E is for Energy

I’ve started the petition “Parliament: Stop the construction of any new nuclear electricity plants in the UK.” and need your help to get it off the ground.

Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here’s the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/parliment-stop-the-construction-of-any-new-nuclear-electricity-plants-in-the-uk

Here’s why it’s important:

Nuclear energy is dangerous and a source of pollution and radiation all over the world. The money spent building new nuclear plants can be spent building our renewable energy systems NOW! Stop wasting money on old and dagerous energy and start spending money on our future and our childrens future.

You can sign my petition by clicking here.

Thanks!

The largest problem with nuclear power is that it produces waste products that need to be stored for hundreds or thousands of years in a safe environment. It must be stored in containers that will not leak for hundreds or thousands of years. The political and social changes that occur over these time spans is immense. Finding a way to warn the future generations about this stored waste is at the top of the list of problems facing any government trying to find a storage location. Security of the stored waste is also a problem as this waste has the potential to destroy all life on earth if released into the environment.

This radioactive waste is presenting a big problem for the energy industry. The government of the UK is happy to let nuclear power plants store this dangerous waste on their plant sites until a better location for storage is created. The problem is that no one wants this waste stored in their back yard

Here is an excellent article and a gold mine of information on why we don’t want any new nuclear plants in the UK.

No2NuclearPower:

In January 2013 the Government’s plans to undertake preliminary work on an underground radioactive waste dump were rejected by Cumbria County Council. The county and its western district councils Allerdale and Copeland were the only local authorities in the UK still involved in feasibility studies for a £12bn disposal facility.

Write your MP now and tell them not to waste money on more nuclear power!

I have just seen a posting that must be shared with all interested parties.Visit Peter Lux’s Blog

The Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is a process which was set up in order to examine the designs for new power stations and iron out any flaws in them before the power stations are constructed. The GDA for the European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, was carried out by the Health and Safety Executive between 2007 and 2012. This is the reactor design chosen for the Hinkley C power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Allowing the regulators to get involved with designers at the earliest stage was supposed to ensure an open and transparent process resulting in several competing designs with all significant design issues fully resolved.

The work was was undertaken in order to prevent the construction problems that have plagued the two reactors currently being built in Europe from being repeated in the UK. The two European Pressurized Reactors (EPR’s) are being built by Areva, a company which, like EDF, is largely owned by the French State.

This mess will not secure our energy future. This new plant design will cost billions more than expected, and still have design flaws that are dangerous to our environment.

Write your MP NOW! and tell them to stop this madness.

Nuclear energy has never been ‘safe.’ Nuclear energy is inherently Unsafe and always will be. Nuclear energy is not clean or green. It causes massive pollution from mining to reprocessing. Nuclear waste is impossible to make safe. The American Department Of Defense is recycling spent uranium from nuclear plants – By making uranium tipped ammunition for weapons used in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Levels of radiation and pollution in these war-torn regions has gone up. The citizens of these countries are paying the price.

Cleaning up after a nuclear disaster is also fraught with problems and can take decades to complete.

Euronews website report:

The operators of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have postponed the extremely complicated and difficult task of removing damaged atomic rods.

New video footage from a robot has revealed new leaks within the damaged reactors meaning the rods now can’t be taken out as planned.

One of the fuel assemblies was damaged as far back as 1982 when it was mishandled during a transfer and is bent out of shape.

Kazuaki Matsui, the executive director of Japan’s Institute of Applied Energy said: “It’s very difficult to remove a spent rod because parts of the wall and the bottom of the reactor are all melted. We’ve never had to deal with this before so that adds to the complication.”

Meanwhile, decontamination workers say mismanagement is to blame for the delay of radiation removal work.

The initial plan called for the clean-up in the affected towns to be finished by March this year but the government now says the work will be delayed by as much as three years.

Link to the article at Euronews