72% of the British public say no to nuclear power and yes to wind. Greenpeace projects poll result onto Sizewell nuclear plant in Suffolk, UK
As the highly dangerous and unnecessary shipment of reject
plutonium from Japan to the UK enters European waters, nearing its
eventual destination of Sellafield, the British and Japanese
nuclear industries must be wishing they had never signed the
contract for it to proceed.
Last week British Nuclear Fuel's (BNFL) largest single
reprocessing client, British Energy, declared itself on the verge
of insolvency. Then, news broke that Japan's largest utility, Tokyo
Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has been embroiled in a scandal
around falsification of safety inspections at their reactors.
Oh for clean, safe energy which many could have had access to by
now. If the huge subsidies gratefully received by the nuclear and
fossil fuel industries had been spent with the health and security
of the planet and its people in mind, the story would be so
different today.
In a recent poll, 72 percent of the British public said 'No' to
nuclear and 'Yes' to wind power. The City Assembly of Kashiwazaki
in Japan has just voted against approval for plutonium loading at
the Kashiwazaki-kariwa reactor, it is hoped that other cities and
prefectures follow suit.
En-route, the plutonium shipment has already moved the
governments of 80 nations to register strong protests. Some
seafarers have felt so strongly that they have put their lives on
the line by forming a flotilla to protest the shipment's passage
through the Tasman Sea. Many thousands more concerned landlubbing
citizens have joined Greenpeace's
virtual flotilla and have emailed protest letters to the
Japanese and British foreign ministers as well as to South Africa's
President Mbeki.
To add to the nuclear industry's woes, in the next week or so
the reject plutonium shipment will sail into the Irish Sea into
possibly the largest peaceful protest that it has encountered. A
flotilla of sailboats from Ireland and Wales, and Greenpeace's
flagship, Rainbow Warrior II, will be there to ensure that the
plutonium shipment will get the world's attention.
Ireland is the country most affected by the UK's nuclear
industry. Sellafield is only 60 miles away from the Irish coast and
has been pumping 2 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste into
the Irish Sea every day, making the Irish Sea the most radioactive
sea in the world. If an accident happens at the plant or with the
shipment, or if there is a terrorist attack, depending on which way
the wind blows, Dublin, Dundalk, Drogheda, Belfast, and vast parts
of Ireland, would be uninhabitable. No wonder the Irish government
is sending a navy patrol boat and a spotter plane to closely
monitor the shipment.
There is a huge global groundswell of anger against this
shipment as it is a potent symbol of the unreliable, uneconomic and
dangerous industry which it services. Let us hope that the people
who so easily risk our lives to turn a profit finally see the
light, cancel further shipments and recognise that only clean, safe
energy will do.