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No nuclear power restart- say 9000 protestors in Tokyo

protestor-Japan9,000 anti-nuclear advocates protest in Tokyo against reactor restarts http://japandailypress.com/9000-anti-nuclear-advocates-protest-in-tokyo-against-reactor-restarts-1635960/  Sep 16, 2013 About 9,000 anti-nuclear advocates marched in Japan’s capital on Saturday, the day before the last online nuclear reactor in the country would go offline for inspection. They were calling for the end of Japan’s dependency on nuclear energy, reminding the government of the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant more than two years ago.

The anti-nuclear protest was organized by none other than novelistKenzaburo Oe, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994. “We want to keep telling what is happening at Fukushima even though everybody is talking about the Olympics,” Oe said. At the protest, he reminded everyone to “hand down an environment in which children can live without fear.” The advocates gathered at the Kameido Chuo Park then marched close to JR Kinshicho Station and around theTokyo Skytree.

The claims from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the situation in Fukushima is “under control” were also questioned. “Can you say the situation is under control even though contaminated water keeps leaking?” asked writer Keiko Ochiai. Katsumi Hasegawa, another speaker, was among the victims of the disaster, spoke strongly against having nuclear power plants. “With the future of my children tainted, I have realized that radiation and human beings cannot coexist,” said Hasegawa, whose family volunteered to evacuate from the city of Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture to the city of Fujinomiya in Shizuoka Prefecture.

September 17, 2013 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | 1 Comment

Farmers of Yadgir district, India, take up legal battle against uranium mining

protestflag-indiaUranium mining: State defies Centre http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130908/news-current-affairs/article/uranium-mining%E2%80%88state-defies-centre  DC | K.N. Reddy Gulbarga: Upset with the decision of authorities of the revenue department to resume acquisition of land around Saidapur, Diggi and Gogi villages for extraction of Uranium, farmers of Yadgir district have decided to resume their agitation as well as approach the court for justice.

Farmers were relieved when the Union ministry of environment and forests issued an order scrapping the mining unit three months ago. District authorities, however, continued with the process of acquisition of land after halting it temporarily.

According to information available, the district authorities have acquired 163 acres and four guntas of land in Saidapur and Diggi for mining Uranium.

The plant would be set up on a hillock where the borders of Saidapur, Umaradoddi and Diggi villages meet. While 46 acres and 15 guntas have been acquired in Saidapur village, followed by 116 acres and 32 guntas in Diggi village limits, and 49 acres and 19 guntas under Gogi and Umaraddi village limits.

“We cannot even buy a 30 X 40 ft site in our village with the compensation amount awarded for an acre of our land. How can we accept this? We will launch an agitation against this” says Bhimareddy Patil, President of Raithara Horata Samiti.

When contacted, deputy commissioner of Yadgir F M Jamadar admitted that authorities have resumed acquisition of land acquisition. “We are doing this as we have not received any intimation from the government directing us to stop the land acquition process,” he added.

Asked about the order of the Union government, scrapping the unit, Jamadar said “the Centre may have issued the order asking Uranium Corporation of India Limited to wind up the project. But we have received no information to stop the land acquition process.”

September 9, 2013 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear, Uranium | 3 Comments

Protest against dangerous shipment of nuclear wastes from Scotland to South Carolina

map-wastes-UK---USAGroups protest plan to ship UK nuclear waste to South Carolina  http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-08-29/groups-protest-plan-ship-uk-nuclear-waste-south-carolina?v=1377827799 By Rob Pavey Staff Writer  Aug 29, 2013 Environmental groups want to halt a plan to ship spent nuclear fuel from Scotland to Savannah River Site, saying it could make bomb-grade uranium more vulnerable to terrorists. The spent fuel would be moved from the Dounreay research facility in Scotland to SRS, where its highly enriched uranium could be removed at the South Carolina site’s H Canyon facilities, said Tom Clements, southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth.

The material should instead be processed at Sellafield, a former weapons plant in Cumbria, United Kingdon, said Clements and another environmental group – Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment. Continue reading

August 31, 2013 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, safety, USA | Leave a comment

The citizens of Vermont show us the benefits of just saying NO to Nuclear

Protest-No!The profound consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power accident are still unfolding,…….. Fukushima shows us the intolerable costs of nuclear power. The citizens of Vermont show us the benefits of just saying no.

Flag-USAJust say no to nuclear power – from Fukushima to Vermont , the Guardian , 29 Aug 13 Fukushima showed us the intolerable costs of nuclear power. The citizens of Vermont show us the benefits of shutting it down Welcome to the nuclear renaissance.

Entergy Corp, one of the largest nuclear-power producers in the US, issued a surprise press release Tuesday, saying it plans “to close and decommission its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vermont. The station is expected to cease power production after its current fuel cycle and move to safe shutdown in the fourth quarter of 2014.”

Although the press release came from the corporation, it was years of people’s protests and state legislative action that forced its closure. At the same time that activists celebrate this key defeat of nuclear power, officials in Japan admitted that radioactive leaks from theFukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe are far worse than previously acknowledged.  Continue reading

August 30, 2013 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Anti nuclear activists camp outside UK Atomic Weapons Establishment

Nuclear activists camp out at weapons centre Mornng Star, Sunday 25 August 2013 by Paddy McGuffin Home Affairs Reporter  Anti-nuclear campaigners swooped on Britain’s Atomic Weapons Establishment early today morning to protest against the £100 billion Trident replacement.

More than 20 activists set up camp outside the AWE in Burghfield, Berkshire, at 2am, pitching their tents under cover of darkness for a fortnight of protest.

Organisers Trident Ploughshares and Action AWE said they wanted politicians to support Britain’s disarmament obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and join multilateral efforts to ban nuclear weapons worldwide.

It’s the latest in a campaign of action to highlight the lunacy of nuclear weapons across England and Scotland.

Activists are planning a blockade of the site on September 2……. http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/136775

August 27, 2013 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Rapid City Council votes for water security, and against uranium mining

Council passes resolution opposing uranium mining, Rapid city Journal, 21 Aug 13 The Rapid City Council passed a resolution late Monday night opposing a uranium mining operation near Edgemont, saying it “poses an unacceptable risk” to the city’s primary water supply.

The 9-1 vote came after council member Steve Laurenti sought to continue the discussion until state hearings for mining and water rights permits for Powertech concluded.

“I will tell you that this issue ranks in the top handful of issues that have generated public concern,” Mayor Sam Kooiker said. “This has really gotten peoples’ interest and there is a lot of concern in the community, and I believe that people have the right to ask questions about this issue.” Kooiker encouraged Laurenti to join the rest of the council in its decision to oppose the mine.

protest-uranium-S-Dakota

However, Laurenti stood firm with his vote against the resolution, maintaining that more information was needed before he could take a stand against the operation.

“The problem I have, from a logical standpoint, is to oppose something or even to have grave concern, grave meaning that I have a fear for my life,” Laurenti said. “I don’t fear for my life over this issue at this point.”…… The mine would draw up to 9,000 gallons of water per minute from the Inyan Kara and Madison aquifers. The Madison Aquifer supplied Rapid City with 60 percent of its water resources in 2012, according to city officials. http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/council-passes-resolution-opposing-uranium-mining/article_2253d74c-8890-58cc-9688-4bea869afbe9.html

August 21, 2013 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, politics, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Save Great Lakes meeting fills Detroit hall

Capacity crowd attends ‘Save the Great Lakes from Nuclear Waste’ town hall meeting Macomb Daily By GINA JOSEPH
Gina.joseph@macombdaily.com; @ginaljoseph, 08/20/13  The tide opposing a proposed Canadian underground nuclear waste repository on the shore of Lake Huron appears to be rising.
“I was very happy with the turnout but given the magnitude of the potential risk I wish hundreds more would have been here,” said State Rep. Sarah Roberts (D-St. Clair Shores) referring to the crowd attending last night’s ‘Save the Great Lakes from Nuclear Waste’ public forum at Wayne State University in Detroit. “Tonight demonstrated to me that there are many concerned citizens who care about our Great Lakes, our public health, our drinking water and the potential danger of the proposed underground repository.”

Lake-Huron,-Bruce-County,-O

Ontario Power Generation wants the Canadian federal government to approve its plan to bury low and intermediate level radioactive nuclear waste under the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant, located on the shore of Lake Huron in the municipality of Kincardine.

Kincardine is less than three hours from the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron and north of Grand Bend, Ont. Roberts, who introduced a resolution urging Congress to oppose the underground nuclear waste dump, co-hosted the public forum on the proposed nuclear waste dump along with State. Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor), who introduced a similar resolution that was unanimously passed by the Michigan Senate.

If the license is approved by the federal government, Ontario Power Generation will construct a deep geologic repository (DGR), consisting of burial caverns carved out of limestone and shale rock formations, less than a mile inland from the shore of Lake Huron and about 440 yards below the Great Lakes basin…… http://www.macombdaily.com/article/20130820/NEWS03/130829994/capacity-crowd-attends-save-the-great-lakes-from-nuclear-waste-town-hall-meeting

August 21, 2013 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Rapid City Council swamped by opponents of uranium mining

Water is precious thing, a gift of life,” said Mark Kammerer, an area rancher who opposes the operation. “I hope you go ahead and come up with a good resolution denying Powertech the use of this water. You have that responsibility to my kids, your kids and kids not yet born. Water is the gift of life. Without it, all life dies.”

Protest-No!Flag-USAUranium mining opponents swarm council committee Rapid City Journal,   •  John Lee McLaughlin Journal staff, 15 Aug 13, After learning that the mayor and three city council members met privately with Powertech representatives, opponents of a proposed uranium mine packed Rapid City’s council chambers on Wednesday to find out where the city stands on the matter.

Despite nearly an hour of testimony, the Legal and Finance Committee declined to take a stand on a resolution opposing the project near Edgemont that needs state and federal approval. The resolution will now be considered Monday night by the Rapid City Council…… opponents to Powertech’s proposed Dewey Burdock mining project were concerned the meeting may have watered down the council’s original opposition, which was discussed at a meeting where council members say they wanted assurance the proposed project wouldn’t hurt the local water supply……

Project opponents voiced concern over the mine’s potential impacts on regional water quality and contamination from heavy metals and radioactive material that they said would pose a risk for 4.4 billion years, which is the half-life of uranium. Continue reading

August 16, 2013 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Iowa turns against nuclear power – and not to gas, but to renewables

Like with any energy source, burning natural gas should be considered in the context of its entire lifecycle. In that context, its greenhouse gas emissions are not much better than coal, if not worse,
depending upon the amount of methane leakage

Flag-USAIowa’s Campaign to Stop Nuclear Power, Blog For Iowa, August 7, 2013 | Author Paul Deaton Nuclear Neighborhoods: 11,000 Generations Prepared remarks delivered by Paul Deaton at the Iowa City Public
Library on the 68th Anniversary of Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 2013.

Well we held back new nuclear power in Iowa. Isn’t that great?

In February 2010, I wrote the first of a long series of posts on Blog
for Iowa about what I believed to be the legislature’s infatuation
with nuclear power during the last four sessions of the Iowa General
Assembly.   I wrote, “I heard the words ‘zero sum gain’ applied to
MidAmerican Energy’s process toward change for the first time. It
seems to fit. A zero sum gain is a situation in which a participant’s
gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other
participant(s). If the state wants to move forward with nuclear power,
it’s okay with MidAmerican Energy, but they are a business, so the
customers will have to pay.”

The customers will have to pay. That pretty much sums it up. What’s
missing is no one knew how much a new nuclear power plant would cost,
then, or now. For this and other reasons, the people of Iowa decided
there were better ways to generate electricity…….. Continue reading

August 8, 2013 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Growing worldwide anti nuclear movement

wave-opinionIs there a new anti-nuclear movement growing? RABBLE CA, BY  CELYN DUFAY  AUGUST 6, 2013 It has been 68 years since America’s nuclear attacks on Japan, and world leaders are still discussing nuclear arms reduction and disarmament to be achieved “someday.”

But unprepared to sit and wait while thousands of nuclear weapons remain on full alert, citizens are organizing on every continent to demand their governments establish a convention banning nuclear weapons.

Positive signs of the renewed interest in the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons have been emerging in recent years: from Obama’s goal of achieving a nuclear weapons free world, and the negotiation of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, to the recent support of 389 Members of the European Parliament for the Global Zero Action Plan, which calls for the phased and verified elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Importantly, we are also witnessing a rise in popular mobilization across the globe, by populations calling for the prohibition and elimination of all nuclear weapons around the world.

Throughout Nuclear Abolition Week 2013, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) had campaigners spread across 25 countries, on every continent, calling upon national governments to work together to ban and eliminate all nuclear weapons.

Through organized press conferences, exhibitions, round table discussions, meetings with government officials, and other activities, organizers brought this important topic to the political agenda. The popular response to these initiatives was tremendous: over 5000 people from 126 countries have now signed ICAN’s online petition calling for a negotiated nuclear weapons ban.

Here in Canada, Ceasefire.ca has been supporting ICAN with its “Louder Than the Bomb” campaign, by collecting signatures from citizens, coast to coast, to petition the Government of Canada to work with the international community to establish a nuclear weapons ban……

According to recent assessments, the overwhelming majority of the world’s population and national governments support a ban on nuclear weapons and efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament. An international poll conducted in 26 countries found that 78 percent of people support a treaty that would outlaw and eliminate nuclear weapons.

Similarly, 151 of 195 UN member nations have a stated policy supporting a ban on nuclear weapons. Only 22 nations in the world are opposed to a ban on nuclear weapons, nearly all of whom are members or allies of NATO or the EU…….

To advocate for the peaceful disarmament of nuclear weapons from inside NATO would strengthen international peace movements and restore Canada’s clout as an international leader in peace and prosperity.

Citizens of the world therefore, must mobilise in support of ICAN and other peace movements to encourage substantive action by their governments to ban nuclear weapons now.  http://rabble.ca/news/2013/08/there-new-anti-nuclear-movement-growing

August 7, 2013 Posted by | 2 WORLD, opposition to nuclear | 1 Comment

Hiroshima remembers. Mayor rebukes Abe government

hiroshimaflag-japanHiroshima marks atom-bomb anniversary as Japan unveils warship (+video) Hiroshima marked the 68th anniversary Tuesday of the dropping of ‘Little Boy’ on the city. Sixty-eight years later, citizens of Hiroshima and the nation of Japan are considering revising its war-renouncing Constitution.  By , CSM, Correspondent / August 6, 2013 TOKYO

As 50,000 people marked the 68th  anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the mayor of the city used his speech at the somber annual ceremony to criticize Tokyo‘s plans to both restart the country’s nuclear reactors and export the technology. A peace bell was struck at 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday, the moment the ‘Little Boy’ bomb was dropped on Hiroshima from a Boeing B-29 Superfortress on Aug. 6, 1945. ……

Hiroshima’s mayor is critical

In the traditional peace declaration speech delivered every year by the mayor of Hiroshima, however, Mayor Kazumi Matsui rebuked the Abe administration over its intention to sell Japanese nuclear power technology to India, one of four countries that have not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferationof Nuclear Weapons. Continue reading

August 7, 2013 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Global groups join in movement to ban nuclear weapons

world-nuclear-weapons-freeOn floating lanterns – and nuclear bombs National Catholic ReporterThomas C. Fox  |  Aug. 5, 2013  Kansas city, Mo. Nuclear weapons are an extravagant waste of our tax money and resources. They are not good for our economy; they are an unusable, unsustainable product.  We could use those resources for (since I’m a nurse) medical research and health care.

Nuclear weapons are immoral.   Many world religions have made statements condemning nuclear weapons. 

There is a growing international, as well as national, movement to ban nuclear weapons. The majority of people worldwide want to get rid of them. 

A new process has been established by the United Nations,”Open Ended Working Group to Take Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations” (OEWG); it met in May for the first time.  It sponsored the “Open the Door to a Nuclear Free Future” campaign that inspired us to use the symbol of the door in our July 13 action at the KC Plant. 

The International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons hosted diplomats from 127 countries who met in Oslo, Norway March 4-5 to examine the catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons.  ICAN held a Civil Society Forum to build support for the ban alongside the diplomats’ meeting.  I would like to attend the next one in Mexico.  ICAN sponsored Nuclear Abolition Week July 6-13, which our July 13 action was part of.  ICAN is also sponsoring the “Share Your Shadow” campaign, where people are encouraged to take a picture of their shadow and send it in.  I’m planning on tracing my shadow with black chalk on the sidewalk in front of Zimmer Realty (which owns the new KC nuclear bomb plant) and in from of City Hall and JE Dunn (the construction company which built the new KC nuclear bomb plant), along with an appropriate phrase such as “KC Out of the Nuclear Weapons Business”!  Should be fun!

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The United States Conference of Mayors calls for US Leadership in global elimination of nuclear weapons and redirect nuclear weapons spending to meet the urgent needs of cities.  

United for Peace and Justice is a U.S. group that has designated August as “Nuclear-Free Future” month – a month of education and action for a world free of nuclear weapons

Everyone can do something. Join a group, become informed, write a letter to the editor, call your congressperson, speak up and participate in demonstrations, support elected officials who are doing something. http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/floating-lanterns-and-nuclear-bombs

 

August 6, 2013 Posted by | 2 WORLD, opposition to nuclear, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Effect of public opposition to nuclear power, USA project in India cancelled

flag-indiaUS company nukes Rs 2724 cr nuclear parts project at Vizag Manish & Swati Rathor, TNN | Jul 26, 2013,  “….. US player Brighton Energy Corporation Ltd’s Rs 2724 crore megaproject to make forged steel components for use in nuclear power plants  was to come up inVisakhapatnam district.  According to officials of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), the project planned by US player in Nakkapalli mandal of the district has been shelved. ….

Confirming that the project had been shelved, APIIC managing director Jayesh Ranjan said, “In view of the controversy surrounding the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the country, Brighton Energy Corporation felt that the atmosphere was not conducive to go ahead with the project as they were to set up the unit for manufacturing components for nuclear reactors. Moreover, there were agitations in the Vizag area against the setting up of the unit. The company decided not close down the project three to four months ago.”….

July 26, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

China’s government fears that anti-nuclear activism may become a national movement

logo-NO-nuclear-SmThe government in Beijing would be happy if anti-nuclear protests were to stay at the level of bickering between counties or even the occasional outburst of nimbyism, as in Jiangmen. But there is a risk that the success of Jiangmen residents in securing a change of heart could encourage others. “We can expect similar protests wherever a nuclear project is planned,” says Eva Sternfeld of Berlin’s Technical University, who has studied such activism.

flag-ChinaNuclear activism Limiting the fallout, The Economist A rare protest prompts the government to scrap plans to build a  uranium-processing plant. Is anti-nuclear activism on the rise? Jul 20th 2013 | PENGZE, JIANGXI PROVINCE |OPPOSE nuclear pollution”; “Give us back our green homeland”. So declared banners raised by some of the hundreds of protesters who took to the streets of Jiangmen city  in the southern province of Guangdong on July 12th. In a remarkable concession, the local government announced that it would heed their demands and abandon plans to build a uranium-processing facility. For officials in Beijing, keen to develop nuclear power and keep activism in check, the demonstration was an unsettling sign of potential
trouble.

The protest was the first known major public rally against a project involving the nuclear-power industry since China began building nuclear plants in the mid-1980s. Continue reading

July 19, 2013 Posted by | China, opposition to nuclear | 1 Comment

30 arrested after break-in to France’s Tricastin nuclear power plant

handcuffedflag-franceGreenpeace members arrested after France nuclear break-in CBC News 16 July 13, Intrusion raises questions about the security of France’s 19 nuclear power plants  Around 30 Greenpeace activists were arrested on Monday after breaking into an EDF nuclear power plant in southern France, saying they wanted to expose security flaws and demanding its closure…… The action echoed tensions between the Socialist government and ecologists, who accuse Hollande of not doing enough to reduce France’s reliance on nuclear power and increase the use of renewable sources of energy.Greenpeace activists occupied this French nuclear power plant site before dawn Monday, a media stunt deeply embarrassing to a government intent on demonstrating that France’s reliance on nuclear power is safe. (Micha Patault/Greenpeace/AP)

Hollande sacked his energy and environment minister for publicly criticizing cuts to her budget earlier this month.

The president has pledged to cut the share of nuclear energy in the country’s electricity mix to 50 per cent from 75 per cent by 2025. He has also said he wants to close the country’s oldest plant at Fessenheim, near the German border, by 2017.

Greenpeace said to honour his promise, Hollande would have to close at least 10 reactors by 2017 and 20 by 2020. The campaign group said this ought to include Tricastin, which was built more than 30 years ago.

The dawn raid came less than a week after six female Greenpeace activists climbed London’s Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe, in protest over plans by oil producer Royal Dutch Shell to carry out drilling in the Arctic circle.http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/07/15/france-greenpeace-nuclear-plant.html

July 16, 2013 Posted by | France, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment