The sun is setting on nuclear power plans for the UK
For years the government has placed its faith in nuclear power and the
corporate interests that drive the nuclear industry. Its committment to the
nuclear dream has warped Britain’s energy
policy at the expense of both bill and tax
payers.
Rainbow Warrior sails 20 miles from the port of Bushehr, Iran. 2007
Kumi's blog was originally published by IPS, before the Istanbul summit took place.
Disruptive diplomacy may be the only way out of the Iran-Israel nuclear crisis, the only way to pierce the hegemony of hypocrisy dominating the power politics of nuclear weapons control, of those who have them, and of those who are accused of developing them.
Otherwise, this weekend's meeting on Iran's nuclear programme is likely to be yet another missed opportunity, yet another exercise in futility.
This week two more energy companies abandoned their plans
to build new nuclear power stations in the UK. It’s left the government’s
energy strategy in tatters – and it’s time for them to admit that the future is not nuclear and start
investing in cleaner, safer renewable energy.
This Sunday is the first anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. This natural disaster left 20,000 people dead and missing and thousands more homeless. The tsunami also flooded the back-up generators that were powering the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, causing several of the reactors to go into meltdown.
Our Jakarta office remains open, allowing the forest and nuclear power campaigns to continue
Since our office was threatened with closure by the South Jakarta
district authority last week, our staff pulled out all the stops to keep
the office open.
Site of the proposed nuclear power station in Jaitapur, India
Two
months ago, an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. This not only resulted in a
huge natural disaster and humanitarian crisis, but also triggered an
unprecedented man-made tragedy. And yet plans are afoot to build a nuclear
power plant in another earthquake zone, this time in India.
In a speech given at Chatham House on 4 May 2011, Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven set out the economic and environmental case for a revolution in the UK's approach to building a resilient, efficient and clean energy system.
You download a transcript of the speech, or listen to it below.
Nearby village Rosochovz. People are not allowed to move into the area, only leave.
Twenty five years ago today, the peace and tranquillity of the small Russian town of Pripyat was shattered when reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded.
A key plank of the government’s Coalition Agreement was that any new
nuclear power would not be subsidised. Liberal Democrat policy couldn’t
be clearer – ‘Reject a new generation of nuclear power stations based on
the evidence nuclear is a far more expensive way of reducing carbon
emissions than promoting energy conservation and renewable energy.’
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has insisted again that there would be
no public subsidy. But new nuclear power stations are not profitable
without massive subsidies from the public purse.
The ongoing problems with
the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has
prompted many people to question where we get our energy from, now and in the
future. The champions of nuclear power say the risks only affect a small number
of people and are outweighed by the risks of climate change. So if we can’t
burn coal, we must have nuclear power.
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