NEW ANTI NUCLEAR GROUP FORMED IN BRISTOL

Antinuclear Meeting in Bristol 17 November 2009


Representatives from
South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth (FOE) http://www.southglosfoe.org.uk/ ;
Stop Hinkley, http://www.stophinkley.org/;
Shepperdine against nuclear energy (SANE)  http://www.shepperdineagainstnuclearenergy.blogspot.com/ ;
SERA http://www.sera.org.uk/ ;
Bristol Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/groups/bristol
and Bristol City Council http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/portal/ 
met in Bristol to form a coalition against nuclear new build at Hinkley and Oldbury.

Reg Illingworth from SANE reported on his recent visit to Finland to see the nuclear power station that is being built at Okiluoto. He said that although the build is three years behind schedule and billions of euros over budget the local council is in favour of it because they receive massive funding from the 4,200 foreign workers who are all paying high local taxes. He said that the same type of reactor was proposed for Shepperdine as that currently being built at Okiluoto. The council that represents Shepperdine is also in favour of building a new nuclear power station, because they say that it will provide lots of jobs.

One of the problems at Okiluoto has been the multinational nature of the workforce. This would very likely be a problem at Shepperdine too. The local council at Okiluoto is perfectly happy about the extended build time since they are raking in huge amounts of local taxes. It will take more than eight years to finish building Okiluoto. This could well be the case in Shepperdine too.

Of course Okiluoto is on an island and much of the building material is delivered by boat. At Shepperdine a huge landing stage would have to be built, which would cause considerable ecological damage to the Severn estuary.
Mark Wright, the Liberal Democrat Bristol City Councillor and Parliamentary candidate told the meeting that he is about to propose a motion to the City Council condemning nuclear power and nuclear new build. He will put out a press release to this effect. The meeting asked Mark if he would also propose that Bristol  become a Nuclear Free Local Authority again.