Countering Capenhurst – June 2019

An open letter to URENCO upon the opening of new Capenhurst Tailings facility.

It has just been announced the Urenco are opening their new £1 Billion, and 2 years late, tailing plant in June.

We will be producing an open statement about this facility,which will be read outside of the Capenhurst plant on Saturday June 22nd.

More details will be published about this in the next couple of weeks.

Capenhurst Pamphlet online.

Copies of the CCC pamphlet are both available in print, and online.

Capenhurst in the news.

What They Say.

As ever we note that the URENCO website is way behind in telling us anything about what is going on at the plant. So we have to keep looking for information about both the Company and their plants from other sources.

However that said, it is still worth while taking a look at the URENCO website, even if it is full of corporate spin.

More new flasks.

It was reported in the April edition of the Railway Magazine, that W H Davis has just handed over eight new nukiller waste flasks to DRS.

That is on top of the 10 new ones which were reported about during 2014.

What we don’t know is just how many of these flasks are in use at any one time.

DRS Open Day demonstration.

DRS – The Nukiller waste train company has just announced it’s open day, which will be on July 20th.

We will be outside once more, leafleting about the dangers which come from moving high radioactive waste through out city centres.

More details to follow in the next few weeks.

URENCO at 50

Urenco was founded with the Treaty of Almelo on the 4th of March 1970.

New year we will be joining with others to mark 50 years since it was signed.

For more details – watch this space.

Weekly vigils outside London Japanese Embassy.

Every Friday [work day] members of Kick Nuclear and JAN UK hold a vigil outside the Japanese Embassy on Piccadilly in London to remember Fukushima and to protest against nuclear power.

The vigil begins at 10:00am GMT to coincide with the vigils held in Tokyo at 6:00pm JST, outside the Prime Minister’s residence and outside the Diet (Parliamentary) building. These two vigils are attended by hundreds of people. Dozens more such vigils are held across Japan, in the USA and in other parts of the world.

At noon, the London vigil moves to outside the London office of Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company), the company in charge of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

These weekly vigils first started during august of 2012.

Read outside of the London Japanese Embassy and TEPCO on 31st May 2019.

‘ Dear Anti-Nuclear Power/Weapon activists, friends and supporters,

The Japanese Government announced May 24 that it plans to arrange an international meeting to consider how to dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste. 

Tokyo is set to get approval for the plan at the Group of 20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth scheduled for mid-June in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, and aims to launch the first roundtable this autumn.

Nuclear waste is a problem for all countries operating nuclear power plants, and the Japan-backed international summit on cooperation to dispose of it will be a world first. Participating nations are expected to aim for improved cooperation and formulation of an international “basic strategy” on dealing with radioactive waste.

High-level nuclear refuse is usually “vitrified” — mixed with melted glass and solidified — before deposited in an underground storage facility. Japan’s own disposal plans call for holding the waste for 30-50 years to cool it before burying it in stable rock formations at least 300 meters below ground. Finland is already building a major underground disposal site, while its neighbor Sweden is conducting a safety evaluation at the location of its own planned facility. However, there is no precedent for actually operating such an installation, and Japan has not yet even begun the survey process to choose a site.

The Japanese government will thus use the June 15-16 G-20 environment and energy summit meeting to urge member nations to cooperate on realistic solutions. Specifically, Japan will press nations with advanced nuclear disposal technology including those in Europe to share their know-how, and also promote international collaboration among research facilities and staff exchanges.

The international roundtable will put together a collection of proposals on a basic nuclear waste disposal cooperation strategy and how to explain the issue to the citizens of member nations.

We have to ask the following questions to the Japanese government and member countries:-

  1. All types of nuclear wastes are going to be cooled in the pool of water for more than 30 years and then stored in containers?
  2. These nuclear wastes are controlled by the private companies for at least 300 years? Which company can last 300 years?
  3. After 300 years and for 100,000 years, who is going to control these nuclear wastes?
  4. Decommissioning the nuclear plant takes how many years? 40-50 years?
  5. Who is going to cover all costs?
  6. Where is the final disposal sites for the spent fuel wastes?
  7. Why the government is reluctant to give up the nuclear power which costs so much and needs a very very long term control?

With strong solidarity with the Japanese Anti-Nuclear movements, which mobilised 10,000 demonstrators in Tokyo on 20th March 2019 and every Friday evening Anti-Nuclear Power action in front of the Prime Minister’s official residence and the Diat in Tokyo, we, the Japanese Against Nuclear-UK, Kick nuclear and CND are planning to organise the monthly vigil and leafleting including Statement-Read-Out form 11:30 AM. After handing a copy of the statement to the embassy, we will move to the TEPPCO office (14-18 Holborn near Chancery Lane Tube station). A copy of the statement will be posted to TEPCO. We will be there during 13:00-13:45 PM.’

2 thoughts on “Countering Capenhurst – June 2019”

  1. Is is awful to open this plant really as there is no need to process this Hex – surely it would be better not to reprocess Uranium at all – as we know it could cause more uranium needing to be then processed buried or dealt with and it is all highly dangerous and stupid. I hope the site is never opened and that people move away from this business before it is all too late for them and us. On top of that I think they should be focusing on green electricity production which we know we are perfectly capable of instead of further allegiances and negotiations and schemes. Quite frankly they line their pockets any old way – what a dangerous thing nuclear is as well -does nobody care for people and for their health and for their lives and for their safety? Does anyone care about people ? Or is it just routines/] – I hope they are thoroughly ashamed of themselves – they should be. And the curse this Capenhurst could bring what a ridiculous thing. I think everyone agrees but is too busy and stressed to join protests and read these developments bad developments depress us all. Well done that Close Capenhurst are trying to deal with this stuff and I hope people do listen. Thanks.

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