End the nuclear age

Greenpeace has always fought - and will continue to fight - vigorously against nuclear power because it is an unacceptable risk to the environment and to humanity. The only solution is to halt the expansion of all nuclear power, and for the shutdown of existing plants.

Henk Haazen at the helm of Tiama, leading the nuclear free Tasman flotilla out to sea where they will meet up with other Greenpeace boats to protest over plutonium being shipped through the Pacific Ocean.

Nuclear power is never safe, and the use of nuclear technology has never been 'peaceful'. Internationally, Greenpeace has always fought - and will continue to fight - vigorously against nuclear power because it is an unacceptable risk to the environment and to humanity.

The only solution is to halt the expansion of all nuclear power, and for the shutdown of existing plants.

We are campaigning to end the use of nuclear power and its subsequent reprocessing, transporting and dumping of toxic waste.

To counter the use of nuclear power we want:

  • The adoption of universal best practice support schemes encouraging renewable energy uptake like wind
  • Levelling the playing field by removing massive subsidies to the fossil and nuclear fuel industries
  • Adopting a host of legally enforceable mechanisms to secure and accelerate a market share for renewable energy particularly in industrialised and emerging economies
  • Energy efficiency and conservation to curb ever-increasing demand

Greenpeace also wants total disarmament of nuclear weapons, and we'll always protest against, and endeavour to stop, nuclear weapons testing.

We'll also always campaign to keep New Zealand Nuclear Free!

Nuclear power is not a solution to climate change

Nuclear power remains dangerous, polluting, expensive and non-renewable. More nuclear power means more problems. It also means less resources invested in real solutions to growing energy demands.

Renewable energies, on the other hand, have truly limitless sources, can be more easily deployed in remote, underdeveloped regions, present absolutely no risk to global security and are environmentally friendly.

Nuclear power is not a solution to climate change. We need clean, renewable energy to power our future - read more.

Go to the Climate Change section to learn why we're acting to stop dirty energy (including nuclear) and promoting clean energy.

Nuclear legacy

The nuclear age began in July 1945 when the US tested their first nuclear bomb near Alamogordo, New Mexico. A few years later, in 1953, President Eisenhower launched his "Atoms for Peace" Programme at the United Nations amid a wave of unbridled atomic optimism. However, the use of nuclear power has never been "peaceful".

Nuclear installations, whether military or civil, have a sad record of accidents and incidents, shrouded in cover-ups, lies and misinformation. The generation of electricity in nuclear reactors produces substances than can be used for the fabrication of nuclear weapons. The dangers associated with the handling of weapons-useable nuclear substances require a high level of security and secrecy even in democratic countries.

Every part of the nuclear industry has unacceptable risks, from uranium mining to energy production to the unsolved problem of transporting and storing radioactive waste. Radiation released into the environment has led to the contamination of soil, air, rivers and oceans; causing cancer and other diseases in people.

Moreover, nuclear energy has never been economic, despite the massive state subsidies it has received for decades. Even now funding still pours into the nuclear sector at the expense of renewable resources like solar or wind energy.

Over half a century after Eisenhower's speech, the planet is left with the legacy of nuclear waste, which will be radioactive for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. The only logical solution is to close down the nuclear industry and stop creating the risk and the waste.

The latest updates

 

Message of Peace from Hiroshima – 69 years on, peace is still the best self-defense

Blog entry by Daisuke Miyachi | August 7, 2014

Greenpeace believes that peace is the best self-defense, and that war is the biggest threat to the environment. This story is a call for peace by Daisuke Miyachi of Greenpeace Japan. Daisuke is from Hiroshima and his grandmother was...

Will a new lawsuit finally give some justice to the victims of Fukushima?

Blog entry by Justin McKeating | February 4, 2014

A joint lawsuit filed in Tokyo this week offers a glimmer of hope that those responsible for the Fukushima disaster might finally face justice … The 1,415 plaintiffs, including 38   Fukushima   residents and 357 people from...

2013: The Year In Photos

Blog entry by Feature Story | January 6, 2014

The year 2013 has been very eventful for Greenpeace on all points of the compass. Whether it be turning around a cargo container filled with fin whale meat in Hamburg, getting the palm oil industry to think twice about deforestation in...

Choices, voices and being heard

Blog entry by Arin de Hoog | August 23, 2013

Every day we have to make choices. For many, the choice is whether or not to do something to protect our environment. For a few of us, there is no choice at all. We do what we have to do to tell the world that there are wrongs that...

Fukushima crisis rolls on as TEPCO admits radiation leaks

Blog entry by Justin McKeating | July 25, 2013

TEPCO, the owner of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, has admitted that the damaged reactors are leaking highly toxic radioactive contamination into the Pacific Ocean – confirming what many of us had feared for some time.

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