NukeNews No. 13 - ENGLISH
From Nuclear Heritage
Jump to navigationJump to search2011:
2012:
2013:
2014:
2015:
2016:
2017:
2018:
2019:
NukeNews: Czech | English | Finnish | French | German | Polish | Russian | Slovenian
************************************************************ * NukeNews #13 - Anti-Nuclear Information Service * ************************************************************ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Preface ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This will be a short NukeNews issue. In this release of the international multilingual newsletter system of the Nuclear Heritage Network we cover particularly anti-nuclear activities in Poland and a few updates/infos from Finland, Germany and Czech Republic. After the amazing number of anti-nuclear events in context of Fukushima Day in March, we are expecting many activities for the second sad commemoration event of an atomic disaster - Chernobyl Day on April 26th. Feel welcome to send us short reports of your events as well as an outlook to upcoming campaigns of your groups or in your region for the next NukeNews - find out more about deadlines and format of newsletter articles at the end of this e-mail. If you would like to get an impression of (just an extract of) anti- nuclear events connected to Fukushima Day from March, have a look at our special webpage: http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Fukushima_Disaster_Remembrance_2014 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Outline of the current NukeNews issue #13 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Preface 1. UK: NDA consultation on nuclear waste dump fails to talk to potentially affected communities 2. Anti-nuclear rally during COP19 meeting in Warsaw 3. Resistance to the Polish NPP construction plans 4. Pro-nuclear propaganda bus in Poland 5. A Poland-overseas media scandal 6. Environmental disaster company Talvivaara close to bankruptcy 7. International Anti-nuclear Network Gathering in August 8. PLEX in Ukraine 9. Conference "Economic Limits of the Nuclear Power Industry" 10. Upcoming events 11. About NukeNews ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. UK: NDA consultation on nuclear waste dump fails to talk to potentially affected communities ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stop Hinkley slammed the 22nd of January Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's (NDA) consultation on Storage and Disposal plans for Intermediate Level Waste & Nuclear Fuel Element Debris. So far the NDA have chosen to talk only to a very limited group of stakeholders via nuclear power station based site stakeholder groups. The public haven't been involved at a stage where all the options are on the table and they can influence the decisions about the waste. Stop Hinkley would like to encourage the public to reject the NDA proposals on the grounds that they have failed to fully involve the public at the appropriate time. "The NDA need to go back to the drawing board about how they involve the public in consultations about hazardous radiological and chemical wastes produced here in the UK." Support the petition against Hinkley C NPP: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/End_Nuclear_Insanity_NOW_Ban_Construction_of_Hinkley_C_Nuclear_Power_Station/?fPKymab&pv=6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Anti-nuclear rally during COP19 meeting in Warsaw ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On 16th November, on the 8th day of the UN climate talks (COP19) in Warsaw an anti-nuclear demonstration was held. 40 activists from Poland and around the world (Russia, South Africa, Ireland, Germany, Austria, UK, Belgium, and other countries) stood with banners, costumes and signs at the entrance to the venue of the climate negotiations. It was a strong signal to delegates and media entering the National Stadium and capital's citizens that nuclear power is not a solution to the climate crisis. Get an impression: http://www.flickr.com/photos/push_europe http://youtu.be/ZD1SywPxz8gs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Resistance to the Polish NPP construction plans ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A citizens group from the Mielno gmina (state smallest administrative district), home to the Gaski village as an official candidate siting of a first NPP, have sued the permit on the siting of a NPP in Gaski issued by the head (Voivode) of the Western Pomerania Region (Wojewoda Zachodniopomorski). The permit was sustained by the Voivode but the citizens want to file a complaint to the Poland's Constitutional Court. Furthermore, a delegation of citizens from the Mielno presented, at the Gmina Hall Council's meeting, a document covering the potential negative impact of a possible building and operating of an NPP in their region. Also, in past months, Mielno turned out in local opinion polls to be in favour of the renewables development (instead of nuclear power). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Pro-nuclear propaganda bus in Poland ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In late November, promoters of nuclear power (a pro-nuclear students' foundation, under the auspices of the Polish Ministry of Economy, sponsored by the biggest nuclear players, both Polish and global, including AREVA, EDF, Hitachi, PGE), again this year, drove a so called 'The Atomic Coach', performing an 'information' tour along the coastline of the Northern Poland's regions. They stopped at several towns and villages including the candidate sites for the first NPP and had meetings with school youth at schools to significantly augment the attendance rates at their events. Apart from bringing up usual pro-nuclear myths and arguments in their speeches, they showed simple physical experiments, most often completely unrelated to NPPs directly and some of them even unrelated to the fission phenomena (maybe luckily...). Last year the nuclear opponents from the local committee 'Nie dla atomu w Lubiatowie' ('No to the atomic power in Lubiatowo') were sometimes denied access to the meetings and were verbally assaulted by the pro-nuclear citizens: http://www.niedlaatomuwlubiatowie.pl/atomowy-autobus-1.html http://www.niedlaatomuwlubiatowie.pl/atomowy-autobus-2013.html Official website of the pro-nuclear organizers: http://www.atomowyautobus.pl ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. A Poland-overseas media scandal ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The head of the Polish state nuclear agency (PAA) claimed in an interview in a magazine published by the Polish embassy in Tokyo that "Poland wants to implement the nuclear power even should it entail a Fukushima-like event". Currently the PAA spokeswoman denies the wording and investigates whether there might have been some mistakes in the interview's translation from Japanese... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Environmental disaster company Talvivaara close to bankruptcy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Since 2013 Talvivaara Mining Company Plc. is faced to serious financial difficulties. Months after the big spill of about a million cubic meters of highly toxic process waters from the mine in November 2012 causing an environmental catastrophe for the sensitive water systems of the Eastern Finland wetlands it turned out that the company wouldn't be capable of dealing with the costs of their business and much less for a serious clean-up after spoiling the ecosystems with uranium, nickel, cadmium, sulfates and other heavy metals. Talvivaara Mining Company then started to provide more shares to take in additional financing. But this attempt to save Talvivaara's finances failed, as outside Finland hardly any new investors could be found. Last autumn a procedure to check the company's economical capabilities was started with the goal to decide whether or not the about 450 millions of Euros in loans they are owing banks and investors would be deferred or not. The results are expected this spring - probably a decision about the end of this disastrous mining project or its continuation. However, the Finnish government is strongly interested in saving their prototype investments of a reputedly "green" mining boom in Finland. Learn more: http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Talvivaara_mine:_environmental_disaster_in_Finland ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. International Anti-nuclear Network Gathering in August ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2014 Nuclear Heritage Network gathering will take place August 4-8 near Kiel in northern Germany. It will be a platform for anti-nuclear activists and organizers to meet each other in person, get to know about each others' topics and struggles, for skill sharing and exchanging experiences and to improve the tools to support anti-nuclear activities internationally. These annual gatherings are an important means of networking of the international anti-nuclear Nuclear Heritage Network. Here we will develop new resources to strengthen anti-nuclear struggles and improve already existing tools. The meeting is supposed to make progress with the network and to involve new interested activists. Workshops will include presentations of nuclear situations in the participants' countries as well as resources like the NukeNews newsletter system, the International Network Office, multilingual flyer project, etc. This year we will meet in the same place directly before the international anti-nuclear summer camp starts - thus, it will be possible to join the actions and workshops of this event, too. This will be an opportunity for anti-nuclear activists around the Baltic Sea to gather and organize campaigns and actions against nuclear business in the region. We will try to provide travel costs refunding if you are not able to cover your travel expenses to the gathering yourself. For that you should get in touch with us as early as possible. If you are interested to join the 2014 Anti-nuclear Network Gathering, please send an e-mail to "contact AT nuclear-heritage DOT net". Learn more: http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Nuclear_Heritage_Network_gathering_2014 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. PLEX in Ukraine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Design lifetime of twelve nuclear units in Ukraine is going to expire by 2020, including three extended ones (two nuclear units at the Rivne NPP and the unit 1 of the South Ukrainian NPP). In March 2013 the Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention on the basis of information submitted by Ecoclub concerning the planned extension of the Rivne NPP decided to begin a Committee initiative (EIA/IC/CI/4). Now there is an open case on the matter of lifetime extension of old nuclear units in Ukraine. Committee's position is that extension of the nuclear power plants is considered to be major change in the activity under the Espoo Convention. In November 28, 2013 the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine decided to extend the lifetime of the unit 1 of the South Ukrainian NPP up to December 2, 2023, beyond its technical design lifetime. Procedures under the Espoo Convention while taking this final decision were not applied also. During the Meeting of the Parties to the Espoo Convention, 2-5 June, 2014, a decision on the necessity to apply procedures under the Espoo Convention is supposed to be finalized. And we hope that it will help to develop in Ukraine a unified mechanism that would bring decision-making on extension of the nuclear power units in compliance with the Espoo Convention as soon as possible to prevent more of such decisions without environmental impact assessments and without consultations with potentially affected public in neighbouring states. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Conference "Economic Limits of the Nuclear Power Industry" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The International Conference NEC 2014 "The economic limits of nuclear energy" will be held on 29th April at the Smetana Hall of the Czech Automobile Club in Prague. The aim of the conference is to discuss limitations concerning construction of new and reconstruction of existing nuclear reactors encountered by governments and investors. Invitation to the conference was accepted by a lot of interesting personalities and experts. Mycle Schneider, energy consultant, will show us the current state of nuclear energy and its future development in the world. Professor Stephen Thomas will present in details the British model designed to support the construction of new nuclear reactors, which raised hopes also in the Czech Republic. Professor Franz Leidenmühler will assess the extent to which such subsidy mechanisms is in accordance with European law. The economic aspects of the project of construction new nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic will be presented by economic analysts Ivan Benes, Michal Šnobr and Jan Ondřich. With Professor Claudia Kemfert we will look closer at the economic opportunities of the German energy transition. The Upper Austrian councilor Rudi Anschober and Michael Nagl will speak about the long-term changes of the energetics in Upper Austria. The conference will be moderated by journalist Jan Bumba. There will be space for discussion in the programme and the interpretation will be provided. Complete program and other details can be found at the website www.nec2014.eu. Learn more: http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/European_Anti_Nuclear_Forum_2014 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Upcoming events ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (just an extract, tell us your events for the next newsletter) more events: http://upcoming.nuclear-heritage.net Please feel free to send us your local and international events for this website and the NukeNews! 24/10/13-23/03/14: exhibition "Langzeit und Endlager" at Museum zu Allerheiligen, Klosterstr. 16, in Schaffhausen (CH) 2014: Nuclear Waste Transport to Ahaus - current status: "postponed" (D) 01/02/14 at 11 AM: regional conference "AKW Grohnde abschalten" at Gemeindehaus in Salzgitter-Bleckenstedt (D) 06/02/14-07/02/14: Long-term Performance of Engineered Barrier Systems (PEBS) at BGR in Hannover (D) 08/02/14 at 11 AM: nuclear waste conference at Volkshochschule, Wilhelmshöher Allee 19-21, in Kassel (D) 09/02/14 at 11 AM: federal anti-nuclear conference for global networking at Volkshochschule, Wilhelmshöher Allee 19-21, in Kassel (D) 10/02/14-12/02/14: International Uranium Film Festival in Washington DC (USA) 03/03/14 at 10 AM: Waste Management (WM) 2014 Conference in Phoenix (USA) 08/03/14: Fukushima related actions in the Dreyeckland region (CH, D, F) 08/03/14: Fukushima rally in Jülich (D) 09/03/14 at 2 PM: human chain Fessenheim at vallée du Rhône (F) 09/03/14 at 2 PM: Fukushima disaster remembrance: international brigde actions in the Upper Rhine area (D) 18/03/2014: Easter march to the uranium enrichment facility in Gronau (D) 08/04/14-10/04/14: Symposium on Recycling of metals arising from operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities at the Studsvik site outside Nyköping (S) 23/04/14-26/05/14: Walkatjurra Walkabout - Walking for Country 2014; pilgrimage across Wangkatja country (AUS) 26/04/14: ecological festival "Für eine Zukunft nach Tschernobyl und Fukushima" (D) 29/04/14: European Anti Nuclear Forum in Prague (CZ) 03/05/14-08/05/14: Atomforum of the German nuclear industry in Frankfurt/Main (D) 11/05/14-15/05/14: European Nuclear Conference in Marseille (F) summer 2014: Walk For A Nuclear Free Future from Miami, FL to the Y-12 Nuclear Facility Oakridge, TN 2014 (USA) 04/08/14-08/08/14: Nuclear Heritage Network gathering near Kiel (D) 09/08/14-16/08/14: International Anti-nuclear Camp near Kiel (D) 20/08/14-24/08/14: Anti-nuclear mini camp near Kaplice (CZ) 22/08/14-24/08/14: solar festival in Peckwitz (D) 21/09/14-25/09/14: Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology 2014 International Conference in Freiberg (D) 2014: Probably Castor transport of high level radioactive waste from Sellafield (UK) and of intermediate level radioactive waste from La Hague (F) to Gorleben (D) and protests 01/09/15-30/11/15: (estimated) main hearing on the Environmental Court on SKB's application to build KBS3 final nuclear waste repository at District Court in Nacka (S) http://www.allerheiligen.ch/images/PDF/Langzeit%20und%20Endlager_Flyer.pdf http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Nuclear_Waste_Transport_to_Ahaus http://ag-schacht-konrad.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=769&Itemid=189 http://www.pebs-eu.de/PEBS/EN/Pebs-Final-Conference/PEBS_final_conference_node_en.html;jsessionid=EF1A95844F8E4E013BCB14F2A5E66F59.1_cid284#link4 http://ag-schacht-konrad.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=66&Itemid=278 http://www.kerstinrudek.de/bundesweite-anti-atom-konferenz-f%C3%BCr-globale-vernetzung/ http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/ http://www.nonuclear.se/en/kalender/phoenix20140302-06 http://wp.chainehumaine.eu/ http://www.nonuclear.se/en/kalender/20140408-10studsvik http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Walkatjurra_Walkabout_%E2%80%93_Walking_for_Country_2014 http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/European_Anti_Nuclear_Forum_2014 http://www.euronuclear.org/events/enc/enc2014/index.htm http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Walk_For_A_Nuclear_Free_Future_2011-2015/Miami-Y12_Nuclear_Facility_Oakridge http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Nuclear_Heritage_Network_gathering_2014 http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/International_Anti-nuclear_Camp_near_Kiel http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Anti-nuclear_mini_camp_in_the_Czech_Republic http://ag-schacht-konrad.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=769&Itemid=189 http://tu-freiberg.de/umh-vii-2014 http://www.greenkids.de/europas-atomerbe/index.php/Gorleben_Castor_Resistance_in_Germany_2014 http://www.nonuclear.se/en/kalender/kbshuvudforhandling2012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. About NukeNews ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The NukeNews are a multilingual newsletter system of the Nuclear Heritage Network and are supposed to reflect the activities, topics and struggles of anti-nuclear activists connected through this international community. The messages are written and translated by activists, additionally to their usual anti-nuclear activities. No one is paid for that work, as we want to provide resources like this information system to the anti-nuclear struggle as independent as possible. The newsletter aims to inform and update as well activists as the interested audience. Your contributions to the next issue of the NukeNews are welcome. Send them via email to "news AT NukeNews.nuclear-heritage.net". It should be brief information in English of not more than one paragraph, including a concise headline and an optional link to a webpage providing more information. Deadline for the 14th issue of the NukeNews will be 22nd of June, 2014. Spread the word and learn more about the NukeNews: http://NukeNews.Nuclear-Heritage.NET