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First intern

Jess, our first intern, is first up this week in the blog relay - a whistle-stop tour of Greenpeace staff here in the UK. Click here to catch up on the other entries.

Like many of you exploring the Greenpeace website, I have been concerned about environmental issues from a fairly young age. I have my parents to thank for that. But I've never been 100% sure exactly what I want to do about it. So when I graduated last year I decided as good a place as any to start was to look for some internships, to get an idea of what kind of jobs are out there. So here I am - an intern at Greenpeace. Their first one in the UK no less.

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Awards - on the web and in Parliament

Our very own Benet Northcote (right) joins the 'Coal vs Rebewables' debate at the 2008 Lib Dems Party Conference

Greenpeace at the Climate Clinic for a debate on coal vs renewables.

We've just found out we're up for another web award: The People's Choice Website of the Year Award. If you like what we do here in cyberspace, please tootle over and vote!

Strangely, we've won two other awards in the past few weeks. EfficienCity, our virtual town showcasing decentralised energy, has won the W3 Best in Show for animation. (The W3 or World Wide Web Consortium are the folks who decide the standards for the web. The criteria they judge include creativity, usability, navigation, functionality, visual design, and ease of use, so all credit to our friends at BiroCreative who built EfficienCity.)

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How to fix the UK's renewables strategy

Samsoe

Given that we have the best renewable resources in the European Union, the fact that Britain languishes near the bottom of the European renewables league table is pretty humiliating.

On Monday though, the International Energy Agency added insult to injury. Britain's renewables strategy, it said, is 'ineffective' and 'very expensive'. The agency's new report (published here, but you have to pay) ranks Britain 31st out of 35 countries - "including all the major industrial nations such as the US, Germany and China" - in its green energy cost league. And our 'renewables effectiveness', it says, is a paltry three per cent.

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Calling planners, businesses and councillors: an invitation from Greenpeace

Manchester was at the heart of the industrial revolution. Now it could take the lead in the next energy revolution. While national energy policy flounders, towns and local authorities can do an enormous amount to achieve the emissions reductions we so urgently need.

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Ditch the dodgy nukes!

Solar panels beside Sizewell B Nuclear Plant

Solar panels beside Sizewell B Nuclear Plant


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Briefing on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Publication Date: 
1 Sep 2005
Body: 

Summary

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) was established on 1st April 2005. It has taken over ownership all of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) sites, as well as those of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). The original focus for the NDA, as written in the White Paper 2002 in which it was first proposed, was that it should be "squarely on [dealing with] the nuclear legacy" .

It was also proposed the Government would fund the Authority, leaving it free to concentrate on clean up and decommissioning. We believe the NDA should be dealing only with legacy wastes and not be dependent on waste creating activities for any of its income. It should have been given a clearly defined objective, underscored with the environmental and organisational principles, including legal obligations to avoid or minimise waste creation - and a statutory duty to consult all stakeholders and the public at large.

Now that it exists, the NDA has the opportunity to tackle the UK's ever increasing stockpile of hazardous wastes. It should not stand by and squander this opportunity by allowing waste creating activities to continue. We hope that through the strategy consultation process it will act in an open and transparent way and apply the best principles of environmental protection - such as stopping reprocessing and not opening the MOX plant.

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Real race is tackling climate change

A flood reaches almost four feet high on a flood height marker


Today Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the general election. Some party leaders have already hit the campaign trail, but the most important race we now face is tackling climate change.

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European Parliament elections: 10 June 2004

Illegal timber found in the European Parliament
Published on May 27, 2004
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Greenpeace submission on the draft Nuclear Sites and Radioactive Substances Bill (2003)

Publication Date: 
11 Aug 2009
Body: 

Publication date: October 2003

Summary
Greenpeace has major concerns with the Nuclear Sites and Radioactive Substances Bill as it is currently worded. In particular, we are concerned that the draft Bill has been transformed from a measure rooted in environmental and health concerns and aimed at dealing with legacy waste to a measure which makes possible the transfer of the costs of nuclear liabilities, past or future, from the nuclear industry, publicly owned or private, to the state. The transfer of the liability inherent in nuclear power from the industry to the taxpayer, coupled with the proposed power of the NDA itself to run power stations and create more waste undermines the original purpose of the legislation, favours the production of nuclear power and undermines the public confidence in legislation whose primary aim should be the protection of health and the environment, in the context of ending the UK's nuclear industry.

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150 Greenpeace volunteers occupy Sizewell B nuclear power station

14 Oct 2002
 Greenpeace occupy Sizewell in 2002: 72% say no to nuclear power

Greenpeace occupy Sizewell in 2002: 72% say no to nuclear power

150 Greenpeace volunteers have entered the site of Sizewell B nuclear power station as part of a campaign against Government plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. The volunteers have not entered any building or interfered with the operation of the plant but have peacefully occupied roof tops around the site. The volunteers plan to maintain a safe, peaceful and non-violent occupation of the site until the Government commits to ending the British nuclear programme.

The volunteers entered the Sizewell B site unopposed at around 7.00am via both the main gatehouse and the perimeter fence which backs onto the beach. Many of the volunteers are wearing Homer Simpson and Tony Blair costumes as a comment on the stupidity of current Government thinking over nuclear power. All of the volunteers are wearing indicator badges to monitor exposure to radiation and are adhering to an overall radiation management plan to minimise risk.

Blake Lee-Harwood, one of those peacefully occupying the plant said:

"The Government seems intent on building a new generation of nuclear power stations despite the dangers and overwhelming public opposition. Britain went down the nuclear road before and we ended up with a contaminated environment and a £0 billion bill for the taxpayer. It seems unbelievable that this Government intends to repeat the mistake when we could easily generate our power from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Wind farms off the coast of East Anglia alone could generate as much electricity as all of Britain's nuclear plants"

Sizewell B was the last nuclear power station to be built in Britain and will probably be the site of the first of a new generation in coming years. The Energy Minister, Brian Wilson, has repeatedly argued for a new generation of atomic plants to be built and the Prime Minister has backed nuclear power in the past. The Government's recent consultation on Britain's energy future asked questions based on the concept: "How can we make nuclear power more acceptable to the public" - not if people wanted more nuclear plants. There is already a prepared site next to Sizewell B where a new 'Sizewell C' would be built.

Greenpeace believes that all nuclear power stations can be closed by the time of the next general election and the next government could lead a nuclear-free Britain. Greenpeace believes that nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and unpopular:

Unsafe, because nuclear power stations create dangerous radioactive wastes that last for hundreds of thousands of years and discharge radioactivity to the environment on a daily basis. Nuclear power plants are also vulnerable to terrorist attack with appalling consequences. There is no safe level of exposure to radiation.

Uneconomic, because nuclear power generation creates vast radioactive legacies for which there is no safe solution. The total liabilities of the British nuclear programme amount to £0 billion which will be paid for by the taxpayer. Power from wind farms is cheaper than power from nuclear generation. British Energy, the owner of Sizewell, is currently in a dire financial position and close to bankruptcy.

Unpopular, because the majority of British people do not want nuclear power. A recent MORI poll showed that 72% of respondents said they preferred clean, renewable energy from sources such as wind and solar rather than new nuclear power stations (1)

A recent study by AEA Technology (formerly the Atomic Energy Authority) found that forty wind farms off the coast of East Anglia could produce as much electricity as all the nuclear power stations in Britain (2). Such a scheme would create 60,000 jobs. Even with the UK's nuclear plants closed there would still be significant numbers of jobs decommissioning nuclear power stations and looking after the stockpiles of radioactive waste already created which will remain dangerous for thousands of years.

Notes to editors:
(1) MORI poll, May 2002
www.mori.com/polls/2002greenpeace-energy.shtml
(2) Sea Wind East report, July 2002
www.greenpeace.org.uk/seawindeast.htm

Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255