 19, LAS VEGAS — Elected officials in rural Nye County say they support moving forward with a long-studied but mothballed national nuclear waste repository in Nevada, unlike their counterparts in urban Las Vegas, approximately 90 miles away.

But the Las Vegas Sun reports that residents who live close to Yucca Mountain are split on whether storing approximately 70,000 tons of nuclear waste there is a good idea.

Spanning more than 18,000 square miles, Nye County is the largest county by area in Nevada, with a population of 44,200 people.

Some see the proposed repository as a potential bringer of economic development and jobs to a county where nearly 19% of residents live below the poverty line.

Others say the environmental and human health risks of transporting and storing the nation’s most radioactive material are too high, and unjust, considering that Nevada doesn’t produce nuclear energy.

Nevada’s U.S. senators, Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, Gov. Steve Sisolak, Democrats, and most of the state’s congressional representatives and officials in Clark County surrounding Las Vegas share similar concerns.

Nonetheless, Nye County commissioners are urging lawmakers in Congress to support the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, sponsored by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

The bill has a name recalling a measure that Congress passed in 1982 and amended in 1987. It would restart the licensing process for establishing Yucca Mountain as the primary storage site for the country’s spent nuclear fuel.

Progress toward licensing stopped in 2009 under President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump has signaled support for moving forward again.

In a letter to Barrasso and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, a ranking member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, Nye County commissioners asked lawmakers to allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew its review of the Yucca Mountain proposal.

Eight other rural counties in Nevada also support resuming the Yucca Mountain licensing process……..

The county’s National Resources and Federal Facilities chief, Daryl Lacy, said many residents are convinced that nuclear waste isn’t inherently dangerous.

He says Yucca Mountain could bring several thousand highly paid jobs to Nye County, where the former Nevada Test Site, renamed the Nevada National Security Site, remains the largest employer in Nye County.

Lacy said officials support resuming discussions about how waste could be transported and stored safely, as well as financial benefits the county and the state would get in return.

“Many of the people here understand that yes, there’s risks, yes, it’s a nasty material, but it can be handled appropriately. And it’s not necessarily any worse than other things that have been done here in the past,” Lacy said, referring to nuclear detonations from 1951 to 1992……..

Ninety-eight nuclear reactors operating in 30 U.S. states have so far produced approximately 90,000 tons of radioactive waste. Most is stored at reactor sites using dry cask storage, intended to be a temporary solution……

Susan Sorrells, owner and manager of Shoshone Village just over the California state line, says Yucca Mountain could devastate an area that relies on tourism to Death Valley National Park, which draws more than 1 million people a year.

A fourth-generation resident of the town of fewer than 30 people, Sorrells said Yucca Mountain would negatively impact ecotourism that she spearheads. She also worries about impacts on the area water supply, which she says is affected by nuclear testing decades ago.

Patrick Donnelly, Nevada director for the Center for Biological Diversity and a former Shoshone resident, said he believes environmental and safety risks outweigh potential economic benefits.

Joe Kennedy, former Timbisha Shoshone chairman, says nuclear waste could affect the environment and water supply in Indian Village and Furnace Creek, California, close to Death Valley.

Ian Zabarte, principal man for the larger Western Shoshone Nation that includes the Timbisha, questions whether the Timbisha would reap any financial benefits if Yucca Mountain moves forward……. https://www.wral.com/some-in-rural-nevada-see-benefits-in-nuclear-repository-plan/18393722/

May 18, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Professor Kazuhiko Kobayashi at Sellafield, warns on nuclear radiation and danger to children

Radiation Free Lakeland 12th May 2019 Professor Kazuhiko Kobayashi has done ground breaking work with theUniversity of Tokyo on the impact of climate change on rice nutrition. This is important work and it has been widely featured in national and
international media.

Kazuhiko’s real passion however is to warn people
about the worst criminality against humankind: nuclear power and nuclear
weapons.

Kazuhiko organises respite for children and families who have been
impacted by the ongoing Fukushima disaster.

Members of Radiation Free Lakeland met up with Kazuhiko last autumn to show him the Sellafield area and he told us that there is money for climate research but not so much for
research into the impacts of radiation on our food and health. He is a kind
gentle man and he was visibly shocked to see the scale of Sellafield.

Kazuhiko broke down in tears within the shadow of Sellafield, at the
impacts the nuclear industry is having on our children’s health. His
passionate opposition to nuclear power and weapons, his work for change and
to help those impacted, is an inspiration.

https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2019/05/12/worst-criminality-against-humankind-report-from-fukushima-by-kazuhiko-kobayashi/

May 14, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak reiterates Nevada opposition to Yucca nuclear storage

Sisolak reiterates Nevada opposition to Yucca nuclear storage, By Gary Martin / Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 30, 2019 WASHINGTON — Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak sent a letter Tuesday underscoring the state’s opposition to nuclear waste storage to the chairman and ranking member of a Senate panel in advance of a hearing on reviving the licensing process needed to open Yucca Mountain.

“My position, and that of the state of Nevada, remains identical to the position of Nevada’s past five governors,” Sisolak, a Democrat, wrote. “The state of Nevada opposes the project based on scientific, technical and legal merits.”

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has introduced a bill that would revive licensing for the Yucca Mountain site, designated by Congress in 1987 as the location for permanent storage of nuclear waste produced by power plants.

The project, though, has been delayed by political opposition…….https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/sisolak-reiterates-nevada-opposition-to-yucca-nuclear-storage-1652992/

May 2, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, politics, wastes | Leave a comment

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) holds public meeting in Burnley

Organisation that has called for nuclear weapons to be banned for six decades holds public meeting in Burnley, 23 Apr 19, https://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/organisation-that-has-called-for-nuclear-weapons-to-be-banned-for-six-decades-holds-public-meeting-in-burnley-1-9730392An organisation that has existed for 62 years and campaigns to ban nuclear weapons held a public meeting in Burnley.And the strong message that came forward from the meeting of the East Lancashire branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was that the public should be made more aware of the humanitarian consequences of a deliberate or accidental detonation of nuclear weapons as well as the dangers that the population of UK are exposed to by the government persisting in maintaining and developing them.

Under the theme Britain Can Say NO to Nukes the meeting was held in the Central Methodist Church Hall with main guest speaker Rebecca Johnson, who is CND vice president and co chairman of International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons which, in 2017 won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Rebecca took the Nobel medal, affectionately known as ‘Alfred’ along to the meeting for people to have the opportunity to see it.

Between her international anti-nuclear commitments , Rebecca is currently acting as a legal observer in the XR demonstrations in London where over two hundred people have been arrested for committing acts of non-violent direct action.

Rebecca showed a short film about the horrific humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons before going on to describe how, over a number of years, the nations of the world that do not have nuclear weapons have come together to negotiate the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

It was adopted by the United Nations in July 2017 by 122 nations of the UN General Assembly.

Currently 70 nations have signed the Treaty and 22 have ratified it. Once 50 countries have ratified it, then it will become part of International law, like the laws against other WMD’s -chemical weapons, cluster bombs and landmines. It is expected that this could happen sometime next year.

April 25, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

In Ratnagiri’s Jaitapur, Fishermen Vehemently Oppose Nuclear Plant.

In Ratnagiri’s Jaitapur, Fishermen Vehemently Oppose Nuclear Plant. The Wire, 22 Apr 19

In Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri, the Sadak se Sansad team finds out why farmers are opposing the world’s largest nuclear power plant. In this special story from the Ratnagiri Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, we speak to fishermen who have been protesting against the Jaitapur nuclear power project for over a decade. They say that the project will adversely affect their ecology and threaten their livelihoods. If completed, the plant will be the largest nuclear power generating station in the world. https://thewire.in/video/watch-in-ratnagiris-jaitapur-fishermen-vehemently-oppose-nuclear-plant

April 23, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) feeling encouraged: public opinion turning against Sizewell nuclear project

East Anglian Daily Times 23rd April 2019 Is tide turning against Sizewell C? Opponents are feeling encouraged. Campaigners claim the proposals for a new nuclear power station on the
Suffolk coast have been “exposed as entirely inadequate” – and believe it cannot be built.

Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) feel thetide is turning against the proposals for two new nuclear reactors and claim people will decide the evidence is “overwhelming and terminal”.

EDF Energy believes nuclear power has a “strong future”, work is under
way on its Hinkley Point C new build and plans for the Suffolk project are
progressing well.

However, TASC chairman Pete Wilkinson says the most
recent plans shown in the company’s stage three consultation for Sizewell C
have been “exposed as entirely inadequate”. He said: “Since the
delivery of a 1,500-signature petition to the Leader of Suffolk County
Council, we have seen a surge in support for our position of outright
opposition to Sizewell, local artists and actors voicing their concerns and
the RSPB warning that the most important bird reserve in the country,
Minsmere, is potentially threatened by the Sizewell development.

“Our petitions are attracting more and more signatures and we are convinced that
the hurdles to building such a complicated and dangerous plant in such a
confined and remote area will be recognised as overwhelming and terminal.

“With recent increased media interest in the issue, people are waking up
to the sheer scale of the environmental and infrastructure changes the
plant will require and they are becoming more and more vocal in opposition.
It is very encouraging.” TASC has voiced concerns over the suitability of
the Sizewell site, claiming it is too small for the proposed development,
potential loss of SSSI, visual intrusion, noise and light pollution and the
negative impact it will have on the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB and
Heritage Coast.

TASC secretary Joan Girling said: “Our detailed report
clearly demonstrates three things: we require much more information from
EDF before we can fully appreciate the impact of their plans; even on the
information available, it is clear that the dis-benefits associated with
Sizewell C far outweigh the putative benefits, and EDF must plan for a
fourth round of consultation.”

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/tasc-pete-wilkinson-szc-cannot-be-built-1-6009732

April 23, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Britain’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) notes that over 70 Welsh councils formally reject hosting nuclear waste dump

NFLA 18th April 2019 The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) notes that over 70 Welsh unitary, county, city, town and community councils have passed resolutions formally opposing taking any interest in hosting a deep underground radioactive waste repository.

The figure was noted at a joint meeting in Menai Bridge organised by the NFLA Welsh Forum in conjunction with the groups PAWB, CADNO and CND Cymru. At a presentation provided by the NFLA Secretary, he noted that there had been real anger and frustration raised across Welsh and Northern Irish Councils in particular to the request made by the UK
Government for considering hosting a large deep underground repository to store over 60 years of higher activity radioactive waste, as well as possibly additional waste should new nuclear power stations ever be built.

Even in England, a number of nuclear site Councils have indicated their public opposition to hosting a repository. NFLA have noted some of these issues in its response to RWM regarding its consultation on how any proposed sites will be evaluated.

http://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/over-70-welsh-councils-reject-deep-underground-radioactive-waste-repository/

April 22, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

AARP Ohio, on behalf of its 1.5 million members and families, strongly opposes Ohio nuclear subsidies

AARP foreshadows opposition to Ohio nuclear subsidies, Energy News Network BY John Funk 17 Apr 19
The group hasn’t taken a formal position on a bill introduced Friday, but recently told lawmakers it would oppose “any legislation” to prop up nuclear plants

AARP Ohio informed top Republican lawmakers before they introduced a bill subsidizing old nuclear and certain coal power plants that the organization would aggressively fight to defeat such legislation.

In a letter sent to House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, a day before he unveiled House Bill 6 last week, AARP state director Barbara Sykes wrote that AARP would strongly oppose “any legislation” imposing a customer surcharge to subsidize the nuclear plants.

“AARP Ohio, on behalf of its 1.5 million members and families, strongly opposes any surcharge or tax on utility customers in our state that would serve to subsidize the for-profit nuclear power industry,” she wrote………

GOP leaders have said the legislation would raise about $300 million per year from customers. While they maintain customer bills would initially be lower, clean energy advocates say the proposal will cost ratepayers more in the long run by defunding energy efficiency and clean energy measures.

An initial hearing on the legislation was held Tuesday before the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Another round of hearings begin Wednesday before the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Generation.

Tuesday’s hearing began a day after lawyers for FirstEnergy Solutions asked a federal bankruptcy court in Akron for permission for an additional 90 days to file a plan of reorganization. The company sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Mar. 31. The court rejected the company’s first plan because it included reference to a deal absolving parent company FirstEnergy from any future liabilities for environmental problems caused by its power plants.https://energynews.us/2019/04/16/midwest/aarp-foreshadows-opposition-to-ohio-nuclear-subsidies/

April 18, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, opposition to nuclear, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Kings Bay Plowshares: Peace Activists Face 25 Years for Action at U.S. Nuclear Submarine Base

Kings Bay Plowshares: Peace Activists Face 25 Years for Action at U.S. Nuclear Submarine Base Democracy Now 8 Apr 19, A group of peace activists have been jailed for over a year before trial for entering the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia last April to protest U.S. nuclear weapons. The action took place on April 4, 2018—the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Armed with hammers, crime scene tape and baby bottles containing their own blood, seven anti-nuclear activists secretly entered Kings Bay—one of the largest nuclear submarine bases in the world—under the cover of night.

Their goal was to symbolically disarm the six nuclear ballistic missile submarines kept there. Each submarine carries 20 Trident thermonuclear weapons. One year after this historic action, three of the Plowshares activists remain jailed in Georgia. The other four are out on $50,000 bond with electronic ankle monitors. All seven face up to 25 years in prison for their actions. On Thursday, global leaders, activists and scholars, including Nobel Peace Prize-winning South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, released a petition addressed to U.S. Attorney General William Barr demanding all charges against the Kings Bay 7 be dropped immediately. Democracy Now! recently spoke with the four Plowshares activists who are out on bond: Martha Hennessy, Carmen Trotta, Patrick O’Neill and Clare Grady………..https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/8/kings_bay_plowshares_peace_activists_face

April 9, 2019 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

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