Prof Tom Burke on BBC Somerset

Former Ministerial Advisor and FoE Director, Professor Tom Burke CBE spoke live on BBC Radio Somerset in advance of the public meeting on Wednesday at Bridgwater Town Hall.

The interview can also be heard on i-player for a week: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/somerset/hi/

Tom gave a precis of his talk:

"New nuclear build in Britain makes no useful contribution to either energy or climate security for Britons, the nuclear industry will let us down again as it did before by failing to deliver and in any case will require massive subsidies that are unlikely to be available, the government has been gulled into buying into an energy strategy that will benefit a French nationalised industry and deliver less British jobs than a strategy based on improving energy efficiency and the renewables. I also deal with the intermittency issue for renewables and will argue that we are getting left behind in the transition to a low carbon economy because this government, like others before it, is in hock to the big energy utilities and their City hangers on."

http://www.stophinkley.org/

Kazakhstan will increase uranium production

Guess where the nuclear industry will be getting a lot of its uranium from.
Nice safe, democratic Kazakhstan! As this Reuters report says:

ALMATY, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan will produce 13,900 tonnes of uranium this year and 18,000 tonnes in 2010, state nuclear company Kazatomprom said on Wednesday, raising earlier forecasts.

The Central Asian state became the world's largest uranium producer this year and has been responsible for the bulk of global output growth in the last few years.

"As the nuclear energy industry develops and supplies from secondary sources decrease, a global shortage of uranium is forecast starting from 2016," Kazatomprom said in a statement.

"To cover the expected shortage, an increase in uranium production in Kazakhstan to 18,000 tonnes is planned in 2010."

The company has earlier said it would produce 13,500 tonnes of uranium this year and a state welfare fund official in charge of mining said this month 2010 output would be 15,000 tonnes. Continued...

Kazakhstan produced 8,521 tonnes of uranium last year, up from 6,637 tonnes in 2007.


Kazatomptom's joint ventures with companies such as France's Areva (CEPFi.PA) and Canada's Uranium One (UUU.TO) account for a large share of Kazakh output. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Kim Coghill)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE5BT04620091230?pageNumber=2

Old blog moved from Celtic Herbs site!

Sunday, 25 October 2009

Mass Protest against radioactive shipwrecks

Il Manifesto 25 October 2009 Tonino Perna.

The Revolt of the population of Calabria http://www.ilmanifesto.it/archivi/commento/anno/2009/mese/10/articolo/1698/

ON SATURDAY THERE WILL BE A MASS PROTEST AT AMANTEA IN CALABRIA, SOUTHERN ITALY, AGAINST THE MAFIA.

Over the last few days the Quotidiano della Calabria has collected more than thirty thousand signatures in protest against the inertia of the government. The protestors want the government to clean up the seabed around Cetraro, Vibo and Capo Bruzzano, where they know that there are shipwrecks with cargoes of toxic and radioactive waste. They are also demanding that proper research be carried out to find the other shipwrecks with toxic and radioactive cargoes in their holds.

Trades Unions from Alto Tirreno, Calabria have gone to Rome to protest. Hundreds of Trades Unionists from all over Calabria will go to Amantea to take part in the mass protest. There has never been such an angry rebellion in Calabria.

Neither the seven hundred people killed by the ‘ndrangheta in 1985 and in 1992, nor the hundreds of kidnappings that have affected many local professionals, nor the tens of scandals that have involved most of the Calabrian politicians have caused such an angry reaction from the people of Calabria. Not even the Fortugno murder, which resulted in the movement of young people “now kill us all”, succeeded in involving all the people of Calabria.

Whoever transported these tens of ships with cargoes of toxic and radioactive waste, has produced an ecological disaster that looks as if the consequences for the food chain could be as bad as Cernobil. ‘Ndrangheta got involved in this and they look really bad now, but they were only the workmen for a vast criminal organisation.

The real people responsible are the multinationals, the managers of nuclear power stations, important people in Government and secret services. The network of people involved goes way beyond what we can imagine.
Powerful people from many countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Russia are involved in this.

Experts such as Umberto Santino and the attorney for the Republic of Italy, Piero Grasso, have been talking about “borghesia mafiosa” rather than mafia, camorra and ‘ndragheta.

This is the first time there has been an conflict with the mafia, who are doing everything they can to cover up, to block the investigation, stop the inquest, prevent any more shipwrecks being found. It is an unequal fight.

But this time, you can be sure that the people of Calabria will not run away and hide in the mountains.

This is not just a local problem. This is a national and international problem that must be resolved because the sea cannot be contained within national borders.

Posted by Angela Paine at 04:23 0 comments Links to this post

Nuclear New Build is not compatible with a real Renewable Energy Policy

The UK government has set aside money to subsidize nuclear new build. This money is not available for research and development into renewable energy projects, which is why we in Britain have less renewable energy than many other European countries, although we have the best renewable energy resources. The nuclear corporations also put pressure on our government to prevent them introducing proper feed-in tariffs, which would make small scale renewables much more attractive to individual home owners. Germany, which is not going to have any new nuclear power stations, has a policy of paying feed-in tariffs at four times the rate that people pay when they buy electricity. This has resulted in a huge increase in micro-generation projects. You cannot have nuclear power and a proper well-funded renewable energy programme. The two things are not compatible. Angela

Infant Leukemias near all German Nuclear Power Stations is not an Example of Bad Science

John Mclevy (letters Dec 24) alleges that the German study on infant leukemias near all German power stations is an example of bad science being used for political purposes. However he fails to back this claim with any evidence from the study itself. It is doubtful whether he has read the study.

In fact, the German study is extremely robust: it was commissioned by the German Government and carried out by a expert team of epidemiologists at the University of Mainz. These scientists actually supported nuclear power, so there was no "political purpose" as he falsely alleges. The reality is that the German study is thoroughly competent and its findings are scientifically valid, as vouchsafed by the German Government itself.

Contrary to Mclevy's view, the study is not bad science, but very good science. The problem is that its findings are, in the words of Al Gore, "An Inconvenient Truth" for Mclevy and his pro-nuclear bias.

Faced with this incontrovertible evidence of infant leukemias near nuclear reactors, what should we do? Should we, as the cigarette companies did for decades, seek to distort, deny, and smear the clear evidence of increased cancers, as Mclevy seems to do? Or should we seek safer healthier alternatives to generate electricity?

Mclevy states that he supports nuclear as "we need to stop burning carbon". But does he consider the huge amounts of carbon released during the nuclear fuel cycle, especially by uranium mining, uranium milling, and uranium fuel enrichment?

Renewable energy and energy efficiency measures are a better future for us, not the old-fashioned dangerous WW II technology of nuclear power.



Reg Illingworth

BRISTOL WAS NOT CONSULTED ABOUT THE BUILDING OF A NEW NUCLEAR POWER STATION NEARBY

What kind of a consultation process does not include the city of Bristol, the outskirts of which are a mere eight miles from a proposed new nuclear power station? This is the question that the people of Bristol have been asking, since they discovered that Oldbury has been chosen as the sight for a huge new nuclear power station, eight times bigger than the one that is already there.

Anti-nuclear campaigners have welcomed a move by a Liberal Democrat councillor to commit the city to oppose the building of new atomic power stations near Bristol. Cllr Mark Wright has put forward a motion for the full council meeting on January 19 calling on any consultation for the new plants at Hinkley Point and Oldbury to include people within Bristol.

Bristol 24/7 22nd Dec 2009
http://www.bristol247.com/2009/12/22/call-for-city-to-oppose-new-nuclear-power-plants/

TOP ENVIRONMENTALISTS PROF TOM BURKE CBE AND GREENPEACE'S BEN AYLIFFE TO SPEAK AGAINST NUCLEAR NEW BUILD

Top environmentalist Professor Tom Burke CBE is giving a boost to Stop Hinkley's campaign to oppose Hinkley C by speaking at a public meeting together with Greenpeace's Ben Ayliffe. Later Jonathon Porritt will also speak in Taunton.

'Nuclear Power: Do we need it?'
Prof Tom Burke CBE & Ben Ayliffe, Head of Greenpeace nuclear team
Town Hall, High Street, Bridgwater
Wednesday 6th January 2010 7.30pm

The meeting is part of a wider campaigning programme including a planned talk by environmentalist Jonathon Porritt (2), leafleting 9,000 homes in the area (3) and a planned protest outside the Electricite de France (EdF) Bridgwater offices (4). Stop Hinkley campaigner Crispin Aubrey also has just returned from the Copenhagen Climate Change conference where he was part of an international group demanding a nuclear-free climate agreement (5).

Tom Burke is a visiting professor at Imperial College, an environmental advisor to international company Rio Tinto and director of Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G) a sustainability policy group. As Special Advisor to three environment ministers in the 1980's and '90's and Director of Friends of the Earth he has been a professional environmentalist for thirty years. He also participated in the Copenhagen Climate Change conference, where he promoted a truly sustainable approach which he defines as excluding nuclear power.

Despite his respected status he was 'disinvited' from speaking at meetings on energy issues at all three major political party conferences in October. The sponsors of the fringes, nuclear company EdF who propose to build Hinkley C, apparently took the draconian step of preventing Professor Burke debate with other experts and our politicians about his non-nuclear approach (6).

In his publication 'Decoding Nuclear Nonsense' last year (7), he showed that the two premises upon which the Government has proposed to build new nuclear power stations are flawed:

"The Government’s case for new nuclear build in Britain rests on two key propositions: that it is essential to maintain Britain’s energy security and that without it Britain cannot meet its climate change emissions. Neither proposition is valid. Nuclear power can do nothing to improve Britain’s energy security or help it meet the urgent challenge of climate change."

Supporting his view he elaborated on these points:

- Even if an order were placed today there would be no new nuclear electricity before 2020.

- The capital cost of nuclear power has tripled in the past three years to $6,000 per Kw.

- The world’s nuclear capacity increased by 2GW in 2007 compared to some 15GW for wind power alone.

- In the next three years, Britain will spend £2.8 billion/year on cleaning up the nuclear legacy of the past and nothing on deploying carbon capture and storage.

Jim Duffy spokesman for Stop Hinkley said: "Tom Burke is a major player in the environmental movement and a thorn in the side of the nuclear industry. It's a boost to our campaign that he and Ben Ayliffe will speak in Bridgwater hopefully convincing many that, despite all the hype, Hinkley C is not necessary for our energy needs or to combat climate change. There is much rage in the local villages against EdF's intrusive plans for expansion. Tom will argue that there is ultimately no case for the disruption."

"The meeting is part of our wider programme which includes another public meeting with well known environmentalist Jonathon Porritt in March, extensive leafleting by volunteers, a delegate at Copenhagen and a protest outside the EdF offices in Bridgwater."

Jim Duffy
Stop Hinkley Coordinator 07798 666756 www.stophinkley.org

Notes:

(1) Description of Prof Tom Burke CBE:

http://www.e3g.org/about/Tom-Burke/

(2) Jonathon Porritt CBE will speak at the Temple Methodist Church, Upper High Street, Taunton, opposite Vivary Park on Tuesday 16th March at 7.30pm.

(3) A copy of the leaflet encouraging residents to write to EdF, objecting to Hinkley C:

http://www.stophinkley.org/EngRevu/SHCQLeaflet.pdf

(4) A protest will be held outside the EdF offices in King Square, Bridgwater on Friday 15th January at 11am. Protestors will wear tape over their mouths to highlight the confined and undemocratic nature of the speeded up planning process aimed at ushering in Hinkley C and other nuclear power stations.

(5) Photograph of Stop Hinkley campaigner Crispin Aubrey at an anti-nuclear protest at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference:

http://www.stophinkley.org/StopPress.htm

(6) The Guardian 1st October 2009:

"And so it was that Tom Burke – a former executive director of Friends of the Earth; special adviser to Michael Heseltine, Michael Howard and John Gummer when they were environment secretaries; and co-founder of Third Generation Environmentalism – found himself in May booked to speak at a series of debates at all three party conferences; and then, last month, found himself unbooked again. The events were sponsored by EDF. The company, having agreed to his appearances, appears to have thought better of the idea. Did it get cold feet? Wouldn't that be something."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/01/edf-iran-nuclear-leppert-rafale

(7) "Decoding Nuclear Nonsense: a reader's guide to the Government's announcement on the future of nuclear power in Britain":

http://www.e3g.org/images/uploads/Decoding_Nuclear_Nonsense_II.pdf