24th February 2006
An enormous 'KAPOW!' was projected onto Torness nuclear site earlier this morning by Greenpeace volunteers - to highlight the risk of a terrorist attack on Britain's nuclear power stations.
The Greenpeace projection comes at a time when the government is conducting an Energy Review to decide whether or not a new generation of nuclear reactors should be built in the UK. Yet just last month Greenpeace released a dossier of expert evidence which outlined the vulnerability of the UK's current nuclear sites to terrorist attack. It details:
- How UK nuclear power stations are not built to withstand a deliberate crash by a jumbo jet full of highly explosive aviation fuel.
- How terrorist groups are known to be targeting nuclear sites. For instance detailed plans of UK nuclear sites were found in a car linked to the July 2005 London bombings.
- How the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a confidential memo to all US nuclear power plants warning of plans for a terrorist attack in which hijackers 'fly a commercial aircraft into a nuclear power plant'.
Greenpeace has also recently released a film via the internet highlighting the risks of nuclear power. The short film shows a family enjoying a day on a beach, filmed for posterity by the father. An ever-louder roar breaks the tranquillity, and the hand-held camera pans to the sky to track a jumbo jet heading directly towards a nuclear facility just a few hundred metres away.
Sarah North, head of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, said: "Millions of people could die as a result of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant. Yet Tony Blair has put the prospect of building these extremely dangerous facilities back on the agenda, seemingly without a thought for the safety of the public. Nuclear power is simply the wrong answer to climate change."
Download the Greenpeace dossier
Watch the Greenpeace film
The image was projected at 5am from outside the fences surrounding the site.
For more information contact Nathan Argent on 07799 790542 or call the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
For photos call the picture desk on 0207 865 8118.
