Home > EUROPEAN PETITION 1 MILLION EUROPEANS DEMAND THE EXIT OF NUCLEAR POWER
EUROPEAN PETITION 1 MILLION EUROPEANS DEMAND THE EXIT OF NUCLEAR POWER
by Open-Publishing - Monday 26 April 20041 comment
Sign it NOW : <http://www.atomstopp.com>
Almost 50 organisations and movements from some 20 European countries are on the Chernobyl Memorial day April 26th launching a European Campaign for collecting 1 million signatures against nuclear power.
For a period of maximum one year, the aim is to collect signatures and activate more organisations to join the campaign in order to convince all European countries to take the following measures without delay :
– to stop or prevent the construction of new nuclear power plants and facilities in the European Union,
– to launch a plan to abandon nuclear power within the European Union,
– to invest massively in energy saving and the development of renewable energies,
– to repeal the Euratom Treaty which massively supports nuclear power in Europe by means of public funding
Only these measures will make it possible to fight against nuclear danger and global warming at the same time.
Some of the organisations initiating the European ³1 million signature campaign² are taking part in the launching of the campaign in Helsinki in Finland on April 26th. The organisations will be received by different ministeries, there will be a press conference and a street action where speeches will be held and signatures will be collected. The organisations have also sent their complaints to the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry about the plans to build a 1 600 MW EPR nuclear power plant in Olkiluoto on the Finnish west coast. The EPR has not been built anywhere; it exists only on paper. It is a prototype that will be tested in Finland in spite of several warnings about severe safety deficits and too optimistic cost calculation and costruction schedule.
The organisations visited St. Petersburg during the weekend April 23rd 25th in order to promote the signature campaign also in Russia, and in order to express deep worries about the plans of the Russian government :
– to prolong the utility permit of the oldest Chernobyl type reactor in the world at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant in Sosnovy Bor
– to let the temporary nuclear waste storage of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant - situated only 90 meters from the Baltic Sea coast and containing radioactivity corresponding to 40 50 Chernobyl accidents - continue its existence
– to let harbours in Ust-Luga and Vysotsk be used for transports of radioactive material.
The organisations taking part in the events in Helsinki and St.Petersburg are amongst others:
– Reseau ³Sortir du Nucléaire², a French anti-nuclear network of some 700 organisations. This network had launched on the 24th of April a one month anti-nuclear rally in France and this rally will cover 4 000 kilometres and some 50 cities and localities. During the rally signatures will be collected for the European petition, and protests will be made against any construction of new nuclear power plants in France.
– the German section of the IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War). The IPPNW in Germany is heavily critisising the use of nuclear power as a source of material for producing nuclear weapons. IPPNW is organising a big conference against nuclear power in Berlin May 7th 9th this year.
– the Austrian organisation Atomstopp International, one of the coordinators of the European 1 million signatures campaign. Also Atomstopp is organising a big conference against nuclear power next autumn.
– The World Information Service on Energy (WISE) sitauated in Holland, a large network of organisations against nuclear power and for the use of renewable energy sources.
– Aktionsbündnis CASTOR-Widerstand from Germany, having a long tradition of successful actions against nuclear transports in Germany.
– The German party Liberale Demokraten
– The Green Party of Sweden
– The Peoples Campaign against Nuclear Power/Nuclear Weapons from Sweden
– Women against nuclear power from Finland
– The No more nuclear power movement from Finland
– Women for Peace from Finland
This campaigning against nuclear power all over Europe is supported by a Youth action, an open-ended fast (hunger strike) for a Nuclear-Free France, starting on the 21st of June 2004.
A clear majority of the citizens of Europe are against the use of nuclear power for energy production. Of the current EU Member States (EU15) seven are not using nuclear power as and energy source. In addition five Member States have decided to give up the use of nuclear power. Amongst these is Spain where the new Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero reaffirmed the Spanish decision to phase-out nuclear power in a speech during his swearing-in ceremony in Madrid on April 15th.
Nuclear accidents do not respect geographical borders. An accident anywhere in Europe or the rest of the world can affect the lifes of millions of people living not only today but also in the far future.
Therefore organisations from all over Europe have joined forces to fight nuclear projects by democratic means.
WE DO NOT FIGHT INDIVIDUAL STATES OR ENERGY PRODUCERS, WE FIGHT AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER IN THE NAME OF THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE IN EUROPE!
Sign it NOW : <http://www.atomstopp.com>
For further information:
Ulla Klotzer Women against nuclear power, Finland: +358-50-569 09 67
Lea Launokari Women for Peace, Finland: +358-50-55 22 330
Anna-Liisa Mattsoff - No more Nuclear Power movement, Finland: +358-50-468 2895
Jean-Yvon Landrac Réseau ³Sortir du nucléaire²: +33-699 562 967
Roland Egger Atomstopp International: +43-664 421 5613
Lars Pohlmeier IPPNW, German section: +49-171-416 0139
Maria Braig Aktionsbündnis Castor-Widerstand: +49-160-957 109 99
Sten Danielsson The Green Party of Sweden: + 46-70 362 3404
Forum posts
26 April 2004, 20:59
I am an American Mother an advocate for children with Autism. I am agianst NUCLEAR power plants! Todays article below doesn’t represent Americans. We need to learn from Chernobyl. Below was in the New York Times today! This is the insanity of George Bush’s government. Hopefully we elect new leaders that understand the will of the people.
April 26, 2004
Energy Providers Seek Grant as Step to Build Nuclear Plant
By MATTHEW L. WALD
ASHINGTON, April 25 - Amid growing signs of interest in building nuclear power plants, a consortium of companies plans to ask the federal government on Monday for $400 million to help prepare an application to build a reactor.
Separately, six companies applied on Friday for a smaller grant to study building an advanced reactor on the site of a twin-reactor project abandoned in 1988 as too expensive.
The consortium first announced its interest in building a nuclear power plant on March 31, but it plans to tell the Energy Department on Monday that it has added two big partners, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Duke Power, a unit of Duke Energy. It will also provide a firmer budget for its work.
The group, which has named itself NuStart Energy Development, initially included Exelon Nuclear, a unit of the Exelon Corporation; Entergy Nuclear, a unit of the Entergy Corporation; Constellation Energy; the Southern Company; and EDF International North America, a subsidiary of Électricité de France, which owns shares in reactors in the United States.
The consortium also includes General Electric and the Westinghouse Electric Company, a subsidiary of BNFL, which was formerly British Nuclear Fuels Limited.
The initial announcement by the consortium drew criticism from antinuclear groups, who complained about safety, vulnerability to terrorism and the problem of disposing spent fuel.
According to people involved with the consortium, NuStart will argue that the sum it is seeking is modest relative to what the federal government has paid recently to subsidize other forms of energy research or production.
"The country needs fuel diversity, and it needs energy independence from foreign energy sources," an executive involved in the NuStart group, who asked not to be identified by name in advance of the announcement. "This is an effort to provide the nuclear option," he said.
In the 10 years ended in 2002, Nu- Start will point out, the Energy Department spent $482 million on fossil energy projects, including "clean coal;" $538 million on energy efficiency; and $446 million on solar and other forms of renewable energy. And in 2003, the government gave the wind industry $280 million in the form of a production tax credit.
NuStart is applying for a dollar-for-dollar match, under a program called Nuclear Power 2010, whose goal is to have at least one reactor under construction by that year. It has not picked a site or a design, or even committed to build anything.
Under the same program, on Friday a different group asked for help with a $4 million project to explore building a reactor in northern Alabama at the site of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bellefont project. The T.V.A. stopped work on a twin-unit nuclear plant at Bellefonte in 1988, after spending $2.5 billion there.
The new group includes T.V.A. and General Electric (which are both members of the NuStart group as well); Bechtel, an architect and engineering company; Toshiba; and USEC, a company that processes uranium for nuclear reactor use.
On March 17, another consortium - made up of Dominion Resources Inc., Hitachi America, Bechtel and an American subsidiary of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. - also asked for financing.
Joseph H. Davis, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said on Friday, "We welcome any and all applications under this program." But he added, "We haven’t made a decision on when we’re going to make a decision."
In addition, the Energy Department does not have the money in hand to distribute.
But there is some sympathy in Congress. In a statement, Pete V. Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said: "I am absolutely delighted. I think that the market and regulatory forces that have put nuclear back into play will continue in the coming decade, and I think this is the first step in a continuing trend."
Unplug the Nukes in NJ