Antinuclear campaigners break in to French nuclear power plant
Break in at French nuclear plant Sky News, July 15, 2013 Around two dozen Greenpeace campaigners have broken into a nuclear plant in southern France, in the latest such break-in by the environmental group.
The activists managed to enter the grounds of the Tricastin plant, some 200 kilometres north of Marseille, at around 5am (1300 AEST), Greenpeace and police said.
They hung banners reading ‘Tricastin: a nuclear accident’ and ‘Francois Hollande: president of a catastrophe?’ in reference to the French leader, according to Isabelle Philippe, a Greenpeace spokeswoman.
Twelve of the activists were arrested more than two hours later, according to the EDF energy giant that runs the country’s atomic power plants……
Members of the environmental anti-nuclear group have staged several break-ins at French nuclear plants in recent years in an effort to highlight what they say are dangers of atomic power and to expose security problems at the power stations.http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=888225
People power winning against the nuclear industry – even in China!
China Protest Forcing Nuclear Retreat Shows People Power By Bloomberg News – Jul 14, 2013 Protests in a southern Chinese city last week that forced local authorities to abandon plans for a uranium-processing facility highlight the growing willingness of ordinary people to challenge the state on environmental issues.
The proposed Longwan Industrial Park project won’t be approved “in order to fully respect the opinion of the masses,” the government of Heshan, Guangdong province, said in a statement on its website on July 13. A “social-stability risk assessment” of the proposal that was released for public awareness generated “much opposition,” it said.
Heshan is the latest local authority to back down in the face of pressure from a public increasingly empowered by its ability to sway officials who fear social unrest. Governments in cities across the country have canceled or delayed plans for industrial projects over the past year after confrontations with residents concerned about safety and pollution.
“Chinese civil society is getting stronger,” said Willy Wo-Lap Lam, an adjunct professor of history at the Chinese Universityof Hong Kong. “People now realize if their numbers are big enough, if they are united and stand their ground, the government will back down,” he said.
Opposition to the uranium facility underscores growing concern among China’s expanding middle class that industrial plants damage the environment and people’s health. Pollution has replaced land grabs as the primary cause of social unrest with many of the protests erupting in more prosperous coastal cities such as Shanghai and Ningbo where residents have deployed smartphones and used social media to organize their campaigns…….
“In future, especially in coastal developed regions, these kinds of public demonstrations may be the norm as we’ve seen in the West, where such projects face growing ‘not in my backyard’ sort of opposition,” said Ma. “In the future, large projects in China will need a longer and longer time to get approved like they do in the West.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-14/china-protest-forcing-nuclear-retreat-shows-people-power.html
Peaceful anti nuclear protestors arrested in Kansas City
Two dozen arrested in nuclear-plant protest KSHB.com 14 July 13 KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two dozen people were arrested Saturday morning for trespassing at the entrance to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new south Kansas City complex in a peaceful protest against the nuclear weapons that will soon be built there.
Scheduled for completion sometime next year, the plant at 150 Hwy and Botts Road will replace the current nuclear-bomb-parts plant at the Bannister Federal Complex at Bannister and Holmes, now operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies. …The protestors were organized by the local chapter of PeaceWorks to coincide with Nuclear Abolition Week, July 6-13…. http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/nearly-two-dozen-arrested-in-nuclear-plant-protest#ixzz2Z9cKfsUh
Success for Chinese anti nuclear protestors, as government scraps plans for uranium processing plant
China cancels $6 billion uranium plant after protest SATURDAY JUL 13, 2013 | CHEN AIZHU, QI DING FOR REUTERS BEIJING (Reuters) – China has abruptly canceled plans to build its largest uranium processing plant in a southern Chinese city, a day after hundreds of protesters took to the streets demanding the project be scrapped, a local government website said on Saturday.
The proposed 230-hectare complex in the heart of China’s Pearl River delta industrial heartland in Guangdong province had also sparked unease in neighboring Hong Kong and Macau.
Authorities in the gambling enclave had formally raised the issue with their Guangdong counterparts, the South China Morning Post reported.
A one-line statement published on the Heshan city government’s website said that “to respect people’s desire, the Heshan government will not propose the CNNC project”.
State-run China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) had planned to build the 37 billion yuan ($6 billion) project.
Officials from both companies could not be reached for comment……..
The surprisingly swift decision to cancel the project came after hundreds marched to city offices on Friday that forced officials to pledge an extension of public consultation by 10 days. Locals had planned more protests on Sunday.
Chinese authorities are becoming increasingly sensitive to local protests over environmental issues, having canceled, postponed or relocated several major petrochemical and metals plants…….http://www.newsdaily.com/article/dea9628fb2b26f48d30394204db3e45a/china-cancels-6-billion-uranium-plant-after-protest
Anti nuclear march in Jiangmen – a rare protest movement in China
Jiangmen rises against uranium plant http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=38672&icid=2&d_str= (07-12 12:57) More than 1,000 people have marched to the municipal government office in Jiangmen to protest against a plan to build a uranium processing plant in Guangdong City.
The protesters say they’re concerned about radiation and possible nuclear pollution. They’re also unhappy with the government’s 10-day consultation process, which ends tomorrow, RTHK reports.
Jiangmen authorities have already signed an agreement with the China National Nuclear Corporation to house the 40-billion-yuan project. Construction is expected to begin at the end of this year.
Guangdong protests against uranium processing plant
Jiangmen residents protest against uranium processing plant http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1280894/jiangmen-residents-protest-against-uranium-processing-plant Several hundred people gathered in Jiangmen’s city centre on Friday morning to protest against a planned uranium processing plant in the Guangdong city.
“Jiangmen doesn’t want radiation”, one banner carried by demonstrators said. “We want children, not atoms,” said another. Police appear to have been anticipating the protest with Jiangmen city government building being cordoned-off.
One group of protesters gathered in front of the building, another group meet at the Donghu Lake park.
Two protesters, who declined to be identified, said that the protest had been organized via QQ and WeChat, two social messaging services, at least two days ahead of the protest.
One local said that the local government had held an emergency meeting last night to prepare for the protest. According to one demonstrator, the public protest lasted from 8am to 11:30am and is planned resume in the afternoon.
Some protesters were holding banners calling for another protest on Sunday.
Thee 30-hectare plant would carry out uranium conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication, the Jiangmen City Development and Reform Bureau said in an earlier statement.
The plant’s construction some 100km from Hong Kong and Macau has sparked health concerns in both cities as well. The Heshan government under the administration of Jiangmen held a press conference earlier on Friday morning defending the project. Heshan mayor Wu Yuxiong said that the local government has decided to extend the period in which the risk assessment report is publicly accessible by a further ten days.
Microblogs about the protests have been quickly censored, indicating increased sensitivity about a backlash. Earlier this year, two demonstrations against a gas refinery in Kunming have caused a public backlash. A similar protest in Chengdu had been repressed.
New Mexico protests against uranium mining
La Jicarita: Protesters in Santa Fe Say No Uranium Mining http://unoccupyabq.org/2013/06/la-jicarita-protesters-in-santa-fe-say-no-uranium-mining/ 27 June 13 La Jicarita: Albuquerque and Santa Fe activists joined an inter-tribal delegation to protest the planned resumption of uranium mining in New Mexico. With organizing help from (un)occupy Albuquerque, the June 25 action began at the New Mexico Mining Association offices, then moved to the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division where the contingent confronted division director Fernando Martinez in a polite but insistent impromptu dialogue. Moving on to the offices of the Uranium Producers of America, the protesters found the occupants had moved out (not in search of larger premises, we hope). Ending up at the Santa Fe plaza, the activists took part in a call to free imprisoned AIM activist Leonard Peltier and an Idle No More-led round dance around the town’s monument to the Indian Wars. Click on the links between the pictures below to hear the words of participants in these events.
Read the full article here.
Reporter Eric Schultz also included audio of many of the speakers, well worth a read, and a listen.
Angry shareholders demand Japanese nuclear power shutdown
“TEPCO should just shut down,” “If we have another Fukushima, Japan will not survive.”
Japan utility behind nuclear crisis faces angry shareholders at annual meeting, Yahoo 7 Finance By Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer | Associated Press TOKYO (AP) 26 June 13, — Shareholders angry at the utility company behind Japan’s nuclear catastrophe peppered executives with questions Wednesday about leaking radioactive water and demanded a phase-out of atomic power. Continue reading
India’s uncertain nuclear power future
for all of its ambition, and its government’s strident rhetoric, India’s nuclear industry is one beset by problems, both in its current operation and in its plans for expansion.
Emboldened by a global nuclear wariness post-Fukushima, those living nearby to proposed plants are resisting by all means available.
At Kundakalum in Tamil Nadu, rolling protests have slowed construction by years. Violent demonstrations against a proposed mega-plant in Jaitapur (it would be the third largest in the world) have seen hundreds arrested, dozens hurt and one man shot dead by police.
(unfortunate & incorrect title) India depends on a nuclear future The Age, June 22, 2013 Ben Doherty “……India has bold plans for its nuclear industry – 470GW by 2050, Dr Singh says, more than the entire world can produce now – but today, with the lights still flickering out, the country is finding its nuclear ambitions frustrated on every front.
Plans for new power plants are being resisted by violent protest, existing ones are stricken by radiation leaks, and uranium mines are plagued by reports of thievery and smuggling.
And high on a hill in a tiny corner of the country, one woman is holding out against the might of her government’s will. 81-year-old Spility Langrin Lyngdoh has lived in the village of Domiasiat in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, longer than modern India has existed.
Her father bought this land decades ago – his grave is a few hundred metres from the home where she now sits – and Spility has spent almost her entire life here. She wants it to remain as a home for her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
But beneath the hills her father bought lies uranium, more than 9,500 tonnes the Indian government estimates, between eight and 47 metres underground: the “largest, richest, near-surface and low-cost sandstone-type uranium deposit discovered in India so far”.
The state-run Uranium Corporation of India Limited is anxious to begin commercial mining as soon as possible. It plans two open-cut mines over 10 square kilometres…… Continue reading
Black Hills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship opposes uranium mining
FORUM: Join Unitarian Universalists in opposing uranium mining
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/forum-join-unitarian-universalists-in-opposing-uranium-mining/article_75fed94c-fb63-594b-9126-4845ba186bfc.html June 22, 2013 Carol Merwin Member of the Black Hills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, who writes from Rapid City
The Black Hills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship has passed a resolution
opposing in-situ leach mining for uranium in the Black Hills. The
Canadian company, Powertech, wants 12.96 million gallons of water per
day from the Inyan Kara and Madison aquifers. We in Rapid City used
11.35 million gallons per day in 2012.
Our Unitarian Universalist principle that affirms and promotes the
inherent worth and dignity of every person includes those who are not
yet born. Clean water is essential for life; it would not be right to
deprive future generations of an irreplaceable resource. The demand
for clean water is growing; the supply is not.
Respecting the interdependent web of all existence is a principle that
requires us to regard all living beings as valuable. This value must
be upheld even when it is inconvenient or when it requires
thoughtfulness about unintended consequences. We consider caring for
the earth and everything on it a moral imperative.
A U.S. Geological Survey stated, “To date, no remediation of an ISR
(in-situ recovery) operation in the U.S. has successfully returned the
aquifer to baseline conditions. Often at the end of monitoring,
contaminants continue to increase.” Citizens in this area are well
aware of the arsenic from gold mining tailings leaching into Whitewood
Creek all the way to the Cheyenne River. The proposed Powertech
project includes ponds of polluted water, which will be detrimental to
all life.
Because of our belief in the right of conscience and the use of the
democratic process within our congregation and in society at large, we
encourage other religions and secular groups to join us in our
objection to in-situ mining for uranium in the Black Hills.
There is no safe waste disposal. Do we really want to risk so much for
an energy source that is an enormous gamble? Let us also contemplate
the fact that we have no say in how the yellowcake will be used when
it leaves here. Do we want to be responsible for the creation of more
nuclear weapons in the world? Let’s say, “No.”
Hollywood stars call for zero nuclear weapons
Hollywood to Obama: Eliminate Nuclear Weapons http://thediplomat.com/the-editor/2013/06/14/hollywood-to-obama-eliminate-nuclear-weapons/ By Zachary Keck June 14, 2013 Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have joined with the anti-nuclear group, Global Zero, in a new You Tube video to demand more action on the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Among the stars making a cameo in the video are Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Freeman, Naomi Watts, Alex Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Martin Sheen, Danny DeVito, Robert DeNiro, Matt Damon, Zoe Kravitz, and Christoph Waltz.
The video begins with a clip of President Barack Obama’s famous 2009 speech from Prague when he stated, “clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
The stars then take turns explaining the importance of eliminating nuclear weapons—including denouncing the notion that the spread of nuclear weapons cannot be stopped. While admitting the enormity of the task, the stars contend in the video that if the world decides it can’t stop the spread of nuclear weapons then it is in some ways admitting that nuclear war is inevitable.
In the second half of the video, the stars introduce themselves and one-by-one say that they demand zero, a reference to Global Zero’s goal of a world without nuclear weapons. See the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HbjizKEqG4
Akie Abe – Japan’s anti nuclear “ opposition party within the family.”
Akie Abe, His “Anti-Nuclear” Wife JUNE 12, 2013 In Japan, wives aren’t part of the show. Back in the day, they walked a few feet behind their husbands. Old couples can still be seen progressing down the sidewalk in that manner. In politics, wives still aren’t part of the show – though recently, they’ve been seen deplaning with their husbands when they alight in Western countries, even holding hands while waving to photographers.
But when a wife suddenly invites herself to the show, and not demurely behind or next to her husband, but vocally at the opposite end of where he stands, it causes a stir. In particular if she takes on the nuclear power industry. Continue reading
“I am anti nuclear” says Akie Abe, wife of Japan Prime Minister
Japan’s first lady says she is ‘anti-nuclear’ Capital News, By AFP | June 11, 2013 TOKYO, – The wife of Japan’s pro-business Prime Minister Shinzo Abe does not like nuclear power and would rather her husband’s government did not try to export it, she said in a speech.
In comments that appear to run against the grain of government thinking, which is increasingly moving towards switching mothballed reactors back on, Akie Abe said Japan should press on instead with renewables. “I feel bad that Japan is trying to sell nuclear power plants overseas because I am anti-nuclear,” she said in a closed-door speech last Thursday at an event organised by a non-profit group that supports farming communities….. despite vocal public opposition, the prime minister has said he wants to restart units when they are proven safe.
And his recently-unveiled bid to treble Japan’s infrastructure exports to 30 trillion yen ($300 billion) a year as part of an effort to boost the economy, will almost certainly have to include nuclear reactors……
After talks in Tokyo on Friday, Abe and French President Francois Hollande said they would cooperate in developing nuclear power technologies and promoting the sector’s exports to emerging economies. http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/06/japans-first-lady-says-she-is-anti-nuclear/
Opposition by villagers has stalled another Indian nuclear power project
Residents oppose nuclear plant at Kovvada http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/residents-oppose-nuclear-plant-at-kovvada/article4797223.ece 9 June 13, Officials unable to continue land acquisition for the project
Officials of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and the State government are unable to continue the land acquisition process in Kovvada and surrounding villages of Ranasthalam mandal, Srikakulam district, following strong resistance from locals against the construction of the nuclear power plant.
The government identified about 1,500 acres of land but it has not been alienated to NPCIL so far. In addition, it has to acquire 499 acres in Kovvada, Ramachandrapuram Tekkali and Kotapalem villages.
It set up a land acquisition unit in the AP NGOs Home in Srikakulam but could not begin as a majority of the villagers did not accept the ‘packages’ offered by the government.
With the support of all the opposition parties, the villagers have been continuing their relay hunger strike for the last six months.
The villagers are not convinced with the argument in favour of setting up a nuclear plant in their vicinity, though officials have been repeatedly telling them that it would be safe on the lines of the one in Kalpakkam.
CPI (M) leaders Bhaviri Krishnamurthy, V.G.K. Murthy, Panchadi Paparao and others extended their moral support to the villagers saying that Kovvada nuclear plant would be a threat to the environment. Meanwhile, the relay hunger strike entered the 172 day.
Co-ordinator of all Opposition parties, Kalisetty Appalanaidu, has also threatened to intensify the movement if officials resorted to land acquisition. Former panchayat president of Kovvada, Mylapalli Polisu said that fishermen would lose their livelihood as restrictions would be imposed on fishing activity after construction of the nuclear power plant.
Closure of San Onofre nuclear plant hastens the death of nuclear power
San Onofre is Dead & So is Nuclear Power, Nukefree.org, Harvey Wasserman, 7 June 13 From his California beach house at San Clemente, Richard Nixon once watched three reactors rise at nearby San Onofre. As of June 7, 2013, all three are permanently shut.
It’s a monumental victory for grassroots activism. it marks an epic transition in how we get our energy…… In the early 2000s, Units 2 & 3 needed new steam generators of their own. In the usual grasp for more profits, Edison chose untested, unlicensed new designs.
But they failed. And the whole world was watching. In the wake of Fukushima, two more leaky tsunami-zone reactors surrounded by earthquake faults were massively unwelcome.
So a well-organized non-violent core of local, state and national activists and organizations rose up to stop the madness.
At Vermont Yankee, Indian Point, Seabrook, Davis-Besse and dozens of other reactors around the US and world, parallel opposition is escalating.
Make no mistake—this double victory at San Onofre is a falling domino. Had the public not fought back, those reactors would have been “fixed” at public expense.
Today, they are dead…… we have yet another proof that citizen action makes all the difference in our world…… http://www.nukefree.org/editorsblog/san-onofre-dead-so-nuclear-power
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