Tell Trudeau we need a nuclear watchdog – not a lapdog!
Tell Trudeau we need a nuclear watchdog – not a lapdog! https://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1847&ea.campaign.id=55257
To protect the profits of polluters, the Harper government muzzled scientists and turned independent industry watchdogs into lapdogs.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) was no exception.
In 2008, Harper fired the Commission’s president for imposing modern safety standards on Canadian nuclear reactors.
The new Harper-appointed president has behaved like a lapdog ever since.
Things are so bad, even CNSC staff are speaking out: a group of anonymous whistleblowers sent a letter to media alleging nuclear safety risks are being covered up. These specialists wrote anonymously because they fear reprisal.
The whistleblowers called for an independent investigation, but the CNSC president is doing his best to sweep their allegations under the rug.
This is a step too far. It’s time for the Trudeau government to protect public safety by cleaning up the CNSC. This responsibility falls on Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr.
Please tell Minister Carr to repair the damage done by Stephen Harper and clean up the CNSC!
Montreal Declaration For A Nuclear Fission Free World
We invite all people, groups and organizations involved in the effort for a world without nuclear fission and uranium mining, to commit themselves to this effort. We also ask them to endorse this declaration and to transmit it widely in their networks.
This declaration is partly inspired by the Tokyo Appeal issued by the First Thematic World Social Form for a Nuclear-Free World held in Tokyo and Fukushima in March 2016.
People and organizations who wish to sign this statement should write to ccnr@web.ca, indicating their e-mail addresses and country.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/montreal-declaration-for-nuclear-fission-free-world/5542890 By Countercurrents.org Global Research, August 28, 2016 By Global Network for a nuclear-free world.
As citizens of this planet inspired by the Second Thematic World Social Forum for a Nuclear-Fission-Free World, conducted in Montreal from August 8 to August 12, 2016, we are collectively calling for a mobilization of civil society around the world to bring about the elimination of all nuclear weapons, to put an end to the continued mass-production of all high-level nuclear wastes by phasing out all nuclear reactors, and to bring to a halt all uranium mining worldwide.
This call goes out to fellow citizens of all countries worldwide who see the need, whether as an individual or as a member of an organization, for a nuclear-fission-free world. We are committed to building a global network of citizens of the world who will work together, using the internet and social media to overcome isolation, to provide mutual support and to coordinate the launching of joint actions for a world free of nuclear fission technology, whether civilian or military.
We will begin by creating communication channels to share information and educational tools on legal, technical, financial, medical, and security-related matters linked to military and non-military nuclear activities. We will pool our resources across national boundaries in a spirit of cooperation, allowing us to contribute to the formulation of a convergent and unified response to counteract the plans of the nuclear establishment that operates on a global scale to multiply civil and military nuclear installations worldwide and to dump, bury and abandon nuclear wastes.
We recognize each nuclear weapon as an instrument of brutal and unsurpassed terror, designed to kill millions of innocent men, women and children at a single stroke. We realize that even a limited nuclear war can provoke sudden extreme climate change on a global scale, crippling agricultural production and threatening the survival of all higher forms of life. We are grimly aware that a nuclear-armed world will surely destroy itself and set in motion a process that will undo four billion years of evolution. We are determined to help guide the world away from the brink of nuclear annihilation.
We recognize each nuclear reactor as a repository of the most pernicious industrial waste ever known; waste so radioactive that it spontaneously melts down if not continually cooled; waste that, when targeted by terrorists or saboteurs, or by conventional warfare, will render large portions of the earth uninhabitable for centuries; waste that contains material that can be used as a nuclear explosive at any time in the future, for thousands of years to come.
We recognize uranium as the key element behind all nuclear weapons and all nuclear reactors, and we endorse the call by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and by the 2015 Quebec World Uranium Symposium for a total global ban on the mining and processing of uranium.
We will use our networks
- to pressure governments everywhere to put an end to nuclear fission;
- to expose the dangers associated with the export and transport of nuclear materials and nuclear waste;
- to puncture the myths used to prop up and justify our irrational nuclear addiction;
- to tell the sobering stories of nuclear victims and nuclear refugees;
- to emphasize our moral responsibilities not to burden future generations with a poisonous nuclear legacy;
- to warn governments without nuclear facilities to realize the dangers and avoid becoming enmeshed in this technology;
- to disseminate the findings of engineers, doctors, biologists, ecologists, physicists and concerned citizens having special knowledge and appreciation of nuclear dangers;
- to promote and popularize the wide variety of renewable energy alternatives that are green and sustainable;
- to launch lawsuits and to support whistle-blowers to halt the most egregious examples of nuclear malfeasance;
- to promote non-violent conflict resolution, and
- to denounce the illegal, immoral, and insane obsession with nuclear weapons arsenals.
We invite all people, groups and organizations involved in the effort for a world without nuclear fission and uranium mining, to commit themselves to this effort. We also ask them to endorse this declaration and to transmit it widely in their networks.
This declaration is partly inspired by the Tokyo Appeal issued by the First Thematic World Social Form for a Nuclear-Free World held in Tokyo and Fukushima in March 2016.
People and organizations who wish to sign this statement should write to ccnr@web.ca, indicating their e-mail addresses and country.
Campaign for mandatory distribution of Potassium Iodide tablets for all residents in 50 miles of nuclear power stations
The Potassium Iodide Project May 26, 2016 by mutantdaisys MutantDaisys is campaigning for mandatory distribution of Potassium Iodide tablets for all residents living within a 50 mileradius of every Nuclear power station within the United Kingdom. Once we have achieved this goal we want to expand the catchment area further to incorporate all residents living with a 50 miles radius of every Nuclear power station in the world.
Currently, the Nuclear industry in the UK only provides Potassium Iodide tablets to all residents living within a 1.5 mileradius of any given Nuclear power plant. This is nothing more than a token inadequate gesture given that the exclusion zone at Chernobyl incorporates a 50 mile radius.
The campaign aims to serve three main purposes:
1) To raise awareness of the dangers and consequences on public health posed by Nuclear power, hopefully stimulating organic thought and education on the subject leading to the public questioning the safety of Nuclear power.
2) To expose just how unprepared the country (and the rest of the World) is in the event of a Nuclear emergency at any one of our Nuclear power stations, highlighting the inept emergency and contingency plans that are the responsibility of the Government and the UK Nuclear Industry. This is also designed to provoke thought and questions at just why the UK is so unprepared, and showcase how the authorities are playing ‘Nuclear Russian Roulette’ with public safety by continuing to produce power from our aging fleet of Nuclear reactors.
3) To get mandatory distribution of Potassium Iodide tablets to all residents living within a 50 mile radius of all Nuclear power stations in the UK. This goal is still a very conservative one, given that radiation fallout has been proven to travel hundreds of miles from Fukushima and Chernobyl respectively. Radiation has no consideration for borders. The project will eventually grow to incorporate ALL Nuclear power stations worldwide.
Dr Ian Fairlie examines how prepared the UK is for a Nuclear emergency………https://mutantdaisys.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/the-mutantdaisys-potassium-iodide-distribution-campaign/
6 August – UK Peace campaigners remember 1945 atomic bombing of Japan
Peace campaigners in Keighley to remember 1945 atomic bombing of Japan and to call for a nuclear weapon free world http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/14663443.Peace_campaigners_in_Keighley_to_remember_1945_atomic_bombing_of_Japan_and_to_call_for_a_nuclear_weapon_free_world/ / Miran Rahman, 5 Aug 16
A VIGIL to mark the 71st anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be staged in Keighley on SaturdayThe event will run from 8am to 9am in Town Hall Square and will include silent reflection, words and song.
Sylvia Boyes, one of the peace campaigners taking part in the event, said: “This country, and all the nuclear weapons states, are planning to upgrade their nuclear weapons arsenals.
“Our Government has taken the decision to renew the Trident nuclear bomb system despite the knowledge this perpetuates the threat of nuclear annihilation for generations to come. “This despite the fact that while social care, education and health services need more funding, the cost of Trident is likely to amount to £200 billion.
“The European Union referendum may have been a chance-in-a-lifetime, but the issue of the nuclear weapons threat is of equal, if not greater, importance to each and every one of us worldwide.
“The call must go out that Trident must be disarmed, and a commitment made to work for a nuclear-free world.”
Nuclear Information and Resources Service briefing on Radioactivity Levels
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly proposed to raise the allowable levels of radioactivity in drinking water a nuclear incident to hundreds of times their current limits. If this guidance goes through, EPA’s action will allow people to drink water with concentrations of radioactivity at vastly higher levels.
Look no further than the current water crisis in Flint, Michigan to understand concern that the EPA will not act to protect public health in an emergency. In this case, the EPA is attempting to ensure that it would not have to act decisively to protect public health!
But there is still time to act.
Call in to the July 13 telebriefing to find out more.
You are invited to join us on WEDNESDAY JULY 13 for a national telebriefing: Dangerous Drinking Water, with presentations by leading experts and activists:
- Diane D’Arrigo, Radioactive Waste Project Director, Nuclear Information and Resource Service
- Daniel Hirsch, Director, Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy, University of California Santa Cruz
- Emily Wurth, Water Program Director, Food and Water Watch
- Moderated by NIRS Executive Director, Tim Judson
The open and free event will be on the phone, starting at 8 pm eastern, 7 pm central, 6 pm mountain and 5 pm pacific. We will reserve the second half of the program for questions and discussion.
Register to attend the July 13 telebriefing.
The program will focus on EPA Guidance that massively increases the permitted levels of radioactivity in drinking water for years after any nuclear incident that requires consideration of “protective action,” ranging from a spill, leak or transport accident to a dirty bomb or nuclear meltdown—a nuclear accident of any kind, big or small. Allowable concentrations of radioactive elements allowed to come out of your tap would rise hundreds or even thousands of times above the current Maximum Concentration Levels allowed under the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations. Click here to review EPA’s proposal.
Nuclear Energy is Dirty in many dimensions, but first, and foremost because of its dangerous ionizing radiation. The EPA guidance, allowing us to drink highly radioactive water is a clever effort to bypass existing limits, which the law prevents from being weakened. It is yet another way to shift liability and cleanup costs to the public from industry and government in case of a “nuclear event.” For instance, for most radionuclides the Safe Drinking Water levels are based on no more than 4 millirems a year exposure from drinking water; the proposed water PAGs would allow 500 millirems a year with no notice, and no action to limit exposure to adults. This difference protects the government and industry from any liability from massively increased health consequences.
Although EPA for the first time ever admits that those under 15 years of age are at greater risk than adults the draft PAG only pays lip-service to considering a lower level which is still enormously higher than current water limits. This is in addition to rest of EPA PAGs, which allow even more exposure from air and food.
Call in to learn more about this federal guidance and how to help stop it.
Nuclear Information and Resource Service: marching for clean energy, remembering Michael Mariotte
We invite you to join us for the next historic safe energy mobilization–the March for a Clean Energy Revolution, July 24 in Philadelphia. You can find more details on the march below.
We have good news and sad news to report today. On at least this occasion, it’s appropriate that they go together. Many of you know that Michael Mariotte, NIRS’s President and long-time Executive Director–and primary sender of these emails–had been struggling with cancer for some time.
Recently, that struggle came to an end. Michael passed away a few weeks ago. He has left us all with a legacy of his achievements from which the movement for a nuclear-free world will benefit for many years. We encourage you to visit our memorial webpage to find out more about Michael’s enormous contributions and his unique life, which have been comemorated in some of the U.S.’s most prominent news outlets, as well as in the humble pages of our own Nuclear Monitor and the GreenWorld blog that Michael founded and edited.
Michael’s death is a major loss for NIRS and the anti-nuclear movement. His brilliance and hisvoice will never be replaced, so you will notice some changes in the coming months. For instance, emails like this addressed from other NIRS staffers, and soon we will be rolling out one of the last projects Michael was working on: a new and revitalized website and a new image for NIRS, that connects our movements roots to our ongoing work.
As Michael would have it, we are continuing the fight–and our work for a nuclear-free, carbon-free world is only expanding.
Two years ago, 400,000 people joined the historic People’s Climate March in New York City — including thousands who marched with NIRS and the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent. Michael Mariotte was the architect and chief organizer of that enormous, vibrant, and visionary contingent, and our mobilization was one of the moments of which he was proudest.
Collectively, we sent an incredibly powerful message that day, which not only led to the first-ever truly global climate action agreement. The visionary statement made by those marching for a nuclear-free, carbon-free world both helped keep nuclear power out of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan and, ultimately, prevented the international climate agreement from endorsing it, as well.
Join us on July 24 as we March for a Clean Energy Revolution in Philadelphia.
The Democratic National Convention will be meeting there starting the next day. The Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent will be marching with thousands of anti-fracking, climate justice, First Nations, fair trade, unions, and clean energy activists, demanding an end to dirty energy and a total commitment and a just transition to clean, sustainable, renewable energy. And we need you to join us!
Our victories since the People’s Climate March have led to more and more reactor shutdowns, but the nuclear industry hasn’t given up–and their attacks on our clean energy future are getting more severe this year. Dirty energy corporations see the 2016 elections as their opportunity to block renewable energy, no matter who wins the elections.
And the nuclear industry is no exception. In fact, there is a nuclear lobbyist and spokesperson on the Democratic Party Platform Committee: Nuclear Matters’ Carol Browner. We need as many No Nukes and safe energy activists as possible to join us in the streets of Philadelphia.
Stay Informed:
NIRS on the web: http://www.nirs.org
GreenWorld: (NIRS’ blog chronicling nuclear issues and the transition to a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy system) http://www.safeenergy.org
NIRS on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuclear-Information-and-Resource-Service/26490791479?sk=wall&filter=12
NIRS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/nirsnet NIRS on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nirsnet
Cultural genocide – nuclear waste dumping in Australia: Take a stand!
Stop Australia From Committing “Cultural Genocide” and Environmental Injustice http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36006-stop-australia-from-committing-cultural-genocide-and-environmental-injustice, 14 May 2016 By Jessica Ramos, Care2 | Report Australia is about to make a horrible mistake. The country has (at least, tentatively) earmarked the location of its first nuclear dumping site next to an aboriginal cultural site. And the aboriginal community is speaking out — calling the proposed site “cultural genocide.” Australia is on the path to repeating the United States’ past mistakes and environmental injustices.
Can You Put a Price on Cultural Genocide and Death? Yes, Apparently
The traditional lands at the center of the controversy belong to the Adnyamathanha, also known as the “rock people,” from Flinders Ranges, South Australia. In 2009, the Federal Court of Australia recognized the Adnyamathanha’s native rights over 16,000 square miles of territory. But a nuclear dumping site of low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste (e.g. from medical procedures) endangers their territory and legal rights.
As reported in The Guardian, Wallerberdina Station (a cattle station) near Barndioota — less than 500km north of Adelaide in the Flinders Ranges — was originally one of six sites selected for the proposed nuclear dump last year, but now it’s the only location under consideration after a “four-month consultation process.” I’m not sure who was consulted, but it doesn’t appear to be the Adnyamathanha.
“This is our land, we have been here forever and we will always be here and we are totally opposed to this dump,” says Vince Coulthard, the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association (ATLA) chief executive, to The Guardian. Apart from calling the move “cultural genocide,” Coulthard adds that the community has been mostly excluded from the decision-making process.
Important Adnyamathanha cultural sites near the proposed dumping site need to be taken into consideration. Hookina Creek, a women’s place and registered heritage site, is one of these sites. When Regina McKenzi, an Adnyamathanha woman, learned about the proposed dumping area coming to her ancestral lands, she told The Guardian that she felt like she was “getting news of a death.”
But, hey, the Adnyamathanha will be compensated for, so that’s something — right? As reported in The Guardian, Josh Frydenberg MP, the Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia, explains that the Adnyamathanha community will receive $2m for local projects and $10m if the Wallerberdina Station is ultimately selected. Frydenberg adds that consulting the aboriginal community is the next wave of the process — even though it should’ve been a priority since the process’ inception, in my humble opinion.
National Treasures, Not Nuclear Dumping Sites
If you’re from the United States, then this whole ordeal should sound somewhat familiar. When I wrote about the massive mine spill caused by the EPA near the Navajo Nation last year, it was hard not to reflect on the ways indigenous communities experience environmental injustice. The Navajo Nation is probably the most infamous and prominent example with its long history of uranium mining that caused high rates of cancers and lung disease in the community.
But this form of injustice isn’t limited to one tribe. According to the Scientific American, “[n]ative tribes across the American West have been and continue to be subjected to significant amounts of radioactive and otherwise hazardous waste as a result of living near nuclear test sites, uranium mines, power plants and toxic waste dumps.”
Environmental injustice just doesn’t compromise the physical health of the locals. It also compromises the environment, and, ultimately, the cultural health. To this day, many indigenous identities are intricately tied to ancestral lands. By polluting sacred, ancestral and/or historical sites, these companies and governments are also polluting ancestral memories and robbing future generations of their ancestral identities. Millions of dollars can never compensate for these past and future losses.
Cultures, languages, traditions and stories that have survived centuries of colonization are national treasures — not nuclear dumping sites.
Take Action!
The final decision for the nuclear dumping site will occur in a year, please act now by signing and sharing this petition urging Australian leaders not to dump nuclear waste near Adnyamathanha territory.
Petition against use of radioactive soil in Japanese public works
On March 30, the Ministry of Environment (MOE)’s working committee decided to allow the use of contaminated soil (lower than 8,000 becquerel/kg) for public works nationwide with “proper containment measures.” The committee argues that the additional effective dose for residents will be less than 10µSv/year, but the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Act specifies 100 becquerel/kg or less as the threshold for reusing concrete and metals from nuclear power plants. Therefore, MOE’s latest policy increases the threshold eightyfold.
We should not allow the government to loosen the regulation and spread the contaminated soils our environment.
Petition Stand in solidarity with Chernobyl survivors!
Petition Stand in solidarity with Chernobyl survivors! https://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1844&ea.campaign.id=49719 Today five million people in the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus live in areas contaminated by Chernobyl’s radioactive fallout.
Every day these survivors must make decisions on how to reduce or limit their exposure to radiation. Shopping, cooking, eating, working outside or heating their homes are daily choices that can put their families at risk.
They are being abandoned by their governments who are not taking adequate care of their citizens. Their governments scramble to cut protection programs that ensure needed monitoring, health treatments and uncontaminated food. This is so they can save money.
Worse still, these same governments want to spend billions on extremely risky nuclear energy while ignoring their responsibility to support those who still live in the shadow of Chernobyl’s radioactive legacy.
It is unjust to cut programs to protect Chernobyl survivors.
And it’s madness to spend more money on nuclear power when safe and clean renewable energy is affordable and ready to empower communities.
Please stand in solidarity with Chernobyl survivors. Tell the leaders of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia to reinstate programs to protect Chernobyl survivors from radiation exposure and ensure another Chernobyl never happens again by investing in modern and affordable renewable energy.
USA Nuclear Information and Resource Service launches petition against South Australian waste import plan
Help stop A Global Mobile Chernobyl! Nuclear Information and Resource Service, 23 Apr 16, A group of politicians and business people are developing a plan to build an international high-level nuclear waste dump in South Australia–a nation that has no commercial nuclear reactors. The plan is strongly opposed by many South Australians and by an overwhelming majority of Aboriginal people, who own the land.
The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, representing Aboriginal people from across Australia, calls on nuclear nations NOT to dump nuclear waste in Australia. The nuclear industry has a track record of Aboriginal dispossession and environmental pollution–from atomic bomb tests to uranium mining to nuclear waste dump proposals.
NIRS is supporting our friends in Australia and we hope you, and your organization, will too, by signing on to a petition of support by going here. You can also learn more about the issue at this site.
Individuals: please sign the simple statement of support below.
Dear friends in the Australian Nuclear-Free Alliance community,
Thank you for your commitment to “Keep It in the Ground” by your efforts to stop uranium mining in your lands.
We stand with you. We, the people, must and will stop the dirty, deadly and deceptive nuclear industry. We have heard that your lands are now being targeted by global nuclear waste companies. We are the community of Nuclear Information and Resource Service supporters. Collectively and as individuals, we commit to speak out and act to prevent your home from becoming a dumping ground for global nuclear waste.
Our planet and our struggle is shared and NIRS and ANFA are stronger together.
Thank you for standing for health, hope and your home. We stand with you.
USA only – 847 signatures so far http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=22778
The TPP was negotiated in secret, and now one of the chief negotiators is accused of taking bribes
https://cms.fightforthefuture.org/japan/
The top official involved has now RESIGNED due to the seriousness of these allegations. Read more.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive, legally binding deal between 12 countries that was negotiated in complete secrecy by industry lobbyists and government bureaucrats. It has sparked international outcry, and expert’s analysis of the text show it poses a grave threat to the economy, theenvironment, the Internet, national sovereignty, and freedom of expression.
Japan’s economic and fiscal policy minister, a top official involved in negotiating the TPP, has been accused of taking major bribes from a Japanese construction company amounting to at least $148,000. It’s not clear yet whether the bribe was related to the TPP itself, but it underscores the danger of these shadowy, corrupt, agreements.
This is exactly why decisions that affect billions of people should never be made in secret. This is exactly why the TPP is such a threat. President Obama is expected to sign the agreement on February 4th, but this bribery scandal could derail that if enough people speak out right away.
Sign the petition to tell Obama not to sign the TPP amidst public outcry and scandalous corruption. Then share it with as many people as you can!
Closing Canada’s Pickering nuclear station will result in jobs, savings and safety
Shuttering Pickering = jobs, savings and safety
Closing the Pickering Nuclear Station when its license expires in 2018 and getting to work on dismantling the plant immediately will be safer, create more jobs between now and 2030, and save hundreds of millions of dollars.
That’s the finding of a new report commissioned by Ontario Clean Air Alliance Research from energy consultants Torrie Smith and Associates. Torrie Smith compared Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) plan of leaving the plant untouched for 30 years before starting decommissioning to the internationally preferred approach of immediate decommissioning.
They found that getting to work immediately would create 16,000 person years of employment, save $800 million to $1.2 billion on decommissioning costs, and ensure a smoother transition for workers and the local economy.
In fact, Torrie Smith points out that the only reason to leave Canada’s oldest nuclear plant sitting idle on the Pickering waterfront for the next 30+ years is money. While there is enough money in OPG’s Decommissioning Fund to fully cover the costs of decommissioning Pickering today, OPG would prefer to wait and let investment returns over the next three decades do the heavy financial lifting.
From a safety perspective, a 30-year wait simply means that Pickering’s components and structures will continue to age and deteriorate, actually raising risks while producing more low-level radioactive waste. A 30-year delay will have little impact on levels of radioactivity in the plant or affect how the dismantling work is approached, which is why the International Atomic Energy Agency states that “the preferred decommissioning strategy shall be immediate dismantling.”
The Pickering Nuclear Station is North America’s 4th oldest and one of the largest nuclear stations on the continent. We should not leave this legacy of a bygone era to future generations to deal with. Instead, we should seize the opportunity to develop expertise in a growing new industry – nuclear decommissioning.
Given that Canada’s nuclear industry hasn’t sold a new reactor in 30 years, the future of our nuclear industry clearly lies in providing the expertise to safely decommission old nuclear facilities – including other aging CANDU reactors in Canada and around the world.
Please send Premier Wynne a message here asking her to order OPG to develop an immediate decommissioning plan for Pickering and to close this dinosaur by 2018 (when its license expires) at the latest.
Petition to UK’s George Osborne – ABANDON HINKLEY NUCLEAR PROJECT !
George Osborne: Don’t Waste £Billions On Nuclear Power https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/osborne-dont-waste-billions-nuclear?source=em&subsource=
20160307egem01&utm_source=gpeace&utm_medium=em&utm_campaign=20160307egem01
George Osborne is on the cusp of wasting billions on nuclear power. The new nuclear plant he wants to build at Hinkley in Somerset is set to be the most expensive object on Earth – and already it’s at least 8 years overdue.
While Hinkley continues to suffer huge delays, and serious questions are being raised about the safety of the reactor, the cost of renewable energy is falling.
Rumours are now spreading that EDF – the company that wants to build Hinkley – could pull out of the deal, meaning the whole project could be on the rocks.
Let’s seize this moment to pile the pressure on George Osborne.A huge petition could convince him to abandon the project and back renewable energy instead.
Taiwan rallies – “Say Goodbye to Nuclear Power”
Anti-nuclear rallies set for March 12 http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/02/26/2003640263 By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter A number of rallies have been scheduled for March to mark the fifth anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster and back calls for a speedy phasing out of nuclear power and treatment of radioactive waste, anti-nuclear proponents said yesterday in Taipei.
Members of the National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building, shouting: “Say goodbye to nuclear power. Face up to nuclear waste.”
They told reporters that coordinated protests would be held on March 12 in Taipei, Tainan and Kaohsiung, along with a forum in Taichung, to call on the central government to stop all nuclear development and decommission the nation’s nuclear power plants.
Performances and installation art projects inspired by the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster would be included in the protests, such as “radiation money” and a giant banner to symbolize the 24,000-year half-life of radioactive waste.
“An earthquake this month leveled a housing complex in Tainan, causing heavy casualties. The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant [in Pingtung County] is located on a fault line, and earthquakes might damage the plant and harm to numerous people,” Citizen of the Earth Foundation Taipei office director Antonio Chou (周東漢) said.
Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance chief executive Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖) said this year could be a critical one.
“The anti-nuclear movement reached new heights over the past year with the sealing of the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant [in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮)], while the incoming government has pledged to establish a nuclear-free nation. We must seize the opportunity and continue the movement to speed up the deactivation process,” Kuo said.
Platform members said the two operational nuclear plants in New Taipei City must be decommissioned as soon as their spent fuel pools are full, even if that proves to be earlier than their scheduled decommissionings in 2018 and 2019 respectively, while the mothballed Lungmen plant should be scrapped.
The Democratic Progressive Party has vowed to phase out nuclear power by 2025, and now that the party has a legislative majority, it is time for it to make good on its promise and place the passage of nuclear-free legislation and an energy tax on the top of its legislative agenda, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣) said.
However, while political parties have made promises about phasing out nuclear energy, no promise has been made about the nuclear waste issue. We have to make the new legislature and the new government face up to these issues,” Tsuei said.
Yilan Charlie Chen Foundation chairman Chen Hsi-nan (陳錫南) called for the passage of nuclear waste laws, saying the complexity of the issue is the result of the lack of legal regulations and the lack of an independent authority on radioactive waste, which has allowed the Taiwan Power Co to monopolize the management of nuclear waste in the nation.
Taipei readies for big anti-nuclear protest in March
Anti-nuclear protests are now planned for March 12 http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taipei/2016/02/26/459275/Anti-nuclear-protests.htm TAIPEI--A national anti-nuclear alliance is scheduled to hold a protest march in Taipei March 12, demanding that the government make Taiwan nuclear-free by 2025 by decommissioning the nation’s three functioning nuclear plants and abolishing the mothballed fourth nuclear power plant in New Taipei’s Gongliao District.
They are also seeking the establishment of a mechanism that will allow public participation in policy-making regarding nuclear waste management.
1.This Month
Introducing a free course from William J. Perry LIVING AT THE NUCLEAR BRINK http://createsend.com/t/d-E33B482519DF2B2C
Nuclear costs South Africa http://nuclearcostssa.org/?p=3504
The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy https://www.amazon.com/Madhouse-Effect-Threatening-Destroying-Politics/dp/0231177860
Don’t fall for the nuclear industry’s climate lies – theme for September 16
ACTION
Call on nuclear nations NOT to dump nuclear waste in Australia. http://www.anfa.org.au/sign-the-declaration/ Irati Wanti (‘The Poison – Leave It’) A
group of politicians and business-people are developing a plan to build an international high-level nuclear waste dump in South Australia. The plan is strongly opposed by many South Australians and by an overwhelming majority of Aboriginal people.
The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, representing Aboriginal people from across Australia, calls on nuclear nations NOT to dump nuclear waste in Australia. The nuclear industry has a track record of Aboriginal dispossession and environmental pollution − from the atomic bomb tests to uranium mining to nuclear waste dump proposals.
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