Nuclear power

On 27 January, activists interrupted representatives of the nuclear industry giving evidence to the energy and climate change parliamentary select committee. Two demonstrators unfurled a six-foot banner reading: “Local Democracy Dumped!” – decorated with radiation symbols and pyramids of radioactive waste drums – in the centre of the room, while a third handed out briefings explaining why nuclear power was not the appropriate technology for tackling climate change.

The three,…

A new report from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) details a chronic culture of neglect at nuclear decommissioning sites across the UK. This includes the Wylfa A station on the north coast of Ynys Môn (Anglesey). This culture of neglect does not inspire confidence in the new push for nuclear power.

As I write, the government’s e-auction, for the sale of land on which nuclear new-build is planned, is already under way. Included in this land grab is the site for a new Wylfa B…

Two days into a four-day trial, five anti-nuclear activists were found not guilty of aggravated trespass after a blockade in 2008 of the Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk.

Lowestoft magistrates’ court decided on 29 September that the prosecution had failed to provide evidence that the defendants – Rebecca Dale, Mell Harrison, Pete Lux, Nicola Stikles and Irene Willis – were on private land.

They therefore could not be proven guilty of trespassing on private…

Activists throughout France and Germany staged a series of actions over a two-week period in November, in protest at the transportation of 12 containers of highly radioactive nuclear waste across their borders.

The Castor containers were transporting German waste from the La Hague plutonium factory in Northern France - where it is reprocessed - to Gorleben in northern Germany, where it is sent for so-called interim storage.

In recent years, Castor…

Questions were being asked in continental Europe's mainstream media after the shutdown of four of Sweden's ten nuclear power reactors on 25 July. The decision to stop the reactors was made after an electrical failure prevented power being supplied to the Forsmark 1 plant.

In the event of a power failure, four diesel generators are supposed to kick in and enable the safe withdrawal of fuel rods and the shutdown of the reactor. In July two of the generators failed for more than 20…

Faslane 365 is a grass -roots campaign to mobilise public opinion and action to oppose Trident and prevent any commitment to further nuclear weapons.

The strategy is to influence the future decision by raising the political and financial costs of deploying the current Trident system. As we did with cruise missiles in the 1980s, Faslane 365 plans to combine persistent,nonviolent opposition at the site of deployment with creative actions, political pressure and wide networking.

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Governmental attempts to soften up public opinion for an announcement of more nuclear power stations have their parallel in the nuclear industry itself.

The British Nuclear Group - they're the people who oversee the radioactive waste mountains at Windscale/Sellafield - are advertising for “environmental specialists” at salaries of up to #43,000 pa. Amongst the work needing doing is coming up with strategies for contaminated land. Dealing with contamination sounds worthy; but you…

On the night of 25-26 April 1986, unknown to most of the world, scientists were busy testing Chernobyl's reactor No 4 to determine whether its coolant pumps would keep running in the event of a loss of power. Within minutes of beginning the test, a power surge caused a chain reaction which lead to a massive explosion and meltdown of the reactor's core. Two days later Tass, the then-Soviet state news agency, acknowledged there had been an “incident”.

Given the political climate at…

The government is currently reviewing its energy policy in relation to climate change. It seems that Tony Blair wants to build 10 new nuclear power stations around the UK. Apparently he thinks this is a solution to Britain's need to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 and 60% by 2050.

In reality, even if we doubled nuclear power in the UK, it would only cut carbon emissions by about 8%. It would also double the amount of radioactive spent fuel in the UK (which we still have no safe…

As the government opened the public phase of its energy review at the end of January, ministers were busy warning that “doing nothing is not an option”. They are right (for once!), although there are fears that the doom-mongering may also be an attempt to soften us up for a new generation of nuclear power stations, posed as a solution for meeting Britain's future energy needs.

However, in a comprehensive research study published earlier in the month, the Tyndall Centre for Climate…

As the problem of what to do with nuclear waste continues to grow, a small tribe of Native Americans in Utah may soon find that their home will be the dumping ground for a group of electricity companies to abandon their radioactive waste.

A young French activist was killed on Sunday 7 November as he attempted to blockade a train carrying 12 Castor caskets - 175 tonnes - of nuclear waste.

The blockade was part of a series of actions taking place along the train's route through France and Germany over the weekend, in opposition to the transport of nuclear waste and its eventual dumping in the village of Gorbelen in Germany.

Sébastien Briat had chained himself to the track along with three others,…

“If there is anything to be learnt we will learn it, because safety is our number one concern”, said energy secretary Chris Huhne on 14 March, after the horrendous nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

While this is being written, the worst has not happened, and hopefully it will not. It is highly likely that a partial meltdown of the reactor core is underway at one of the three reactors, and possibly at all three. But so far, the…

Up to 15,000 people took to the streets of Paris in January to protest against a new nuclear programme about to kick off in France and across Europe.

The nuclear project, worth E3bn, focuses on building the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPWR), a new generation of nuclear reactors, the first of which will be built in Finland by a consortium of the French state owned Areva group and the German engineering company Siemens. The programme aims to gradually replace the 58 nuclear…

In recent years the German anti-nuclear movement has been quite successful in organising nonviolent actions against Castor-transports en route to the intermediary storagehall for nuclear waste in Gorleben/Wendland. This November the German government has again needed 13,000 policewomen and men to guard this eighth transport, containing 12 carriages of nuclear waste. About 3000 anti-nuclear protesters have again succeeded in showing that the struggle over nuclear energy is by no means over.…