No to New Nuclear Power - Yes to Decentralised Energy!

Saturday 25th April over 70 people attended a demonstration at the Sizewell nuclear power plants in Suffolk. It has recently been announced that Sizewell will be the possible site for two new reactors. Many of the protestors camped overnight and held a memorial service for the victims of the Chernobyl which occured exactly 23 years before.

Speakers included - Pete Wilkinson Co-founder of Greenpeace UK, CORWM, Peter Lanyon and Charles Barnet, Shut Down Sizewell Group, Mell Harrison, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Sizewell Blockaders, Rupert Read Green Party European candidate

Yet another letter was handed to the site challenging British Energy to have an open public debate with the protesters about nuclear power.

There was then a tour along the coast next to the site to show the various parts of the site and the proposed new site.

Many of the protesters camped overnight.

There was also street theatre from Theatre of War

The protest was not just against nuclear power but also urged that cheaper, cleaner and safer alternatives be used. A good example of which has been carried out in Woking (see www.ideascentre.co.uk/download/file?ref=68 - for a more general discussion of the alternatives to nuclear to tackle climate change see Nuclear power: economics and climate-protection potential by AMORY B. LOVINS of the Rocky Mountain Institute.)

Further Information

• Flood map for the Sizewell area from the site nomination proposal
• Sizewell Blockaders: Previous Blockade of Sizewell A and B
• TORCH Report: Affects of the Chernobyl Accident
• The True Battle of Chernobyl Google video
• More images
• Flash video of the fallout cloud (can be slow loading)

Lakenheath 8 go to trial in Ipswich 2 years after the action

On 3rd November the Lakenheath 8 had their final pre-trial review. The trial will take place from December 1st - 4th at Ipswich Crown Court, two years and two months after their taking action to prevent more innocent victims in the continuing bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan undertaken by US planes from USAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. . (Crown court applies to the venue, not this trial, which will be heard by a District Judge).
On the 2nd October 2006, 8 people locked themselves to the gate of the Special Munitions Store at RAF Lakenheath in order to stop the use of those weapons and in order to secure evidence of War Crimes.
They phoned the MOD police to request their presence on an allegation that war crimes were being committed.
The Lakenheath 8 had locked their bodies to the gates to prevent the deployment of weapons, including cluster bombs, and secured the evidence for investigation for as long as possible. After 3 hours they were forcibly removed by a specialist MOD cutting team.
The 8 were some of the first to be arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act section 128, and were further charged with criminal damage for cutting through the fence.
At the pre-trial review the defence won the right to call expert witness, Rae McGrath, Nobel Laureate and expert on cluster bombs. McGrath has also been heavily involved in the Oslo agreement on cluster munitions. He will, however, be attending the trial to give evidence rather than attending the signing of the Oslo agreement in Norway.
Following a statement from the Minister of State on 4 December 2006 on the use of cluster munitions, Parliament reconsidered these weapons and the humanitarian considerations arising from deploying such indiscriminate bombs.
Hansard reported on 20 March 2007 that 'dumb' cluster bombs would be withdrawn from service with immediate effect. Parliament also confirmed that it would also work towards an international ban on their use in the future. Britain is one of 107 countries to be signing the International Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo - on the 1st - 3rd December 2008.
However, the UK ban will not stop cluster bombs being deployed by the US and stored at US military bases across the UK. The Lakenheath 8 are among many campaigners calling for the removal of cluster bombs from UK soil and a ban on their use internationally.
Mell Harrison said ' After years of campaigning using prescribed democratic process, still the bombs were falling. Seeing the bombs inside Lakenheath and the images of children screaming, and with missing limbs in the media, we had to take direct action ourselves to stop these war crimes'
More info on the Oslo agreement at
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/englishfinaltext.pdf
and lots more at http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/
including people's treaty to sign
http://www.minesactioncanada.org/peoples_treaty/index.cfm

Sizewell Sercurity tightened? Not enough, Sizewell blockaded again!

24th July 2008, 6am and nine anti nuclear power activists head to sizewell for a day on the beach, well almost the beach, they actually stop at the entrance of Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations and lock themselves together with a number of things and seal the entrance for health and safety reasons.

Sizewell looks to be the next place for a new nuclear power station, with two reactors larger than the existing sizewell ‘B’ reactor.

After two previous blockades in the last few months, security had been stepped up and they had put a land rover and two security guards at the gate, but must have decided that this was no longer needed as when we arrived they were not there and yet again we were not spotted. So we had to call them and let them know we were there and they had been shut down due to health and safety reasons… it still took them 5 minutes to get to us and by then we had quiet an audience of local people, sizewell workers and holiday makers.

The hidden, invisible dangers are easy to cover up.

British energy studies tell us all is well, but a recent German study shows that with in a 5 km radius of nuclear power stations the rate of child leukaemia goes up by 100%.

Like cigarettes when they had a pr push in the 50’s, we are told that nuclear power generation is good, safe and that the cancers and birth defects are just a coincidence.

We know that the nuclear power cycle from start to finish, say 250,000 years, it is far from C02 neutral. We know that it is expensive to build, decommission, and keep radioactive waste safe and guarded for 250,000 years, we know that nuclear power is not the answer to our energy needs, we know that uranium mining is a nasty business in more ways than one and we know we are leaving a legacy of more waste and poison for future generations to deal with. So why are we doing it?

All the Nuclear energy people who attended the meeting that happened inside Sizewell that day defiantly saw as they stepped over us that we don’t all want nuclear power, and if the government and the nuclear industry told the truth, no one would want it.

After blocking the entrance for 3 hours we were arrested for aggravated trespass, then the cutting team arrived from Wethersfield and an hour later and we were on our way to the police stations.

At 9pm we returned home for a cup of tea and planned our next move.

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Press release

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Thursday, 24 July 2008

‘Health and Safety’ Blockade at Sizewell Nuclear Plant

Eight activists are protesting outside the proposed site of two new nuclear reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk in objection to what they call “health and safety issues’. 5 of the protesters, dressed as health and safety inspectors have chained themselves across the road that is the only access to the site. The demonstration is about the environmental impact of nuclear reactors and uranium mining.

The site has been the focus of several protests recently with the only access road to both Sizewell A and B reactors being blocked twice in the last year. The site is also the proposed site for two new reactors if the new build of nuclear power plants goes ahead. The protesters claim that the nuclear power industry is a health and safety issue “from start to finish”…meaning from when the uranium is dug from the mines to when it is used in the nuclear power plant until the radioactive waste is disposed.

Mell Harrison, Eastern Region Coordinator for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said, “a recent German study has found a massive increase in cancer in children around nuclear sites. Are we willing to expose yet more of our children to these risks with new nuclear power stations? There is the unresolved problem of what to do with nuclear waste, dangers from terrorist attacks, the dangers from the trains that carry nuclear waste from the region and dangers of radioactive leaks from the plants. There are many alternatives – we do not need to sacrifice the health and safety of our future to meet our power needs.”

She added ‘the dangers of nuclear power are about more than the location of the plant but the impact of the whole nuclear cycle. Uranium mining is a huge health problem for many people, we are saying more than a not in my back yard’

Peter Lux, another of the protesters added, “it is often forgotten that the uranium is mined and much of the radioactive waste is left at the mining site. Radioactive waste is either left above ground or pumped underground where it can enter the groundwater. This causes great concern about increased radiation exposure in the local communities and the mine and mill workers. There are not just protests at Sizewell but also at uranium mines in Canada, Australia, USA, Niger, Namibia, India… nearly everywhere that it is mined.

Notes:

German Radiation Study

Spix C, Schmiedel S, Kaatsch P, Schulze-Rath R and Blettner M 2008 Case–control study on childhood cancer in the vicinity of nuclear power plants in Germany 1980–2003 Eur. J Cancer 44 275–84 (see J. Radiol. Prot. 28 (2008) 119–123 (http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0952-4746/28/1/M01/jrp8_1_m01.pdf?request-id=87a130de-395b-418e-8c1b-42be081c593d) for more information

Local Community Protests:

For protests in Canada - for example - see http://www.wise-uranium.org/upcdn.html#ONNFRONTEN which has press listings, court hearings. More information about Uranium mining can be found at http://www.wise-uranium.org

US Nukes Removed from USAF Lakenheath in Suffolk!

Eastern Region CND and Lakenheath Action Group have received the news that US tactical nuclear weapons have been removed from USAF Lakenheath with open arms!

Lakenheath in Suffolk has housed up to 110 nuclear weapons for many years and Lakenheath action Group and CND have campaigned against them.

Mell Harrison, Eastern Region CND campaigns and Lakenheath action group member said ‘ This is fantastic news, but its very interesting that the US government has kept this secret. We would like this news to be ‘confirmed or denied’ by the base and also like to know if these nukes where flown out over the UK’. She also commented on security at the base ‘As one of the activists that have entered USAF Lakenheath a few times I am fully aware of just how inadequate the security is on these US bases and our concerns on this were confirmed by a US military report the Blue Ribbon report a few weeks ago’

CND and Lakenheath action group have vowed to keep a close eye on these US bases and have concerns about USAF Lakenheath being used as a future base for National missile Defence interceptor missiles.

Pete Lux , Theatre of War actor-vist and Eastern Region CND added ‘ USAF Lakenheath is still involved in the bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq, Still houses Cluster bombs and is still involved in war crimes. The protests will not stop, but we can at least celebrate the removal of the Nuclear bombs stored at the site.’

Lakenheath action Group, CND and Theatre of War will be adding to the ‘Independence FROM America’ protest planned at USAF Feltwell ( USAF Lakenheath sister base) on 4^th July at 5.30pm with a celebration for ‘ Independence FROM US nukes!‘join us in making a 20 meter banner line away from the Feltwell fence so that the activists on bail conditions after an action at Lakenheath to stay 20m away can still attend and be part of the celebration and protest.

Contact Mell Harrison on 08453370282   mellcndeast@cnduk.org

Further Information

• Full FAS report
• Blue ribbon report
• Reuters Report
• Guardian Report

Aldermaston - Easter Monday - 24th March

Coaches from across the region traveled down to Aldermaston for "The Bomb Stops Here" on Easter Monday. About 5,000 people attended the event and at 2:30 the site was surrounded by noisy protesters. All main gates at the Atomic Weapons Establishment was occupied by colourful and lively protesters. More images of the day can be found here.

Stop the War Crimes not the Protests

Just after 7am on the morning of 8th October 2007 six people chained themselves together to block the main gate of RAF Lakenheath. US personnel immediately sealed off the road and diverted traffic.

A police cutting crew arrived just after 9am and started to cut the people out. The last person was taken away just after 10:20am.

All have been arrested for Obstructing the Highway. More details about the action is available here. The reasons for the action are given below.

Thousands of Bombs Dropped by Lakenheath Pilots in Afghanistan

Lakenheath pilots painted bombs on their plane to represent the number of bombs each jet has launched while deployed to Afghanistan during their recent 4 month deployment. One picture shows 76 bombs while another (taken half way through the deployment) shows 30 including two which seem to be cluster bombs.

One of the photographs if for sale on the Start and Stripes website which is a newspaper for US military personnel

This would indicate that press reports and the 'airpower summaries' released by US airforce only show a tiny fraction of the number of airstrikes in the country. Click here for more information and analysis including reports of civilian deaths during airstrikes in Afghanistan.

Eastern Block at Faslane

Eleven people from the Eastern Region traveled up to Faslane for the Big Blockade on 1^st October. Although there were over 170 arrests no one from the Eastern Region were arrested despite playing an active part in the blockade.

The protest marked the ending of a year of protests outside the Faslane submarine base where the British Trident submarines are based. Each submarine can contain up to 16 missiles. Each missile can have up to 16 independently targeted warheads. Each warhead is eight times more powerful that the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For more information see Faslane 365 web site

Sizewell Action

Nuclear Power Is Not The Answer To Climate Chaos

Five people blockaded Sizewell 'A' and 'B' for over 5 hours as part of the Climate Camp actions on the 20th August 2007.

The action was part of the day of actions at the Climate Change Camp and was to expose the myths of nuclear power as a way to combat climate change Click here for more information.

Lakenheath 8

Eight local people are to appear in court over charges relating to their action last October when they cut through the fence at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. RAF Lakenheath is home to US F-15E ground attack aircraft which have recently returned from bombing Iraq.

The protesters chained themselves to a munitions store where cluster bombs had been seen a few weeks earlier. As well as taking action against the use of cluster bombs the groups also cite the presence of B-61 nuclear bombs, depleted uranium weapons and the disproportionate use of force against the civilian population

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