Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

This weekend saw the UK commemorate the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster with the country’s largest anti-nuclear power protest in decades. 

On Saturday 10th March, over 1,000 demonstrators surrounded the site at Hinkley Point in Somerset, where EDF Energy is seeking to build a new mega-reactor. A 24-hour blockade was also successfully carried out, with over 100 building a mini tent city around the facility.

Joining the demonstration, coordinated by the Stop New Nuclear alliance, were leading environmentalists Jonathan Porritt and Caroline Lucas MP, leader of the Green Party. They spoke alongside Kate Hudson, General Secretary of CND, to commemorate the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and to call on the government to halt its plans to build eight new nuclear power stations.

The weekend's events received excellent press coverage, with reports by the Press Association, BBC, Bloomberg, the Morning Star, MSN news and many local and regional outlets. For further press coverage, click here.

Bianca Jagger, Founder and Chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, will tomorrow give symbolic leadership to a global protest in support of a network of thousands of Japanese mothers who are campaigning to save the children of Japan from radiation resulting from the Fukushima catastrophe. Ms Jagger will be hand-delivering a letter to the Embassy of Japan, 101-104 Piccadilly, London W1J 7JT at 11am on Wednesday 2nd November. She will be accompanied at the Embassy by Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.    

Copies of the letter will also be presented to Japanese Consulates and Embassies worldwide. Cities participating include London, New Delhi, New York City, Washington DC and San Francisco. The letter appeals to the Japanese goverment to protect the children of Japan by evacuating them from highly radioactive areas. The mothers' network argue that since the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, small children have been tested and found to be contaminated with radiation.

The mothers are demanding that the Japanese Government evacuates these children, rather than raising the limits of exposure. The letter also addresses the spread of radioactive contamination through the shipping and burning of contaminated rubble throughout Japan . The protest follows the release of two academic reports this month which find that the radiation fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident is bigger than that reported by the Japanese government and up to 30 times the amount stated by TEPCO.

- ends -

1. For further information and interviews please contact  CND's Press Office on 020 7700 2350 or 07739 184 335.

Hinkley Point Blockade – 3rd October

CND is a member of the Stop New Nuclear alliance, which aims to stop new nuclear build at Hinkley Point, as well as all new nuclear build. On 3rd October 2011, more than 300 protesters from across Britain and as far away as Germany, blockaded Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Somerset in protest against EDF Energy's plans to renew the site with two new reactors. Hinkley Point C, as the project is called, would be the first new nuclear power plant in the UK for more than 20 years.

The peaceful blockade started at 7am and lasted approximately nine hours. The day was colourful and well-covered in the media, with reports on local BBC and ITV channels as well as in the Guardian, Independent and Telegraph newspapers. One person was arrested for possession of a pen knife, but later released without charge.

At noon, 206 helium balloons were released, representing the number of days since the Fukushima incident started. The balloons' journeys were tracked to show which areas of the West Country will be worst affected should a major disaster happen at Hinkley Point.

The blockade of Hinkley Point was not a one-off event. The Stop New Nuclear gathering will be in Bristol on 5 – 6 November 2011, to discuss and plan the next campaigns and actions against nuclear new build in Britain. To learn more about the gathering, visit http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk/gathering2011

More than 200 people successfully sealed off the main entrance to Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset today (3rd October).

Convoys of protesters began to arrive at the main gate shortly before 7am. The entrance is just yards away from where EDF Energy is making a bid to build two new mega-reactors.

The blockade was launched with the arrival of a theatrical troupe who enacted a nuclear disaster scenario similar to Fukushima. Approximately 70% of protesters are from the South West. Others have come from as far afield as Belgium and Germany.

Well-know festival band, Seize the Day, provided a musical backdrop to the event. Andreas Speck, spokesperson for the Stop New Nuclear alliance said: ‘This is the start of a new movement. We intend this day to be a celebration of resistance against the government and EDF Energy’s plans to spearhead the construction of eight new nuclear power plants around the UK.’

He continued: ‘This is blockade shows that people who understand the true dangers of nuclear power are prepared to use civil disobedience to get their voice heard. The government has hoodwinked the public into believing that we need nuclear power to keep the lights on. But this is totally untrue.’

To show their support for the victims of the Fukushima disaster, protesters will launch 206 helium balloons – to represent the number of days since the partial meltdown at the Japanese power station. The journey of balloons will be tracked to show which areas of the West Country will be worst affected should a major disaster happen at Hinkley Point.

‘We need to bring home to people that nuclear power stations can fail for many reasons – usually because of human error,’ said Nikki Clark from South West Against Nuclear. ‘The explosion at a waste processing plant in France a few weeks ago is a clear reminder that nobody is safe from the dangers of nuclear energy.’

Protesters are urging ministers to look to Germany where the government has pledged to phase out nuclear power within ten years. ‘The German government has just published a blueprint for a sustainable, nuclear-free future,’ said Camilla Berens from campaign group, Kick Nuclear. The key focus is energy reduction and a bridging technology called combined heat and power (CHP). The burning question is, if Germany can do it, why can’t we?’

The blockade was organised by Stop New Nuclear http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk with the support of CND.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament today welcomed the closure of the MOX fuel plant at Sellafield. Its main business caused the shipment of large amounts of weapons-usable materials from Japan, exposing it to risk of piracy and terrorism. CND also pressed the government to rule out the creation of a successor plant, a plan the nuclear industry had been lobbying for in recent months.

The closure of the plant is directly related to the shut-down of Fukushima and other similar reactors in Japan which had been powered by the MOX fuel created at Sellafield.

Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said “This hopefully marks the long-overdue end of a dangerous and expensive mistake. The MOX plant has cost the public over £1.4bn yet has produced less fuel in its whole lifetime than it was meant to make every two months. The whole idea of shipping hundreds of tonnes of plutonium-rich spent fuel half way round the world from Japan was madness from the start. Just 11 kilos of plutonium is enough to make a bomb, so to build a whole business on its transport across thousands of miles of sea on lightly-armed civilian ships was a disaster waiting to happen.

“The closure of this plant must draw a line under the whole costly business of nuclear reprocessing. The government must rule out the creation of the new multi-billion pound MOX plant that the nuclear lobby is calling for. The UK has a vast stockpile of plutonium which must be dealt with, but creating a plant that is likely to take shipments of foreign spent fuel - as well as reprocessing domestic waste - is a mistake that should not be repeated.”

The German government had the good sense to abandon its nuclear power programme.

A referendum showing 94% of voters opposed to new nuclear power has forced the Italian government to abandon its plans.

But unfortunately our own government is not so sensible.

Over 1500 of you emailed Energy Secretary Chris Huhne after he said Fukushima 'casts a shadow over the renaissance of the nuclear industry' but he says he remains 'reassured' by what he claims is the UK's 'strong safety record' and remains committed to new nuclear power stations.

It is vital therefore that we build the movement against new nuclear power and so we are jointly organising a non-violent blockade of Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset on 3rd October.

Please join us there. Stay up to date with the blockade plans at Stop New Nuclear.

George Monbiot's most recent attempt to justify the development of new nuclear power stations is fatally flawed. If you haven't already seen it, it's in last Monday's Guardian, 'The nuclear industry stinks. But that is not a reason to ditch nuclear power'. I quite agree with George's assessment of the nuclear industry's shortcomings. But even if the secrecy, corruption and commercially motivated safety short-cuts magically disappeared, the fundamental problems with the technology would remain.

He dismisses safety fears over waste stores as 'inexplicable' on the basis that nuclear fuels originate from mined rocks - but these ores frequently contain 1% or less uranium, surrounded by other minerals. Some have higher concentrations, but few come anywhere near to the proportion of radioactive compounds to be found in a waste drum. Would one similarly dismiss the risk of poisoning from high concentrations of lead or arsenic merely because these can also be mined from natural deposits? Building waste stores that will have to last many times longer than the current time-span of human civilisation is, on any quantification of risk, a fraught task.

The fourth generation nuclear plants of which George speaks so highly are far from a cure-all. Although they are 'better', they will still produce waste that remains radioactive for centuries. They can still allow plutonium to be diverted for weapon production. And most crucially of all, they do not yet exist and are unlikely to be built on a commercial scale for decades. Such points have little to do with the decision facing Britain right now - with the government proposing new reactors firmly based on current technologies and their long-lived waste.

If our opposition to nuclear power was based merely on the murkiness of the industry, we might agree with George. Sadly, unless the government can be diverted from its course, it will be boosting a technology that diverts investment from renewables and encourages more countries to acquire the materials and expertise necessary for a nuclear weapons programme.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has responded to the revelation of emails showing a deep level of collusion between the Government and the nuclear industry to downplay the impact of the Fukushima disaster [see note 2]. CND commented that it believes that the Department for Energy & Climate Change is more interested in spinning to boost the nuclear industry than in allowing debate based on the facts.

Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said "This shocking level of collusion shows that the government is not just willing, but actively wants, to do the industry's dirty work for them. Nuclear power has a bad name precisely because of terrible accidents like Fukushima - something that no amount of PR work and spin can hide. These emails seem to show that the government's first response has been to play down the crisis, regardless of the facts. Sadly, this is the same ideologically pro-nuclear position that avoids addressing safety concerns at plants. And it also shockingly dismisses the ongoing health impact on people living nearby.

"The example of Germany shows that where governments listen to their people, we can rid ourselves of this dirty, dangerous and expensive technology. The UK government must learn from Berlin and base our future energy supplies on genuinely green technologies."

In the aftermath of Fukushima, over 1500 CND supporters emailed Energy Secretary Chris Huhne calling for a reconsideration of the go-ahead for new nuclear power in the UK and for the government to follow the example of Germany, Switzerland and China in suspending their programmes. In response, Chris Huhne boasted that "the UK has a mature and transparent regulatory system" [see note 3]. This assertion looks ever more doubtful now it has been revealed that his Department was engaging in a PR battle to 'ensure the anti-nuclear chaps and chapesses do not gain ground on this' when little was known for certain about the implications of the Fukushima disaster.

1. For further information and interviews please contact CND's Press Officer on 020 7700 2350 or 07968 420859.
    
2. Revealed: British government's plan to play down Fukushima, Guardian, 1st July 2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/30/british-government-plan-play-down-fukushima
    
3. Reply from Chris Huhne to CND, 15th April 2011 http://www.cnduk.org/images/stories/images/Nucpower/huhne-letter-15-4-11.jpg

With Italy being the latest European country to reject nuclear power, a coalition of anti-nuclear groups in Britain has announced plans to hold a mass non-violent blockade of Hinkley Point nuclear power station on 3rd October. The plant, near Bridgwater in Somerset, is expected to be the site of the first new nuclear power station, if current plans go ahead.

Hundreds of campaigners are expected to take part in Gandhi-style civil disobedience, risking arrest by blockading the access road to the site in protest over the threat posed by nuclear power. Other campaigners will support those blockading whilst not risking arrest. The blockade is the first action of ‘Stop New Nuclear’ - an alliance of local and national groups opposed to nuclear new build which has been founded by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop Nuclear Power Network UK, Kick Nuclear, South West Against Nuclear, Shutdown Sizewell, Sizewell Blockaders, Trident Ploughshares and Stop Hinkley. Groups in different areas of the UK are already mobilising campaigners to travel to the protest.

Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said “Whilst Germany and Italy are now set against nuclear power, Britain seems to be taking almost no account of the lessons that must be learnt from the ongoing catastrophe at Fukushima. If the government pushes ahead with new nuclear plans, a wave of civil disobedience will dog construction at each site. Millions of people live in the areas equivalent to the zones evacuated in Japan. Are we really prepared to risk our safety by pursuing a dirty, dangerous and expensive technology which cannot make any serious contribution to the fight against climate change?

“We’ll be joining the blockade to put down a marker to the government. This protest will come to be seen as just the tip of the iceberg if they decide to build a whole new generation of these toxic timebombs, which are only ever a few errors away from leaving vast areas contaminated with radioactive poisons. We demand that the government – which includes Lib Dem ministers who opposed nuclear power until they entered the coalition – scrap their plans and instead invest in the creation of genuinely green power sources."

Andreas Speck of Kick Nuclear said “This blockade will be the first big mobilisation against new nuclear. If the government and nuclear firms like EDF continue to ignore the lessons of Fukushima we will be back to organise more and more civil disobedience. This is not just a fight about one proposed power station - if people power stops these plans at Hinkley Point, we will be stopping the whole programme dead in its tracks.”

Angie Zelter of Trident Ploughshares stated that nuclear weapons disarmers from across the country would be joining the blockade in an alliance that recognises the close links between the civil and military uses of nuclear energy and aims to promote nuclear disarmament and safe, sustainable and community-owned energy production. She said, "It is appalling that new nuclear power stations are being built when they will be adding to the mountain of highly dangerous radioactive waste that we have no idea how to dispose of safely.”

Date and time: Early morning, Monday 3rd October
In the run-up to the event training sessions will be run to facilitate a safe and peaceful protest where disruption to the local community is kept to a minimum. Local events are planned in the Bridgwater area in the days running-up to the blockade.

Further details at http://www.stopnewnuclear.org.uk

More details plans for the blockade will be announced in due course.

For further comment and for interviews contact Andreas Speck of Kick Nuclear on 07973 683936 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Ben Soffa of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament on 07968 420 859 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Responding to the decision of the German government to phase out their nuclear power stations by 2022, with the older plants being decommissioned immediately, Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said:
"Germany's decision is very welcome and should serve as a model for Britain and other countries moving to a nuclear-free, low carbon future. If a high-skilled society such as Germany - with a strong industrial safety record - says it can't justify the risk to its citizens from nuclear power, why should it be any different here?

"Germany has reached this decision after a serious review of the evidence, whereas our government has said there is 'no reason' for scrapping nuclear power because a tsunami is unlikely here. But the risks inherent in nuclear power - including radioactive waste that remains deadly for thousands of years - have not gone away.

"Germany looks set to ensure their energy security by investing in new technologies that will doubtless have a huge export market. Britain could be doing just the same if the government would only take a genuinely open-minded approach to this issue. Unless something changes, we look set to remain the nuclear dirty man of Europe."