Pro nuclear film
CAN nuclear energy be the answer to the climate crisis? That is the belief
of the subjects at the centre of Irish filmmaker Frankie Fenton’s
provocative new film who assert that it is one of the cleanest and safest
technologies in the world. Thirteen years in the making, Fenton’s
observational documentary which he was director of photography as well as
writing, directing and producing, follows a small group of pro-nuclear
activists as they try to persuade law makers and the public of the virtues
of atomic energy using scientific evidence.
Although on the whole they seem to make a compelling argument (bananas notwithstanding) their assertions are not challenged during the film. Nuclear energy isn’t recognised for its own massive carbon footprint in terms of the huge costs of building new reactors and the toxic waste they produce, as well as the mining of the uranium and thorium needed to fuel them.
Morning Star 16th Feb 2023
Sizewell B nuclear station switched off fo 66 days for maintenance work
Sizewell B nuclear power station has been switched off for 66 days for
refuelling and maintenance work. Last year, EDF unveiled plans to extend
the operational life of the Sizewell B power station by at least 20 years.
The energy company has made an £80 million investment in the power plant,
part of which is the station’s 18th refuelling and maintenance outage. It
is expected that engineers will complete more than 10,000 routine
maintenance and inspection tasks and replace a third of the fuel during the
66-day outage.
Energy Live News 16th Feb 2023
Scotland’s Minister Matheson reassures the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) that no small nuclear power station will be permitted near Grangemouth refinery.
The Scottish Nuclear Free Local Authorities have been reassured by a recent
reply from Scottish Government Net Zero Minister Michael Matheson that
Small Modular Reactors are not under consideration at the Grangemouth
refinery complex.
Following media speculation that INEOS was contemplating
co-locating an SMR next to its colossal refinery to power operations, the
Convenor of the Scottish NFLA, Councillor Paul Leinster, wrote to the
minister expressing grave concerns that the combination of a nuclear power
station next to the chemical refinery represents ‘a disaster
waiting-to-happen’.
Covering an area of 1,700 acres and with 2,000 staff,
INEOS’s own website describes Grangemouth as a ‘world-scale
petrochemicals plant’ which produces about 7 million tonnes of fuels, much
of which is used in Scotland, and 1.4 million tonnes of other products per
year. These products are synthetic ethanol, ethylene, propylene,
polyethylene and polypropylene used in the food packaging, construction,
automotive and pharmaceutical industries.
In his letter, Cllr Leinster
described an accident involving an SMR and the INEOS refinery as ‘a
monumental calumny for Scotland against which any Hollywood disaster movie
would pale by comparison’. To the NFLA, ‘it would be madness to partner a
nuclear power plant with Scotland’s biggest explosive chemical factory’.
In his response, dated 12 January, Michael Matheson was quick to reassure the
NFLA that Scottish Ministers ‘remain committed’ to their ‘long-standing
government policy to withhold support for any new nuclear power stations to
be built in Scotland’ and that officials have been advised by INEOS that
‘Small Modular Reactors do not currently form part of their net zero road
map for Grangemouth’.
NFLA 17th Feb 2023
Rolls Royce’s “small” nuclear reactor will occupy 5.3 acres.
The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have today received a reply
from Rolls-Royce as to just how big their proposed ‘Small’ Modular
Reactor will be.
During last year’s World Cup, the NFLA’s then Chair,
Councillor David Blackburn, wrote to Tom Samson, Chief Executive Officer at
Rolls-Royce, to point out the general state of confusion amongst nuclear
activists, pro- and anti-, alike, with media reports claiming that an SMR
would occupy a surface area amounting to between ‘one and a half and ten
football pitches’ and asking for clarification.
Now Dan Gould, Head of Communications at Rolls-Royce SMR, has provided a final score – 5.3 acres –
an area ‘incorporating the entirety of the SMR unit’.
NFLA 16th Feb 2023
“No regrets” as UK government portrays nuclear power as “clean” and “green”
Nuclear power to get ‘green’ status as Britain races EU to hit net
zero. Move is part of a bid to unlock billions of pounds of funding for
more power stations. Nuclear power projects such as Sizewell C in Suffolk
will be granted so-called “green” status under plans by Jeremy Hunt to
unlock billions of pounds in funding for the industry. The Chancellor is
expected to announce the change within weeks as part of a broader shake-up
of the UK’s financial rules on green energy.
It would see nuclear power
projects classed as “green” or “sustainable” investments, clearing
the way for more institutional investors and environment-focused funds to
back them. There are also hopes that the Treasury could fund new power
plants with money raised through the Government’s green gilts and green
savings bonds. Generating nuclear power does not produce carbon dioxide, [ if you ignore the total nuclear fuel chain] so the sector is seen as a key plank of Britain’s plans to reach net zero
emissions by 2050.
A recent review by former energy minister and Tory MP
Chris Skidmore said that supporting the construction of more nuclear
reactors was a “no regrets” option. However, the sector has faced
difficulties portraying itself as environmentally friendly in the past
because of concerns about nuclear waste, water usage, and the remote but
catastrophic risk of nuclear accidents. Top fund managers such as Legal &
General and Aviva have previously expressed caution about the green
credentials of nuclear, with Aviva chairman George Culmer last year saying
there was an “ongoing debate”.
Telegraph 14th Feb 2023
Scotland’s campaign groups call on government to reject plans for nuclear power at new Green Freeports.
NORTH campaigners have called on the Scottish Government to reject plans
to build nuclear plants at the country’s two new Green Freeports.
John O’Groat Journal 14th Feb 2023
THE convener of Scotland’s nuclear-free local authorities (NFLAs) has
written to Net Zero Minister Michael Matheson asking him to reject nuclear
power at Scotland’s two new green freeports.
The National 15th Feb 2023
Signs of madness? —in the rarefied air of the British Parliament, Westinghouse spouts nuclear lies, without being challenged
Rarified (hot) air in halls of power is filled with propaganda
Fortunately, the gallery was under a mandatory code of silence, for it was hard not to emit a gasp of incredulity when the Westinghouse executive announced that his company had been “smashing production records” around the world.
Westinghouse has indeed broken some things: the law, and the bank for starters. But production records? He also mentioned that nuclear was “clean, reliable, dependable power” the very things it is not.
Signs of madness? — Beyond Nuclear International
Decisions on nuclear future are guided by myths
By Linda Pentz Gunter 12 Feb 23
Last month I rushed through the august halls of the British parliament in Westminster, on my way to a briefing on small modular reactors for Members of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.
Running late though I was, it was tempting to slow down and take in all the historic portraits and portals as I hurried down flagstoned hallways, through heavy oak doors and finally into the richly carpeted committee room. But the albeit fleeting impression all of this left was of a world completely isolated from the reality of the daily struggles most of us endure. The rarified air was almost suffocating.
This became even more apparent as, unwillingly gagged, I listened to testimony from executives representing Westinghouse, Bechtel and Rolls Royce. One unsubstantiated sound bite after another tumbled from the mouths of these corporate executives, all serving their rich agenda of vested interests (read shareholders and profits).
But the questions they faced, at least from the Conservative nuclear cheerleaders present, were mainly mild softballs. Give us the soundbite, they urged. What do we need to tell the government to do to make all this happen?
Even Labour MP, Beth Winter, while challenging them on the obvious detriments of small modular, or any, reactors — time and cost — given, as she pointed out, climate change is very much here now, politely did not expose their utter hypocrisy. It was, after all, not a room in which arguing was on the agenda.
The Rolls Royce response was to trot out the “we need to do everything” mantra, which is what nuclear companies have to say in order for their technology to stand any chance at all. In reality, it is clear that choosing nuclear cancels out renewables. Meanwhile, Rolls Royce has pocketed — and presumably invested — £250 million (around $302 million US) with which it has done precisely nothing. But that’s the government’s fault, the company says. We just need to get in a room and get things done.
Fortunately, the gallery was under a mandatory code of silence, for it was hard not to emit a gasp of incredulity when the Westinghouse executive announced that his company had been “smashing production records” around the world.
Westinghouse has indeed broken some things: the law, and the bank for starters. But production records? He also mentioned that nuclear was “clean, reliable, dependable power” the very things it is not.
All of this was both a reminder of, and an eye-opener to, exactly the kind of false propaganda our elected officials are continuously exposed to, and swallow whole-heartedly. This is who they listen to: the corporate elite, in the United States bearing gifts as well, often in the form of generous campaign contributions. The politicians bought literally and figuratively by the major corporations, including nuclear power companies, dwell in an echo chamber filled with hot air. It’s not reality.
What was happening in that room in Westminster was also utterly pointless. Sitting there listening to 90 minutes of valuable time squandered in the stubborn pursuit of learning something more about a completely futile technology that has zero applicability to the climate or the immediate jobs crisis, it struck me that this was yet another symptom of humanity’s general malaise.
Or is it something worse than that? Being hell bent on wasting time and money talking about something entirely irrelevant no matter what the empirical evidence that should dismiss the continued use of nuclear power out of hand, must surely be a sign of some kind of madness?…………………………………….more https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2023/02/12/signs-of-madness/
No to US nukes in Britain: CND is returning to Lakenheath, 20 May 2023!
CND is returning to the US airbase at Lakenheath in Suffolk, to say no to the return of US nuclear bombs to Britain!
With reports last year that the nuclear weapons bunkers at the US-run Lakenheath airbase were undergoing multi-million pound upgrades, alarm bells rang: the US is planning to deploy upgraded B61-12 nuclear bombs to Britain. We must oppose this dangerous and destabilising development!
Hundreds of you joined us for two demonstrations at the base last year. On Saturday, 20 May, we will return with our biggest protest yet! More information to follow. Coaches are being arranged from around the country, please let us know if you are coordinating transport. For all queries, contact information@cnduk.org.
Highlands Against Nuclear Power (HANP)
A NORTH campaign group, which was set up ten years ago to oppose the
transport of nuclear material from Dounreay, plans to broaden its remit and
change its name. Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (HANT) is set to
become Highlands Against Nuclear Power (HANP) in a bid to extend its role
to include proposed new nuclear plants, nuclear weapons and the proposed
Geological Disposal Facility (GDR).
However, HANT chairman, Tor Justad,
stressed the new body would continue to campaign on nuclear transport
issues as well. He said: “Producing electricity with nuclear power is twice
as expensive as with renewables, poses unacceptable risks of accidents,
provides bi-products for nuclear weapons, produces carbon at all stages of
development and is the technology of the past with no solution to dealing
with the 100 tonnes of UK nuclear waste stored at Sellafield as the
proposed GDR is only at an early consultation stage.”
John O’Groat Journal 9th Feb 2023
When the Great Tide returns
Seventy years ago, on the night of 31 January/1 February, the ‘Great
Tide’ surged down the Essex Coast from Harwich all the way round to London,
bringing floods, death and destruction to communities and environments
along the sea, rivers and creeks that compose the 350 mile coastline.
Passing almost silently and unexpectedly in an age where phones were rare,
radios silent and police relied on foot and bicycle, the Great Tide exacted
its toll on poor communities like Jaywick and Canvey; our biggest peacetime
catastrophe, barely remembered beyond the older generation today.
Such a fate awaits any new nuclear development at Bradwell, harbouring dangerous
wastes into the far future on a battered, exposed and diminishing
coastline. It must not happen. As far as possible we must try to avoid the
calamity that overwhelmed our Essex shores on that fateful and perilous
night seventy years ago.
BANNG 7th Feb 2023
UK’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities send seven magnificent suggestions to the new Secretary of State
‘Magnificent Seven’ suggestions sent to new Secretary of State 10th February 2023
On hearing the news that Grant Shapps has been appointed to head up Rishi Sunak’s new Energy Security and Net Zero Department, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities lost no time in sending him their ‘magnificent seven’ wish list of urgent priorities.
Councillor Lawrence O’Neill, Chair of the NFLA Steering Committee, said:
“The new department is rightly called Energy Security and Net Zero. It is the NFLA’s belief that it can achieve both if it focuses on reducing energy demand through a UK-wide emergency programme of home insulation and energy efficiency measures and upon increasing generating capacity using the renewable technologies we have from the sustainable sources we find in nature, such as solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal, coupled with green hydrogen and other innovative storage solutions.
“We should also be investing in local, divested energy networks by encouraging households, communities, local authorities and energy co-operatives to become energy-independent by generating their own sustainable clean energy, rather that indulging in vast expenditure on large nuclear power plants that are reliant on overseas contractors, money, technology and uranium, and that leave behind the deadly costly legacy of radioactive waste and contaminated reactor buildings.
“The NFLA is calling on the British Government to abandon the nuclear nightmare. Every pound spent on the nuclear energy folly is a pound that could be redirected to creating a renewable energy future.”
Former Australian PM Tony Abbott joins board of UK climate sceptic thinktank
Christina’s note: The mad monk rides again. Madder than ever. As he’s an enthusiastic promoter of the nuclear industry, it is puzzling that Abbott is still a climate denialist.
Nowdays, the nuclear industry pushes their lie that nuclear beats global heating. So a good nuclear zealot should believe in climate change.
Abbott says ‘we need more genuine science and less groupthink’ in announcing position at Global Warming Policy Foundation
Guardian. Graham Readfearn 7 Feb 23
The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has joined the board of a UK-based thinktank that has been highly critical of climate science and action on global heating.
Since its launch in 2009, the Global Warming Policy Foundation has become known for its consistent attacks on climate science, the risks of global heating and – more recently – policies to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The group, founded by the former Thatcher government treasurer Sir Nigel Lawson, is facing a complaint from three UK MPs and a not-for-profit campaign group accusing the GWPF of inappropriately claiming status as an educational charity while carrying out lobbying and skewed research.
Abbott said he was pleased to join the foundation “because it’s consistently injected a note of realism into the climate debate”………………
Dr Jerome Booth, the foundation’s chairman, said Abbott brings “a global perspective and policy insight at the very highest level” and he would help the group “to foster a culture of debate, respect and scrutiny in policy areas that are currently dominated by intolerance, high emotions, moral reasoning and confusion”.
Abbott is currently an adviser to the UK government’s Board of Trade. His name was raised last month as a possible replacement for the late senator Jim Molan in the upper house.
During his prime ministership between 2013 and 2015, Abbott drove to dismantle much of the country’s public policy architecture on climate change, successfully repealing a legislated price on carbon, defunding the independent Climate Commission but failing to dismantle the Climate Change Authority and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
In 2017, he flew to London to deliver the GWPF’s annual lecture, where he suggested natural factors could be to blame for global warming, that CO2 was a trace gas and hinted at a global conspiracy to tamper with temperature data to make global heating seem worse.
The foundation is seen as influential among some conservatives. Conservative MP Steve Baker resigned as a GWPF trustee when he became minister for Northern Ireland.
A group of Conservative MPs and peers – several with links to the foundation – have formed the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, which has used the GWPF’s work as part of its advocacy.
The GWPF’s non-charitable arm – the Global Warming Policy Forum – runs a project called Net Zero Watch, which claims to scrutinise climate and decarbonisation policies.
The foundation has several Australian links. As the Guardian reported, one of its earliest funders was Australian billionaire hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze, who last year was handed a seat in the House of Lords at the recommendation of the former UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
Four Australian climate sceptics sit on the GWPF academic advisory board, including mining industry figure Prof Ian Plimer and controversial marine scientist Dr Peter Ridd of the Institute of Public Affairs, an Australian thinktank known to promote climate science denial.
The late Cardinal George Pell also delivered a GWPF annual lecture in 2011.
Presenting a report last year, the GWPF’s director, Dr Benny Peiser, said: “It’s extraordinary that anyone should think there is a climate crisis.”
Last year three MPs – one each from Labor, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats – joined with a not-for-profit campaign group to complain to the UK’s Charity Commission.
The group questioned if the GWPF was breaking charity rules by commissioning unbalanced research and carrying out political advocacy from charitable funds……………….. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/07/former-australian-pm-tony-abbott-joins-board-climate-sceptic-thinktank-global-warming-policy-foundation
Fear for fish: EDF plan for Hinkley project means ‘enormous tragedy’ for ecosystem
Former US President George W. Bush Snr may have famously said that ‘the
human being and fish can coexist peacefully’, but the UK/Ireland Nuclear
Free Local Authorities believe that EDF Energy’s plan to scrap the
commitment to install acoustic fish deterrents at its new Hinkley Point C
plant will end that peaceful co-existence with billions of fish being
endangered.
Responding to a public consultation launched recently by the
Environment Agency seeking views on a proposal by French nuclear power
developer EDF Energy to scrap the deterrent mechanism at Hinkley,
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA English Forum called it an
‘enormous tragedy’.
A plant like Hinkley Point C ‘hoovers up’
millions of gallons of water daily to cool its reactors, discharging the
heated water back out to sea. Unfortunately, with the intake of the water
will come the fish, and although EDF is proposing to install some
mechanisms to prevent the ingress of fish and marine life into the plant,
it has consistently made plain its opposition to the installation of
acoustic fish deterrents.
Councillor Blackburn is, like local campaigners,
concerned that without Acoustic Fish Deterrents, alongside other measures
for marine life preservation, millions of fish will be killed every day,
and the group Stop Hinkley, which is opposed to the construction of the
plant, has estimated that up to 11 billion fish could die through
operations there over the course of its expected 60-year lifespan.
NFLA 7th Feb 2023
Campaigners claim permit change at Hinkley Point would kill billions of fish
West Somerset Free Press, 6th February 2023
ANTI-nuclear campaigners have estimated 11 billion fish off the West Somerset coastline could be killed during the operating life of the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
The Stop Hinkley group said the slaughter would arise if EDF was allowed to ‘wriggle out’ of planning conditions which required acoustic fish deterrents (AFDs) to be fitted to water intake heads.
EDF has to date refused to fit the AFDs and is consulting the Environment Agency (EA) with a view to trying to have the condition dropped.
Stop Hinkley spokeswoman Katy Attwater said the 11 billion figure was calculated over the 60-year lifespan of Hinkley C.
She said affected common fish species would include river lamprey, twaite shad, sprat, herring and the common goby, while rarer species which would be killed included salmon, cod, anchovy, John dory, crucian carp, silver bream, and sea lamprey.
Ms Attwater said the fish migrated from the Bristol Channel to nine main rivers, the Ely, Taff, Rhymney, Ebbw, Usk, Wye, Severn, Avon, and Parrett.
She said particularly hard hit would be the elver migration from the Atlantic, with eels being sucked into the Hinkley intakes and only comparatively few making it to the Somerset Levels and other rivers, which would be their homes for the next 20 years before their return journey past the intake heads to travel back to their Sargasso Sea breeding grounds.
Ms Attwater said EDF’s request three years ago to not have to install the AFDs was rejected by the Environment Agency, a public inquiry, and DEFRA Secretary George Eustice.
“Yet, EDF are still trying to wriggle out of it and waste all the time, money, and effort spent by the EA, the Severn Estuary interest groups, and DEFRA to defend one of the most important breeding grounds for British fish,” she said.
The estuary is a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation(SAC) and has been given an internationally important Ramsar site designation………………………………………….
The Environment Agency has launched a five-week consultation on the proposed change to the Water Discharge Activity permit. https://www.wsfp.co.uk/campaigners-claim-permit-change-at-hinkley-point-would-kill-billions-of-fish-592793
Taking up Hilda’s Torch: Robert Green’s account of his contribution to the 1988/9 Hinkley C Inquiry.
4th February 2023 http://stophinkley.org/nuclear-new-build/taking-up-hildas-torch-robert-greens-account-of-his-contribution-to-the-1988-9-hinkley-c-inquiry/
This is an interesting insight both into the Inquiry and the background to nuclear power in the UK. The information and comments are as relevant today as they were all those years ago. TakingUpHildasTorch.
Hilda Murrell (born in 1906) was a British rose grower, naturalist, diarist and campaigner against nuclear power and nuclear weapons. She was murdered in 1984 in disputed circumstances.
Having predicted the 1973 oil crisis, Murrell became increasingly concerned by the hazards posed by nuclear energy and weapons. She began to research this highly technical field and in 1978 wrote a paper entitled “What Price Nuclear Power?” in which she challenged the economics of the civil nuclear industry. After the 1979 US accident at Three Mile Island, she turned her attention to safety aspects and homed in on the problem of radioactive waste, the disposal of which she concluded was the industry’s Achilles’ heel.
In 1982 the Department of the Environment published a white paper on the British Government’s policy on radioactive waste management. Murrell, now in her late 70s, wrote a critique of it which she developed into her submission “An Ordinary Citizen’s View of Radioactive Waste Management” to the first formal planning inquiry into a nuclear power plant in Britain, the Sizewell B Pressurised Water Reactor in Suffolk.
She was scheduled to present her paper at the Sizewell B Inquiry, but on 21 March 1984 her home in Shrewsbury was burgled and a small amount of cash was taken. She was then abducted in her own car. Though the vehicle was soon reported abandoned in a country lane five miles outside Shrewsbury, the Police took another three days to find her body in a copse across a field from her car. Who killed her – and why – has been the subject of books and films. The conviction in 2005 of a man for her abduction and murder failed to answer many of the questions surrounding her death.
The reasons for this enduring enquiry are exposed at length in ‘A Thorn In Their Side’, a book published in 2012. The author is Hilda’s nephew, Robert Green, with whom she had a close relationship and who was a commander in naval intelligence during the Falklands war. He has followed and chronicled the case meticulously.
Was this just a random, bungled burglary by a lone 16-year-old – as the police would have it – or was it an operation involving several individuals on behalf of a government agency, namely the security services? Read more: The Guardian March 2012 https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/mar/20/who-killed-hilda-murrell
Also see:
- The Hilda Murrell website: https://hildamurrell.org/home/
- Hilda Murrell – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Murrell
- Taking Up Hilda’s Torch TakingUpHildasTorch
1 This Month
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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