Skip Navigation | HOME | UK Indymedia | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

manchester Indymedia

Nuclear Power Trashing the Climate

marianne birkby | 15.08.2009 12:42 | Analysis | Climate Chaos | Energy Crisis | World

Nuclear Power produces EMISSIONS MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN CO2 - not to mention nearly 500,000 tonnes of Co2 last year from Sellafield's gas plant. The barrage of pro nuke propaganda is aiming to bounce the country into nuclear new build. MP for Copeland Jamie Reed has been handsomely rewarded for consistently lying to Parliament about "homegrown, climate friendly and safe" nuclear power.


The Joker
The Joker


Yesterday Jamie Reed was named as the Government's brand new deputy minister for the North West.

The Nuclear Fuel cycle produces greenhouse gases thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Following a Freedom of Information request from Radiation Free Lakeland it has come to light that Sellafield (nolonger producing electricity) quadrupled its emissions of
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from the period 2007 to 2008. HFC’s are hundreds and can be thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

The reporting threshold is 100kg but Sellafield produced over 4 times this
amount in 2008 alone.

The Government's 'Energy Security' report urging new nuclear build published by former energy
minister Malcolm Wicks proclaims new nuclear build would “boost energy security” and “tackle
climate change.” Regarding “energy security,” the known UK resource of uranium is on Orkney where the Orcadians successfully won a battle in the 1970’s to keep their uranium safely in the ground. Regarding climate change, Malcolm Wicks' report misleads the public into believing that nuclear power does not produce Green House Gases. This assertion is clearly
untrue.

Far from being the saviour of planet Earth it was nuclear power that first blew a hole in the ozone layer. Apart from hydrofluorocarbons and other potent greenhouse gas emissions, the nuclear cycle absolutely relies on the production of chemicals such as nitric acid in large quantities. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is produced by nitric acid production and is not only 310 times more powerful than CO2 but it lasts over 100 years in the troposphere.

According to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield is home to the most dangerous concoction of tens of millions of gallons of nitric acid (1086.7 m3) in High Level Liquid Waste tanks holding “nitric acid solution containing fission products, some actinides and some solids”.

Fossil fuel and the internal combustion engine has done much to trash the environment but fossil fuel is well and truly trumped by nuclear power at the top of the polluting industrial food chain and reliant on all other polluters for its existence. For instance, Sellafield spent £30 million last year on gas at the nearby “Fellside” gas plant built at the nuclear industry’s behest to insure “security of supply” for a nuclear plant that no longer produces electricity.

A spokesperson for Radiation Free Lakeland said “Malcolm Wicks' dodgy dossier is in the same spirit as the dodgy dossier presented as an excuse for the Iraq ‘war’. Never mind the known link between nuclear power plants and cancers, it is obvious that nuclear power is neither “home grown” or “climate friendly, ” to pretend otherwise is not only smoke and mirrors but the most vicious confidence trick imaginable.


Notes:

HFC’s are hundreds and can be thousands of times more powerful than carbon
dioxide.
 http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/montreal-protocol/



Some estimates suggest that increases in HFC use could overwhelm all the
planned cuts in CO2 emissions by 2040, releasing the equivalent of
hundreds of gigatonnes of CO2.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/04/obama-hfc-carbon-climate

Following a Freedom of Information request from Radiation Free Lakeland it
has come to light that Sellafield (no longer producing electricity)
quadrupled its emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from the period 2007
to 2008
10689349 - initial NDA response
extract: Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs):
2007: 176kg (Figure from Magnox, Thorp and FCHP).
2008: 431kg (Figure from Magnox, Thorp and FCHP).
the reporting threshold for HFCs is 100kg.

Energy Security Paper backs Dash for Homegrown Energy
 http://www.malcolmwicks.org.uk/energy


In Feb '77, the Orkney Islands Council had unanimously rejected an
application from the SSEB for permission to begin uranium prospecting.
 http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/index.html?http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/b5/uranium.html


Nuclear Power first blew a hole in the ozone layer
“In July 1962 NASA announced that high altitude nuclear tests had created
a new radiation belt 750 miles deep, girdling the earth. …………military
tests have massively contributed to ozone depletion and global warming”
Dr Rosalie Bertell - Planet Earth the Latest Weapon of War- The
Women's Press, London, 2000.


Nuclear cycle absolutely relies on the production of chemicals
The Nuclear Fuel Cycle – Royal Society of Chemistry
 http://www.rsc.org/images/essay7_tcm18-17769.pdf
 http://www.2oc.co.uk/faqs.htm


Sellafield is home to the most dangerous concoction of tens of millions of
gallons of nitric acid (1086.7 m3) in High Level Liquid Waste tanks
holding “nitric acid solution containing fission products, some actinides
and some solids”.
 http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:Vj4Kh22FKlYJ:www.nda.gov.uk/ukinventory/documents/Waste_Stream_Data_Sheets/Individual_WSDS/Sellafield_NDA/loader.cfm%3FcsModule%3Dsecurity/getfile%26PageID%3D3091+nitric+acid+magnox&hl=en


Known link between nuclear power plants and cancers
 http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/radiation_link_to_death_of_campaigner_1_591153?referrerPath=home/vote_2_3708
 http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/marianne-birkby/2009/07/30/dodging-the-evidence-leukemias-and-nuclear-power-plants


marianne birkby
- e-mail: rafl@mariannebirkby.plus.com
- Homepage: http://web.mac.com/mariannebirkby1/iWeb/Radiation%20Free%20Lakeland/Radiation%20Free%20Lakeland.html

Download this article in pdf format >>

Email this article to someone >>

Submit an addition or make a quick comment on this article >>

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Nuclear Power: A Fossil Fuel Sink NOT an Energy Source — Chris

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Manchester Topics

Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Manchester Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Manchester Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Manchester Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Manchester Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Manchester Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Manchester Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Manchester Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Manchester Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Languages

english

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech