22nd January 2016
March 11th 2016, 6pm
Please join us at Lydney Harbour on March 11th at 6pm to commemorate FUKUSHIMA DAY
Five years ago a tsunami off the coast of Japan caused a tidal wave to breach the defences of a nuclear power station. 120,00 people had to evacuate their homes, some as far away as 30 k from the plant. Most of these people are still evacuated and many will never return to their homes.
In Lydney we are 10k and in Coleford 17k from the site of the proposed Nuclear Power Station at Oldbury.
Details nearer the time, but please put this important date in your diary now.
Please join us and help to make this an important and memorable day for the people living in the shadow of Oldbury and Berkeley.
January 22nd 2016
Belgium: 48 hours to stop the next Chernobyl
STAND has had the following disturbing news from Avaaz. Please sign their petition (link below article):
Experts say we could be facing the biggest risk of nuclear disaster in Europe since Chernobyl after two old and cracked nuclear plants in Belgium were just restarted even after suffering a big explosion: but in 48 hours an unprecedented amount of pressure from all Europe can shut them down.
And these reactors are so old that this weekend, one already started to leak thick white gas again and citizens have taken to the streets on the Dutch and German borders in protest. In 48 hours, all of us in Europe can make a big impact backing these protesters when an official ministerial Dutch-Belgian joint visit to assess the safety situation.
Any nuclear disaster will affect all of us in Europe. So let’s get to 500,000 signatures and deliver them to both ministers in front of the media and make it clear that EU citizens will not allow Belgium to put us at risk of another Chernobyl that would affect millions of us.
Sign now and share with everybody:
STAND says: We highlighted the problem with these two reactors nearly a year ago (see Nuclear News, left: "Belgian nuclear reactors riddled with 16,000 unexplained cracks"), and the implications for the 430 nuclear reactors worldwide.
The crazy decision by the Belgian Government to re-open these potentially lethal power stations has had the affect of helping millions of people to realise how stupid it is to build nuclear power stations in heavily populated areas.
Perhaps when we get our message across that the chances of an accident of Fukushima proportions happening to any nuclear power station in its lifetime are 1 in 200 (a figure verified by a leading statistician and epidemiologist) people will wake up and realise that we have been incredibly lucky here in western Europe not to have had a serious accident - yet.
January 22nd 2016
Help raise awareness of the dangers of Nuclear Power by asking your local Parish Council about Emergency Planning
A Government directive is making Parish Councils everywhere address the issues of Emergency Planning in their own locality, and draw up a parish plan.
At STAND we believe that as part of that plan it is essential to plan for a major nuclear incident, yet there seems to be no such planning at Parish, District or County level in the Severn Estuary area.
That is why we are asking everyone who shares our views on Nuclear Power and lives within 30km of Oldbury or Berkeley - or indeed any nuclear facility - to write to their Parish Council this Autumn and ask them what their plans for a nuclear emergency are.
We have produced a suggested format, with questions we believe Parish Councils should be addressing, that can be downloaded here...
A list of Parish Councils for the Forest of Dean can be seen here...
November 4th 2015
Influential Documentary Film Maker brings
Anti-Nuclear Power Films to Lydney
STAND was fortunate enough to secure a visit to the Forest of the award winning documentary film maker Pradeep Indulkar at the Watney hall, Lydney on September 29th.
Pradeep was there to show and talk about his latest films, High Power and Jaitapur Live and was watched by over 40 people.
Right click on poster and choose download linked file to download a printable version of this poster
Pradeep was a qualified nuclear engineer who was so alarmed by what he saw happening in the nuclear industry that he became an anti-nuclear activist.
In the film High Power he exposes the suffering of the people living near the Tarapur Nuclear Power Project, the largest nuclear power plant in India. The reactors have been condemned as dangerous by nuclear watchdogs, being of the same type but older than the Fukushima reactors that failed so catastrophically in Japan in 2011
In Jaitapur Live, Pradeep follows the protest movement against the building of what is planned to be the largest nuclear power plant in the world, at Jaitapur. Protestors say it will destroy the extraordinary ecosystem in the coastal Konkan region of Maharashtra and displace thousands of villagers from their homes.
It will also be a safety threat, being built, like Fukushima, in an earthquake zone and threatened by tsunamis. The planned reactors are to be of the new, and as yet untested, EPR type, built by the French state owned company Areva, that have run into construction problems, delays and cost over-runs in Flamanville in France, and in Finland.
This is the same type and company that are to build the new Hinkley nuclear power station in Somerset, so Pradeep’s film was very relevant to the nuclear controversy raging here in the UK.
27th April 2015
Government can now bury nuclear waste
wherever they like!
Amendment to bill makes objection unlawful
Photo of test drilling in Cumbria by courtesy of Radiation Free Lakeland
Government is "wiping out democracy to dump nuclear waste" say Cumbrians.
In a shameful abuse of the parliamentary process, the government forced through an amendment to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Bill (NSIP) just before dissolving Parliament, allowing the Government to bury high and intermediate level nuclear waste wherever they want, without opposition, having removed the right of councils - or anyone else - to object, on any grounds whatsoever.
There was no advance notice of the amendment, thus there was no chance for environmental and human rights groups to organise opposition and lobbying.
English Heritage describe how the normal checks and balances of democracy are wiped away by the undemocratic NSIP: "Planning permission, listed building consent, scheduled monument consent and conservation area consent amongst other are not required for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects."
In other words hard won planning protections are null and void as is democracy, with the final decision on any future 'geological disposal facility' (GDF) taken by the Secretary of State alone.
Read a full account in the Ecologist, here
15th April 2015
JAPAN'S NUCLEAR FUTURE IN DOUBT
Objectors win victory to prevent
reopening of nuclear plant
Judges rule against restart of reactors at Takahama plant over safety concerns, dealing setback to PM’s plans to relaunch nuclear power generation four years after Fukushima disaster
A court in Japan has dealt a blow to plans by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to relaunch nuclear power generation four years after the Fukushima meltdown by halting the restart of two reactors over safety concerns.
The country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority had approved the restart of the reactors at the Takahama plant in Fukui prefecture, but in a ruling on Tuesday judges sided with residents who had sought an injunction against the facility’s operator, Kansai Electric Power (Kepco).
The residents had argued that nuclear officials had underestimated the plant’s vulnerability to powerful earthquakes of the kind that triggered the Fukushima disaster.
They added that the reactors did not meet proper safety standards and that evacuation contingencies were inadequate
The italics in the last sentence are ours - STAND believes it is shameful that this sort of challenge could not happen here in this country.
Under the Large Projects Infrastructure legislation, it is not legal to contest the building of a nuclear power station on these - or indeed virtually any other - grounds.
Full story here
15th April 2015
FUKUSHIMA SETBACK AS
TRANSFORMER ROBOT STALLS
The Fukushima nuclear palnt in flames back in 2011
Decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a setback after a robot sent into a damaged reactor to locate melted fuel stalled hours into its mission and had to be abandoned.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the robot stopped moving on Friday during its first inspection of the containment vessel inside reactor No 1, one of the three reactors that suffered meltdown after the plant was struck by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Tepco, which recently conceded that the technology for robots to retrieve the nuclear fuel had yet to be developed, said on Monday it would cut the cables to the robot and postpone a similar inspection using a separate device.
The “transformer” robot, which can alter its shape depending on its surroundings, was sent in to take photographs and record temperatures and radiation levels.
It had covered 14 of 18 locations when it stalled, about three hours after beginning its journey around the vessel, officials said, adding that they had yet to establish the cause of the problem.
More than four years after the plant suffered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, radiation levels inside the reactors are still far too high for humans to enter
Full story here
9th October 2014
EU Commission agrees to allow "illegal" subsidy for new Hinkley Nuclear Power Station
Molly Scott Cato talking at STAND's Fukushima Day in March
"A massive setback for renewable energy in the South West" says MEP
Commenting on the decision and the Greens' continuing opposition to Hinkley and nuclear, Molly Scott Cato said:
"In waving through the massively problematic Hinkley C deal, the outgoing Barroso-led EU Commission is giving a cynical boost to nuclear power. There can be no doubt that the generous terms being offered by the UK government to EDF on Hinkley C amounts to illegal state aid under EU rules. It is a scandal that one of the final acts of the Barroso Commission is to turn a blind eye to the illegality of the Hinkley deal.
"This deal, and the precedent it creates, is a massive setback for renewable energy in the South West and the rest of the UK. Small scale renewable energy producers will find it difficult to compete with large scale subsidised nuclear, meaning the thousands of potential jobs that could be created in the renewables sector will be lost.
"Today's decision by the Commission will not be the last word. The European Commission cannot be allowed to clear the path for further exorbitant public spending on this dated and dangerous technology, when we should be promoting a safe and sustainable energy future for Europe. Greens will fully support any legal challenges that may now present themselves.”
STAND says: STAND is non-party political and does not promote any political party over another, but we must note that only the Green Party and its prospective parliamentary candidate for the Forest of Dean, James Greenwood, have come out against nuclear power. While the Labour party is not at this point in time against Nuclear Power, Steve Parry-Hearne, the proposed Labour Candidate for the Forest of Dean, does support STAND in its oppostion to a proposed NP station at Oldbury.
20th February 2015
March 11th 2015
Please join us at Lydney Harbour on March 11th at 6pm to commemorate FUKUSHIMA DAY
Four years ago a tsunami off the coast of Japan caused a tidal wave to breach the defences of a nuclear power station. 120,00 people had to evacuate their homes, some as far away as 30 k from the plant. Most of these people are still evacuated and many will never return to their homes.
In Lydney we are 10k and in Coleford 17k from the site of the proposed Nuclear Power Station at Oldbury.
6.00 pm
We will meet at the Standing Stones and picnic tables at Lydney Harbour.
We will take the short walk to the gate over the canal where we will throw flowers into the water to a background of Japanese music.
6.15 pm
We will read out personal messages that we have sent to the people of Fukushima, then write new messages for the people of Lydney who walk along the path and see Oldbury power station.
6.40 pm
We will end by lighting our lanterns and singing together.
Please join us and help to make this an important and memorable day for the people living in the shadow of Oldbury and Berkeley.
Please download a flyer for this event and distribute if you can (PDF, 100KB)
NEW 6th October 2014
New cracks in Hunterston reactor put future of 14 UK reactors in doubt
Warning 8 years ago that cracks in the graphite cores of UK AGRs (Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors) could be worse than the nuclear industry said, proved correct
Only the UK and Russia (including the destroyed Chernobyl reactor) have this type of reactor
"Britain alone in the world in dealing with this problem" says expert
For full story, visit the BBC web site here
STAND says that the plans put forward by EDF to extend the life of these reactors from 2016 - when they were due to close - until 2023 is "irresponsible and plain crazy".
A spokesperson for STAND said, "Because of successive Governments' failure to properly support new renewable energy build over the past decades it has led to a situation where they are now gambling on 14 reactors with dangerously cracked graphite cores to keep the lights on.
"And not only that, but they are planning to build more examples of a failed, expensive and outdated technology that virtually no other country in the world will have anything to do with".
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24th September 2014
STAND HOLDS DEMONSTRATION AGAINST NUCLEAR TRAINS
On the 26th September, members from STAND demonstrated at Gloucester Station about the dangerous practice of sending trains carrying high and intermediate-level nuclear waste by train.
Below is the press release we sent to all the local papers
Protesters demand an end to nuclear trains in Gloucester
On Friday the 26th September members of Stand Against Nuclear Development (STAND) demonstrated and leafleted at Gloucester station.
This was in protest at the transport of water-filled flasks carrying highly-radioactive fuel rods from Hinkley nuclear power station to Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria for reprocessing, which pass through Gloucester weekly. As well as these highly radioactive flasks there are also flasks of intermediate level waste from 5 different nuclear power stations in the UK which go through Gloucester on their way to Berkeley for storage.
James Greenwood, prospective Forest of Dean parliamentary candidate for the Green party, said: “We are calling for this transport to stop, 1) because these flasks emit low-level radiation – and exposure to any increase in radiation levels means increased risk of cancers, particularly thyroid cancer in children; 2) In a serious accident the flasks would break open, releasing highly-radioactive material into the surrounding environment, causing deaths and requiring mass evacuation. Can you imagine trying to evacuate Gloucester before the wind covered the city in radio-active poison?”
Barbara French, secretary of STAND added, “We are also calling for plans for building new nuclear power stations in the UK to be scrapped, since operating such stations would mean high-level nuclear waste continuing to be produced for many more decades into the future. This will either have to be stored in the area of the power station, threatening more cancers locally, or be transported by rail to Sellafield, with the dangers this would represent. This is just one of many reasons why STAND opposes the proposed huge new nuclear development at Oldbury.”
This protest in Gloucester is part of a coordinated protest against nuclear trains and nuclear power that is taking place up and down the country this weekend at stations used by trains carrying nuclear waste.
11th March 2014
THANKS TO ALL WHO TURNED OUT FOR OUR FUKUSHIMA DAY EVENT on March 11th
We had a brilliant response, with nearly 100 of you remembering the people of Fukushima.
Below is the press release we sent to all the local papers
Philip Booth of Stroud Community TV has made an excellent video of the event which can be seen here
”The legacy of nuclear power terrifies me.” said Steve Parry-Hearn at a Fukushima day event organised by STAND (Severnside Together Against Nuclear Development) at Lydney docks.
Reflecting on the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan, 3 years ago to the day, he continued, “We think of the people who lost their lives and we think of the children whose legacy is still unknown and that, for me, is not worth the price to be paid.”
Steve Parry-Hearn, the Labour party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for The Forest of Dean, was speaking to a crowd of nearly a hundred people, young and old, who had turned up to remember the plight of the displaced victims of one of the worst nuclear accidents the world has seen.
Molly Scott Cato, prospective member of the European parliament for the Green Party, then told the crowd of her fears that the plans to build a new nuclear power station at Oldbury would not just carry the risk of a catastrophic accident, but would add to the daily emissions of lethal radioactivity that are known to damage health.
She said “This is such a crucial issue, it really is a matter of life and death, because ionising radiation is precisely designed to cause damage to human cells. You only need to be attacked by one atom of radiation for it to start a mutation which can lead to cancer and for that reason it is far too dangerous for us to think that we can control and contain it.”
James Greenwood, representing STAND, read out a message from Jonathan Porritt who said he was very sorry he was unable to be with us today. In the message he said, ”The case for nuclear power is as weak today as it has ever been. But politicians are easily fooled by the industry's hype and lies. Which means that we all have to keep on campaigning, until such time as the threat of future nuclear developments (at Oldbury and elsewhere) has finally been lifted."
SCAR's heritage
James went on to say that he felt very privileged to be a member of STAND as it had a long heritage, having grown out of SCAR (Severnside Campaign Against Radiation) that was active in the 80s. He said that the members of SCAR discovered that the radioactive emissions at the perimeter of Berkeley were the highest of any nuclear power station in the United Kingdom. Low level emissions of ionising radiation are known to cause Leukaemia, especially in children, and it was the discovery of the unusually high numbers of this disease in children in Lydney that led to SCAR’s formation.
Storm surges
He said that he lived on the banks on the river Severn and had witnessed the storm surge that had led to the quay at Lydney being submerged. That was not a particularly high tide he said, but if the 1.5 metre surge had been on top of a very high spring tide the effects could have been disastrous.
Fukushima
Talking about Fukushima, he said there were about 300,000 evacuees there and about 100,000 people have still not returned to their homes. If such an accident were to happen on Severnside, There would be a lot more people displaced, as we have Bristol, Newport, Gloucester, South Gloucestershire, the Forest of Dean, all in the evacuation radius. “In Japan whole village communities have been lifted out of their locality and placed in gymnasiums in Tokyo”, he said. “They left behind everything, they left their animals their homes and were placed in"temporary" accommodation. Three years down the line, they are still there.”
He talked about the health problems they are experiencing in Fukushima, not just because of radiation but because of the effects that the stress has caused. Suicide rates have rocketed, as have stress related illnesses. Doctors in Japan say that already there are 700 times more thyroid cancers in the population around Fukushima in just three years than would be expected in the whole of their lifetimes.
He then revealed that 50 km from Fukushima there is a town in which for the last three years the children have not been allowed to spend more than 30 minutes a day outside - a fact that will surely bring a shudder to the hearts of parents, grandparents or great-grandparents of young children everywhere.
The crowd joined in some songs led by Peter Dunford, guitar, Roger Drury, banjo and Chezzie Dunford, accordion. They sang a special version of Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land and Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind.
Messages to be sent to Fukushima
The members of the crowd were asked to write messages of sympathy and support to the displaced victims of Fukushima, which were collected, and after translation, will be sent to the mayor of Fukushima.
Everyone present then walked to the quay side carrying flowers, which they threw into the river as a mark of respect and remembrance.
After the event, Barbara French of STAND said, “The day has been organised to remember the victims of the terrible meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors 3 years ago, which is still ongoing, and to highlight the dangers of expanding nuclear power in our crowded island.
“Horizon/Hitachi are planning to build an enormous new Nuclear power station just across the river from us here. It will dwarf the existing power station, and with its enormous cooling towers will be an eyesore that you will be able to see from Bristol, Stroud, Gloucester and Newport.
“But more importantly, they are planning to build the new reactors on a flood plain that two government reports, one in 2005 and one in 2012, have said is unsuitable, recommending the withdrawal of all nuclear material from the site over the next 50 years.
“Of course we accept that there is a need for new electricity generation, but nuclear is not the way forward. Germany, which, like most countries, abandoned nuclear power after Fukushima, is already generating 25% of its energy from renewable sources, a figure that is rising all the time as they invest in renewable build and research.
“We believe that to build a huge new nuclear power station - and to store highly radioactive waste at Berkeley, 1 mile away across the river, which is another of the Government’s proposals - is sheer folly and will leave a deadly legacy for future generations.
“We do not want any more Fukushima type catastrophes here, or anywhere in the world”, she said.
20th November 2013
Fukushima meltdown is warning to the world, says nuclear plant operator
In a shock article published in major UK newspapers today, Naomi Hirose, president of the company that runs Fukushima, said Britian’s nuclear industry must be 'prepared for the worst'
He said that despite what the nuclear industry and the public wanted to believe, nuclear power was not 100 per cent safe.
The full story can be read here on the Guardian's web site or here on the Telegraph's web site.
2nd December 2013
Sellafield nuclear clean-up bill rises over £70bn
Private consortium accused of spending cash 'like confetti'
Sellafield is regarded as the most dangerous and polluted industrial site in western Europe. It houses 120 tonnes of plutonium, the largest civilian stockpile in the world.
STAND says: This is why the government has been forced into the incredibly dangerous practice of storing all future high level plutonium waste on the sites of nuclear power stations, including the proposed Oldbury plant. But who will look after the stockpiles of lethal waste when the power station operators have packed up and gone home? The UK taxpayer, that's who. But instead of one centralised plant to deal with the waste there will be several, with all the extra cost - and extra danger - that will bring.
Those engaged in the clean-up are still some way from knowing exactly what is in the storage facilities. "Record-keeping in the past was clearly not what it should have been," said a source.
Senior nuclear executives will be asked by Public Accounts Committee to comment on how £6m of bonuses came to be shared out among NMP bosses over three years and why the consortium paid back £100,000 in expenses that had been wrongly claimed.
Read the full article in the Guardian here
23rd October 2013
French and Chinese Governments handed huge subsidy to build new Nuclear Power Station in UK
The spectre of a new nuclear power station at Oldbury came a step nearer today as the UK Government announced it has given the go-ahead for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
Although the government has always said it will not offer extra subsidies to the nuclear industry, that is just what it has done. It has offered a ridiculously high price for the future production and has made no stipulations about disposal of waste. And all this not to British companies but to to two foreign governments, the French and the Chinese!
The plan now is to store waste on site. This will mean that tons of highly dangerous radioactive waste will be stored on the same site as nuclear power stations. Althought the staions themselves have a life of only 35 years, the waste will remain toxic for thousands of years. Who will look after this? And who will paye for it? The UK taxpayer and energy bill payer, that's who!
There is an excellent article about the crazy economics of nuclear power by Jonathon Prritt and others from Friends of the Earth here
23rd October 2013
Satistician says chances of Fukushima style accident at new Oldbury power station a staggering 200-1
STAND believes the ongoing and seemingly unresolvable emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi plant serves as a stark warning to the UK and any other country thinking of embarking on the lunacy of nuclear power.
Eminent statistician and epedimioligist, John Urquart, has told STAND that the chances of an accident of the severity of Fukushima happening to the proposed Oldbury Nuclear Power Station are a staggering 1 in 200 in its lifetime.
Do you think these are good enough odds, given the utter devastation and loss of life - not to mention the loss of millions of homes - that would ensue? And remember, nuclear acidents are specifically excluded from home insurance policies.
There is a great article from the BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes about the state of Fukushima today, in which he quotes influencial sources in Japan saying that the disaster was avoidable and could happen anywhere. Read it here
(See our new Q and A facts page for further details)
20th January 2013
HITACHI/HORIZON HORROR PLAN FOR OLDBURY
Following the pull out of EDF who were originally planning to build a new nuclear power station next to the old Oldbury site, a consortium of Hitachi and Horizon are now putting forward proposals for a new, gigantic, nuclear development there.
The scale of the proposed development dwarfs any nuclear power station ever built in the UK before and will cast a blight over the Severn Estuary.
STAND oppose the building of any new nuclear power stations on grounds of health, safety and cost - but this proposal has caused consternation among local residents on both sides of the river at its sheer scale.
Two new groups have been formed:
Sheperdine Against Nuclear Energy (SANE). Sheperdine is close to Oldbury and the local residents are very concerned at the proposals (see box on right).
And STAND have started their own STAND AGAINST OLDBURY campaign following a very well attended public meeting held in Lydney on 17th January.
The 100 plus concerned people who attended the meeting heard that the new nuclear power station would be built on a flood plain which is below sea level at times of high springs tides and that a report published by the government 7 years ago identified the site as one of the areas most at danger from rising sea levels and storm surges. The report, published by NIREX, advised that a "managed withdrawal" of existing facilities should be undertaken from the site. SO WHY ON EARTH ARE THE GOVERNMENT NOW PROPOSING TO BUILD A NEW, MUCH LARGER, NUCLEAR PLANT THERE?
In the meantime, for more information or to offer your support and help, you can email contact@standagainstoldbury.org
(See our new Q and A facts page for further details)
On SANE's web site, they say:
The Government seems to think this site is suitable for this monstrous proposal, yet local councils and politicians agree with us... the site is simply unsuitable... please help us tell the Government this is just plain wrong!
..the massive new nuclear power station [is] 4 times the capacity of the old power station... The new site will have to have 3 or 4 massive cooling towers, each tower taller than and as wide as the existing power station. These are in addtion to the 2 or 3 reactor buildings they will need and a highly toxic waste store. All of this in a high level risk flood zone too