Nuclear Power

Japan's nuclear leak: earthquakes, fire and fault lines

Posted by bex — 19 July 2007 at 1:59pm - Comments

On Monday, an earthquake hit Kashiwazaki in north-western Japan, killing nine people and injuring hundreds more. Already a disaster for the citizens of Kashiwazaki, thousands of whom are now living in shelters, things could have been much, much worse.

Kawashaki is the location of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant – the site of seven nuclear reactors. At first it was thought that the 6.8 magnitude earthquake had just caused a fire at the plant and Tepco – the nuclear company - initially said no radioactivity was released. "No harm" was done, said a spokesperson.

Then we were told that in fact there had been a leak, but it was only 1.5 gallons of radioactive water. On Tuesday, it emerged that just a smidgen more radioactive water might have leaked than 1.5 gallons. About 243 times more. And the water was 50 times more radioactive than had been stated.

Article tagged as: japan, nuclear accidents, nuclear power, radioactive waste

The Convenient Solution - what you can do

Posted by bex — 18 July 2007 at 5:32pm - Comments

If you like our film, please help us to make sure that the UK gets a genuinely clean and efficient energy system.

Article tagged as: CHP, climate change, efficiency, multimedia, nuclear power, videos

Brown lets the nuclear cat out of the bag

Posted by bex — 6 July 2007 at 4:06pm - Comments

Gordon Brown"We have made the decision to continue with nuclear power."

With those ten words, Gordon Brown managed to break the law, sabotage an ongoing public consultation and do a U-turn on his promise to listen to the people - all during his first Prime Minister's Question Time.

As head of government, Brown's meant to be abiding by a high court ruling that says the government can't legally make a decision on whether to build new nuclear power stations before a proper public consultation has been carried out.

The last consultation, said Justice Sullivan, was "seriously flawed"; the process was "manifestly inadequate and unfair" because insufficient information had been made available by the government for consultees to make an "intelligent response".

It now looks like this consultation is as much of a sham as the last one; the government seems to have already made up its mind on nukes, before the consultation's even really underway.

Here's a pdf of the letter our lawyers sent Brown this morning.

Article tagged as: gordon brown, judicial review, legal, nuclear power, public consultations

Too hot to handle: the future of civil nuclear power

Posted by bex — 6 July 2007 at 3:01pm - Comments

We've been arguing for a long time that nuclear power can't stop climate change - because replacing our whole fleet of nuclear power stations would only reduce our carbon emissions by four per cent, some time after 2024 (far too little, far too late).

The Oxford Research Group has just published an interesting study on the subject. It says that, for nuclear power to make any significant contribution to a reduction in global carbon emissions in the next two generations, the industry would have to construct nearly 3,000 new reactors globally - about one a week for 60 years.

Article tagged as: climate change, david howarth, nuclear power, oxford research group, peace, proliferation, reports, terrorism

Cranes, canoes and rainwater collectors

Posted by bex — 31 May 2007 at 3:15pm - Comments

Volunteers at the top of a crane in Olkiluoto

The things you learn when working for Greenpeace. Today, I found out how to collect several litres of rainwater using a banner, two hard hats, a hollow cross-member of a crane and a CamelBak water bag - while 80 metres up in the air, hanging onto a crane.

Article tagged as: direct actions, economics, finland, nuclear power, reactors

Why Tony Blair is wrong about nuclear power

Posted by bex — 23 May 2007 at 1:12pm - Comments

Melting ice

Today, the government has finally published its energy white paper. After last year's energy consultation was ruled "seriously flawed", "misleading" and "manifestly inadequate and unfair" by a High Court Judge, this white paper outlines a new energy policy - and a new nuclear consultation.

Yep, despite a few ineffectual concessions to renewables and efficiency, Tony Blair is still busily spinning the nuclear industry's line: that nuclear power is the answer to climate change. And we still think he's dangerously wrong.

Article tagged as: climate change, energy review, energy security, energy white paper, nuclear power
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