Radiation Free Lakeland is supporting the international "Don’t nuke the climate!" action day.

Delegates at the opening of the major summit on climate change in Copenhagen were greeted with a large banner imploring them “Don’t nuke the climate.”

As a follow-up a Christmas greeting has been sent to Ed Miliband Minister for Energy with the message “Nuclear is a Titanic 'solution' to climate change ...... with less lifeboats. Don’t Nuke the Climate!”

Campaigners in Cumbria and across the world say that the actual experience of nuclear countries is that nuclear power does not stop the need for electricity from fossil fuels and it replaces renewables, not oil or coal, in the energy mix.

The evidence shows that to go nuclear is to increase use of fossil fuel.  Saying No to nuclear is the essential first step in giving the human race a viable future.

Radiation Free Lakeland is supporting the international "Don’t nuke the climate!" action day, coordinated by the French Network for Nuclear Phase-out and includes more than 2300 organisations in 42 countries.   A
RFL claim that the Department of Energy and Climate Change have made the new build consultation documents deliberately confusing and time consuming.

They say just ring DECC, write a letter/postcard - SAY NO TO NEW BUILD IN YOUR AREA or write to:
Robin Clarke, OPM, 252b Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8XG.

email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Or the time consuming, deliberately difficlult, online and printable form  can be found at : www.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk

Or telephone the Department of Energy and Climate Change:
Tel: 0300 060 4000

Marianne Birkby, for Radiation Free Lakeland, says: “The skeletons in the nuclear cupboard are stacking up while the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change roadshow schmoozes its way around the country promoting new build while ‘consulting’ the public.

“Skeleton no 1 –Remember the Redfern Inquiry into the taking  of body parts from radioactively-contaminated workers

"Radiation Free Lakeland has been contacted by many people anxious to know when the findings of this inquiry will be revealed so that justice and closure can take place.

“That thousands of dead nuclear workers' (and ‘control’ groups)  organs were taken  without consent, for secret research into radiation poisoning was and is morally unacceptable. The government has put the Redfern Inquiry "on hold" indefinitely.

“Skeleton no 2 - In 2003, the Sellafield plant ceased generating electricity. Nuclear plants and associated wastes are unique in requiring a secure supply of energy to the sites long after the operational life of the plant.

“In other words, power plants are necessary to feed the power plants to prevent an ‘incident’ for example a loss of coolant to the wastes.

“Following freedom of information requests we now know £30M of gas has been bought in every year since Sellafield stopped generating electricity. This has produced nearly 4 million tonnes of CO2.  Hardly carbon free.

“Skeleton no 3. Last year the KiKK report commissioned by the German government, revealed that children under five who live within 5 km of a nuclear power plant, have twice the risk of suffering from the blood cancer leukaemia.

“Following the Kikk report no politician in Germany would  consider suggesting  building new nuclear plants and public opinion in Germany hasso galvanized against nuclear that  50,000 people marched through the streets of Berlin to object to an extension of the life of existing nuclear power plants – never mind new build. 

“Meanwhile here in nuclear brainwashed Britain the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) have put their response to the Kikk report on hold.

“While all these skeletons are pushed in the cupboard the British nuclear juggernaught rolls on with lies and misinformation able to take root and flourish.  

“The nuclear industry will have its emperors new coat on again on the 10th December at the University of Cumbria while promoting itself as the ‘solution’ at the  Climate Change Seminar – “A Global Challenge: Taking action for Cumbria”

Last Friday on 4th December Sellafield  Ltd was fined £75,000 after two workers ingested radioactive materials at the nuclear plant. The previous Saturday on the 28th November the Head of Nuclear Developments, Peter McDonald ( Dept of Energy and Climate Change) stood up in Lancaster during the ‘consultation’ on new build at Heysham and said “there is no causal link between radiation and diseases.” 

Marianne Birkby says: “This is the most staggering misrepresentation of the truth.  It is equivalent to saying there is no
causal link between asbestos and asbestosis.

“Technically that is true – the causal link has not been found but we know by all the evidence that asbestos causes asbestosis in the same way that all the evidence indicates that radiation is linked to corruption of DNA leading to diseases.”

Demonstrators, who were in Copenhagen today to put up the banner said: “Nuclear energy will not prevent climate change! Climate change and its impacts are now undeniable.

“Leaders from the whole world will have to reach a new climate agreement during the December 2009 Copenhagen Summit.

“Urgent measures must be taken to achieve a massive reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions: our future depends on it!

“Under the current Kyoto Protocol, nuclear energy is rightly excluded from the possible solutions available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Yet the nuclear industry, in collaboration with certain countries, is pushing for this dangerous and polluting technology to be included in the next climate agreement as a "clean" technology.

“The nuclear industry would then be able to take advantage of significant public investments… at the expense of real solutions! “Such disingenuous strategy would mean losing the fight against climate change and promoting the global expansion of the nuclear industry, with its associated risks.

“In Copenhagen, a huge unitary demonstration will take place to challenge the political leaders gathered for the Climate Summit.

“Let’s unleash our creativity and multiply grassroots actions to denounce the nuclear aberration, a dangerous, expensive and counterproductive industrial option.

“Let’s demand that the investments be massively dedicated to the true solutions to climate change : energy efficiency, energy saving, renewable energies, fighting deforestation, sustainable farming, economic re-localisation.”

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