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Opposition to Japan’s nuclear power restart, from 73 Japanese Mayors

n Saturday, thousands of demonstrators in Tokyo and other cities and towns voiced their criticism of the prime minister’s declaration that the Ohi plant is safe.

Earlier this month, about 1,300 people from Fukushima Prefecture filed a criminal complaint against Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and 32 other… accusing them of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.

Japanese Mayors Protest Restart of Nuclear Power Plant, TOKYO, Japan, June 17, 2012 (ENS) – A group of Japanese local government elected officials is protesting the decision of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government to restart a nuclear power plant…

… Under the banner Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan, the group of 73 serving and retired mayors held a news conference Sunday to protest the plan to put the Ohi plant back online. Continue reading →

June 18, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Indian villages fight against uranium mining plan for Mahbubnagar district.

Locals dig in heels against uranium mining plan, Sribala Vadlapatla, TNN | Jun 14, 2012,  HYDERABAD: The dust on the controversy over uranium mining in Nalgonda district is still to settle and already the government has begun efforts to mine the resource in Mahbubnagar district.

Despite opposition from locals, authorities are going ahead with plans to hold a gram sabha at
Urumilla village in Amrabad mandal, in the Nallamala forest area, on June 14…… Presence of uranium in these villages, about 140km southeast of Hyderabad, was established 10 years back but strong opposition from locals saw the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL)
dropping the plan to mine the area…. Padara village has a population of roughly 8,000 people while Urumilla village is 1,500 residents strong.

“We will oppose any move by the authorities to carry out mining in these small villages,” TRS leader Nasarayya said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Locals-dig-in-heels-against-uranium-mining-plan/articleshow/14106609.cms

June 14, 2012 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear, Uranium | 2 Comments

East Sussex County Council says No to UK’s nuclear waste dump plan for Romney Marsh

Romney Marsh nuclear plan opposed by East Sussex County Council BBC News 13 June 12,  Proposals for a nuclear research and disposal facility at Romney Marsh in Kent have been opposed by East Sussex County Council. Continue reading →

June 14, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Charge nuclear officials under criminal law, say Fukushima residents

Fukushima residents call for criminal charges against nuclear officials http://articles.cnn.com/2012-06-11/asia/world_asia_japan-nuclear-complaint_1_fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant-fukushima-residents-tepco?_s=PM:ASIA June 11, 2012|By Kyung Lah, CNN The executives of the Japanese utility that owns the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and a number of the country’s government officials should go to jail, according to a complaint filed by more than 1,000 local residents on Monday.

A total of 1,324 people lodged the unusual criminal complaint with the Fukushima prosecutor’s office, naming Tsunehisa Katsumata, the chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and 32 others.

The complaint argues that the 33 TEPCO executives and government officials are responsible for causing the nuclear disaster that followed the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and exposing the people of Fukushima to radiation.

June 13, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Japan, opposition to nuclear | 1 Comment

UK’s nuclear power plans for Hinkley Point are ‘stumbling’

Hinkley Point plan hit by fresh criticism as police anticipate protest action  http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Hinkley-Point-plan-hit-fresh-criticism-police/story-16337609-detail/story.html, June 11, 2012 Western Daily Press Plans to build Britain’s first nuclear power station for 20 years in the West Country have been hit by a barrage of new criticism.

Police have warned that the massive construction project will become the focus of major protests and attract a small army of transient and foreign workers. Anti-nuclear campaigners say plans by EDF Energy to construct two reactors at Hinkley Point C in Somerset are “stumbling”, with 30 major issues still unresolved. Continue reading →

June 13, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Vigourous and organised opposition to nuclear power in China

many of the companies building nuclear power plants and the government have not held honest discussions with stakeholders and are unwilling to provide adequate information.  The Ministry of Environmental Protection rejected Caixin’s application for more information on documents related to the Pengze plant’s environmental assessment.

“Our actions are divided into three phases: official, media and litigation,” Wang said. Petitioning the government was the first step, and using the media to attract attention the second. “If this still doesn’t work, we can only move to litigation. In the next step, we’ll sue whichever departments approved construction of the Pengze nuclear plant, and we’ll sue to the end.”

Ex-officials battle China nuclear plant plan, Market watch,Retired officials vigorously battle China nuclear power plant plan By Cui Zheng BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) —”… the meltdown on March 11, 2011, is still fresh on the minds of four retired cadres in Wangjiang County.
They petitioned against the Pengze nuclear power project in neighboring Jiangxi Province and ultimately convinced their local government to oppose the plan. This kind of official opposition to a nuclear undertaking is almost unheard of in China. Continue reading →

June 7, 2012 Posted by | China, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

A year after Fukushima disaster, and Japanese are growing even more opposed to nuclear power

“It is clear from surveys that the majority of the people think that we can survive this summer by conserving energy and transferring electricity among regions,”

Japanese more opposed to nuclear power a year after the tsunami, LA Times, 5 June 12, As Japanese authorities this week ponder whether to resume producing nuclear energy, a poll shows that opposition to nuclear power is strong and growing more than a year after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe that killed 20,000 and contaminated a broad swath of farmland.

Seventy percent of Japanese surveyed by the Washington-based Pew Research Center said they wanted nuclear power reduced or eliminated, while a year ago the nation was nearly evenly divided on the subject, with 44% urging a phaseout and 46% backing continued generation. Continue reading →

June 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Flight over nuclear reactor, smoke bombs dropped on reactor building

Activists fly over nuclear plant in Spain http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/activists-fly-over-nuclear-plant-in-spain-1.1032248 Stunt designed to prove lack of security at the plant AFP  June 6, 2012 Madrid Two Greenpeace activists flew over Spain’s oldest nuclear power plant on Tuesday in a motorised paraglider to draw attention to the alleged lack of security at the facility, the organisation said.

The activists threw smoke bombs on the roof of the building that houses the reactor of the Garona nuclear plant located near the northern city of Burgos from the paraglider, which carried a banner that read “Garona close now”.

In February Spain’s conservative government extended by five years the operating licence of Garona, which began operating in 1971. “With this action Greenpeace reiterates that there is no economic or energetic reason that justifies the extension of Garona’s licence,” Continue reading →

June 6, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Spain | Leave a comment

Japanese protest against restart of nuclear reactors

Japanese protest over planned restart of nuclear reactors Reuters TOKYO  Jun 1, 2012 – Hundreds of Japanese anti-nuclear protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s office on Friday, beating drums and chanting slogans against the planned restart of reactors a year after the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

“We oppose restarts,” the crowd of about 1,000, which stretched for around 200 meters down the block, shouted in the peaceful demonstration. Public mistrust of nuclear power has grown since the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year triggered the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-japan-nuclear-protest-idUSBRE8500OE20120601

June 2, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

“Malicious” anti nuclear nun gets some support from top military man

last week some of her views gained traction from a surprise and formidable source, retired General James Cartwright, the former Vice Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff who also used to oversee the entire American nuclear arsenal.

Recently, Sister Anne and the other Bangor 5 appealed their conviction for “willfully and maliciously” destroying federal property by cutting through the fences on the Kitsap-Bangor naval base. The five defended their actions by claiming they were upholding international humanitarian law which deems nuclear weapons illegal. 

A Malicious Nun? HUFFINGTON POST, Helen Young,  05/31/2012  There are many words that come to mind to describe Sister Anne Montgomery, and her work but “malicious” is certainly not one of them. Sister Anne, an 85-year-old Roman Catholic nun from the Society of the Sacred Heart who once taught students in Spanish Harlem and high school dropouts in Albany, also spent years working for Christian Peacemakers, an ecumenical anti-war group.

She has put her life on the line in some of the world’s most war-torn regions, including the Balkans in the 1990’s, the Middle East, and more recently in Iraq. Her life has been devoted to working for peace and on nuclear disarmament.

It’s not work for the fainthearted. This diminutive woman, who is still razor sharp in her thinking, and who barely weighs 90 pounds soaking wet, has spent more than three years in prison because of her non- violent protests against nuclear weapons. Continue reading →

June 1, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Religion and ethics, USA | Leave a comment

Youthful protestors lead anti nuclear push in Russia

On Murmansk Oblast’s Kola peninsula, however, nuclear backers face one of the strongest environmental organizations in Russia. For more than 10 years, Vitaly Servetnik and other activists at Priroda i molodezh (Nature and Youth) have battled attempts to build new reactors and extend the life of existing ones at the Kola nuclear plant, carrying out more than 100 protest campaigns

Servetnik accuses the authorities of using the Interior Ministry’s anti-terror police, known as Center E, to spy on his small group based in Murmansk.

ecologists persuaded authorities in Volgodonsk, southern Russia, to hold round table talks on the planned power increase of one reactor at the Rostov nuclear plant. In the Kaliningrad exclave, opposition is mounting to the planned 2016 launch of a new reactor at the Baltic plant. 

Nuclear-Strength Kola TOL Special Report: In Russia’s northwest, a scrappy bunch of young environmentalists faces off against a powerful nuclear lobby. By Alexander Tretyakov  reporter for SOTV, a publicly funded Internet television channel in Moscow. 24 May 2012 This is the fourth in a series of articles on the state of the environment in Russia.

MOSCOW | Murmansk Oblast in northern Russia has one of the highest
concentrations of nuclear energy on earth. Nuclear submarines and
icebreakers of the Russian Northern Fleet sail the White and Barents
seas, and the Kola nuclear power plant is still going strong nearly 40
years after its first reactor hummed into life.

Russia’s nuclear industry is due for a massive expansion under a
government plan to increase nuclear’s share in national power
production. Russia has shown no sign of wavering on nuclear power in
the wake of last year’s Fukushima disaster, ….. Continue reading →

May 26, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Russia | Leave a comment

Majority of Japanese firms want abandonment of nuclear power

Critics accuse utilities of exaggerating potential power shortages in order to win public support to restart off-line reactors

 70 percent of firms are prepared to cooperate on power saving to the same degree as last summer

Three-quarters of Japanese firms oppose nuclear power, Chicago Tribune, by Tetsushi Kajimoto, TOKYO (Reuters) 25 May 12- Nearly three-quarters of Japanese companies support abandoning nuclear power after last year’s Fukushima disaster, although a majority set the condition that alternative energy resources must be secured, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

The poll offers fresh evidence of the deep public distrust of nuclear
power, Continue reading →

May 26, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant is dangerous, say protestors

14 Protesters Arrested Outside Plymouth Nuclear Plant (includes audio)  http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/05/21/14-protesters-arrested-outside-plymouth-nuclear-plant/  May 21, 2012,  PLYMOUTH (CBS) – Fourteen members of the group Cape Downwinders were arrested Sunday while demonstrating at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, hoping to get it shut down. The demonstrators said their message is simple.

“The Pilgrim nuclear facility is a dangerous facility and it should be shut down,” said Paul Rifkin, a member of the group. The group wants to deliver a letter to Pilgrim’s owners, Entergy, demanding that they cease operations, pointing to the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan as a wake-up call to action.

“It’s a 40-year-old plant and they want to license it for another 20 years. We don’t want the nuclear regulatory commission to re-license that plant,” said Rifkin.

In the letter, the group says the continued operation of the plant is an unacceptable threat to health and public safety and they also want an evacuation preparedness plan to include Cape Cod.

The group worries a power failure at the plant could be catastrophic, and the members have doubts about how a mass evacuation from the Cape, given its only two exit points, would work. We’re hoping that NRC upholds their mandate to provide for the public health and safety and not re-license the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth,” said Diane Turko, who was one of the protesters arrested for trespassing.

The plant’s current license expires June 8th and they are hoping to renew for another 20 years.

May 23, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Kudankulam nuclear plant unsafe say protestors in London

The fact is that the Indian nuclear programme itself is backed up heavily by the US and foreign corporates (like Atomsroyexport) and US companies are salivating over deals with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India.”

Protest in Britain over Kudankulam nuclear plant http://ibnlive.in.com/news/protest-in-britain-over-kudankulam-nuclear-plant/259242-62-128.html IBN Tamil Nadu  19, 2012 London: Anti-nuclear and rights group on Friday held a noisy demonstration in front of the Indian High Commission here in protest against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant being built in a tsunami-prone area of Tamil Nadu. Continue reading →

May 21, 2012 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

USA veterans denounce militarism and NATO policies

he wants to let soldiers serving in any of the post- 9/11 conflict zones. “… know that we’re standing by their side and we’re not standing with NATO anymore.

“We don’t agree with the policies that are driving these wars.”

Iraq vets to turn in medals at historic NATO protest, Deborah Dupre Human Rights Examiner, 18 May 12,  After requesting a meeting with NATO leaders this week, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Afghanistan Veterans Against the War committee are gearing up to lead this weekend’s historic march on the NATO Summit in Chicago where veterans will symbolically turn in their medals to NATO reps.

“We were awarded these medals for serving in the Global War on Terror, a war based on lies and failed polices,” stated Army Reserve/National Guardsman who is leading the the former troops this weekend, Aaron Hughes….. Continue reading →

May 19, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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