No Damn New Nuclear Shit! See u at Hinkley Point
Minnie the Minx | 03.10.2012 12:55
So what's radical about opposing new nuclear then? After all, as someone said to me the other day 'nuclear is so...eighties' and I know that many of the young people I meet say that their parents spent their youth protesting against nuclear, and in these times of austerity (read being shafted by the 1%) there are so many things that we're faced with, actually we're being attacked on all fronts, this is just the beginning of the rich elites trying to grab as much of the dwindling resources as they can before the shit hits the fan. However, economic booms and busts as well as oppression and repression in this culture is cyclical after all it's not the first time we've been faced with government cuts, industrial action or new nuclear is it? these things have a a habit of re-surfacing, and being opposed so why should nuclear be any different? Shouldn't we see this as an indication that we haven't resolved the issues that lie at the core, the root of the disease, if we're constantly having to fight the same battles again? And does it mean that just because we've fought it before that we shouldn't fightit again?
I would flip the question in reverse and ask what's radical about not acting on the issue? After all, given the intractable nature of the waste this is one issue that is never ever going to go away irrespective of whether they build more or not, but this fact, the fact they we have this poisonous legacy should it be used to justify or resign ourselves to more of the stuff being created?Really, shouldn't it stiffen our resolve that we must never let more of the stuff be created? doesn't it provide us with an opportunity to focus our attention as a society on just what this legacy that wealready have means and how we are going to deal with it as we deal with our transition from an energy abundant world to one where that energy use has contributed to a world with a much reduced carrying capacity?
I would flip the question in reverse and ask what's radical about not acting on the issue? After all, given the intractable nature of the waste this is one issue that is never ever going to go away irrespective of whether they build more or not, but this fact, the fact they we have this poisonous legacy should it be used to justify or resign ourselves to more of the stuff being created?Really, shouldn't it stiffen our resolve that we must never let more of the stuff be created? doesn't it provide us with an opportunity to focus our attention as a society on just what this legacy that wealready have means and how we are going to deal with it as we deal with our transition from an energy abundant world to one where that energy use has contributed to a world with a much reduced carrying capacity?
David Fleming one of the founders of the transition town movement, wrote a short book about nuclear power called “The nuclear life cycle - a cycle in trouble” it can be downloaded for free from
http://www.theleaneconomyconnection.net/nuclear/summary.htmlBut in this small book he articulated for me one of the most pressing issues that we are faced with namely the fact that there isnot enough uranium left in the earths crust to deal with the waste legacy that the nuclear industry have already created which means that it will fall to fossil fuels to 'deal' with the legacy? how much energy (in calories and joules) is it going to take to isolate this waste from the environment? (forever!) and what will happen if it is just abandoned in Situ? (this is the course we are on currently on despite the rhetoric from governments and industry) Most of the worlds legacy waste is sat in wet ponds (the preferred option of the industry as it is the cheapest option) very little of it has been put into dry casks, which are hugely expensive butdefinitely less vulnerable than wet storage as at the point it is put in storage it's management is more passive than active, (notwithstanding the need for constant monitoring and at some point in the not so distant future say seven generations the need for it to be repackaged...).
The nuclear industry produces many isotopes that are used in a multitude of industrial applications. Obviously right now we're all concerned with the threat of fracking for shale gas and methane and exploration points have been cropping up all over the place... did you know that they can't frack without radioisotopes? They use a small rod that contains Americium 241 a reactor waste that theyconveniently dispose of in fire alarms too! and also Beryllium... These rods are both Alpha and Gamma emitters and can you make you very sick as Halliburton know well (they just 'lost' a rodsomewhere in Texas. Other industry insiders see nuclear as essential in the dash to squeeze every last drop of oil out of our mother earth and absolutely necessary for a hydrogen economy and any other number of techno-fixes that are constantly suggested and mooted as 'the way forward'. I think that one of the most radical things that we can do is to reframe the energy question and ask do we really need it at all? And if so does the future use of energy have to be predicated on the prolifigate wasteful energy use patterns of the twentieth century? In the UK we have had this technology electricity for about four generations, most of the rest of the world still lives quite sustainably without it.We are highly adaptable it is one of the things that characterises us as humans, this is why we've got so used to this technology, however our adaptability also offers us the hope that we can also easily adapt to living without it. I would also argue that the radical view is not one that succumbs to what is fashionable or easy to deal with, but is one that is prepared to explore difficult issues and to question dominant paradigms.
Please join us to Stop New Nuclear in it's tracks with the mass trespass on the development site at Hinkley in a few weeks time, there will be a camp from the 5th-9th as well as a protest on the 6th and the trespass on the 8th please visit the website at www.stopnewnuclear.org.uk where you can find all the information, we'd really like people to register for the camp so that we can feed you all, Mickey mouse names and e-mail addresses are fine we're not out to gather intelligence for the state! There is a newsletter to keep you up to date with our preparations that you can sign up for which is also always published on the website too. Please bring what you would wish to find good vibes and your good selves! See you in the front line
Tickets are still available to get to Hinkley Point for sat £5 or £10 at Katze 55 gloucester rd BS7 tel 07857854057
Related Link: http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk
http://www.theleaneconomyconnection.net/nuclear/summary.htmlBut in this small book he articulated for me one of the most pressing issues that we are faced with namely the fact that there isnot enough uranium left in the earths crust to deal with the waste legacy that the nuclear industry have already created which means that it will fall to fossil fuels to 'deal' with the legacy? how much energy (in calories and joules) is it going to take to isolate this waste from the environment? (forever!) and what will happen if it is just abandoned in Situ? (this is the course we are on currently on despite the rhetoric from governments and industry) Most of the worlds legacy waste is sat in wet ponds (the preferred option of the industry as it is the cheapest option) very little of it has been put into dry casks, which are hugely expensive butdefinitely less vulnerable than wet storage as at the point it is put in storage it's management is more passive than active, (notwithstanding the need for constant monitoring and at some point in the not so distant future say seven generations the need for it to be repackaged...). The nuclear industry produces many isotopes that are used in a multitude of industrial applications. Obviously right now we're all concerned with the threat of fracking for shale gas and methane and exploration points have been cropping up all over the place... did you know that they can't frack without radioisotopes? They use a small rod that contains Americium 241 a reactor waste that theyconveniently dispose of in fire alarms too! and also Beryllium... These rods are both Alpha and Gamma emitters and can you make you very sick as Halliburton know well (they just 'lost' a rodsomewhere in Texas. Other industry insiders see nuclear as essential in the dash to squeeze every last drop of oil out of our mother earth and absolutely necessary for a hydrogen economy and any other number of techno-fixes that are constantly suggested and mooted as 'the way forward'. I think that one of the most radical things that we can do is to reframe the energy question and ask do we really need it at all? And if so does the future use of energy have to be predicated on the prolifigate wasteful energy use patterns of the twentieth century? In the UK we have had this technology electricity for about four generations, most of the rest of the world still lives quite sustainably without it.We are highly adaptable it is one of the things that characterises us as humans, this is why we've got so used to this technology, however our adaptability also offers us the hope that we can also easily adapt to living without it. I would also argue that the radical view is not one that succumbs to what is fashionable or easy to deal with, but is one that is prepared to explore difficult issues and to question dominant paradigms.
Please join us to Stop New Nuclear in it's tracks with the mass trespass on the development site at Hinkley in a few weeks time, there will be a camp from the 5th-9th as well as a protest on the 6th and the trespass on the 8th please visit the website at www.stopnewnuclear.org.uk where you can find all the information, we'd really like people to register for the camp so that we can feed you all, Mickey mouse names and e-mail addresses are fine we're not out to gather intelligence for the state! There is a newsletter to keep you up to date with our preparations that you can sign up for which is also always published on the website too. Please bring what you would wish to find good vibes and your good selves! See you in the front line
Tickets are still available to get to Hinkley Point for sat £5 or £10 at Katze 55 gloucester rd BS7 tel 07857854057
Related Link:
http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk
Minnie the Minx
Original article on IMC Bristol:
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/711029