An 'Informational Flotilla' against Sellafield

by Sellafield Employee - BNFL Wed Sep 18, 2002 09:46

Sellafield can be closed. The key is influencing British public opinion through alliances with British anti-nuclear groups and others. Effective and creative use of media is vital.
SELLAFIELD CANNOT BE CLOSED. THE CUMBRIAN PUBLIC AND THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT WOULDN'T ALLOW IT TO. IT IS VITAL TO KEEP THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY TO DEAL WITH GLOBAL WARMING AND FUTURE ENERGY CRISISES.

THE PUBLIC ARE REALISING THAT THE ANTI-NUCLEAR GROUPS ARE NOT FORTHCOMING WITH THE WHOLE TRUTH... ONLY WHAT THEY WISH THE PUBLIC TO HEAR.

At the moment, and from an Irish perspective, it looks like the British nuclear industry is in trouble. British energy is effectively bankrupt and BNFL's biggest MOX customer has suspended their MOX programme 'indefinitely'. But those campaigners dealing with BNFL and the nuclear industry lobbyists directly (Shaun Birnie and Nuala Ahern in particular) say that this is no time to be complacent and that the British nuclear establishment are ready to expand, not disappear.
BRITISH ENERGY IS IN TROUBLE AT THE MOMENT DUE TO A FALL IN ELECTRICITY GENERATION PRICES - BUT THIS WILL CHANGE IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE. THEY HAVE RECEIVED A VERY LARGE 'LOAN' FROM THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO CONTINUE OPERATIONS. I WROTE ON PREVIOUS POSTINGS THAT BNFL WEREN'T DEAD AND THAT NUCLEAR POWER WAS STARTING TO ENJOY A RESURGANCE IN POPULARITY.... MARK MY WORDS - NUCLEAR POWER IS HERE TO STAY.

Shaun Birnie, the main researcher of the BNFL's MOX programme and the guy who uncovered the safety data fraud that caused Japan to return the MOX fuel, says that the nuclear enthusiasts are a 'priesthood' whose belief in nuclear power is not rational. I suspect its something about man becoming God through technological control of the universe, but I could be wrong. Whatever it is it is a very, very dangerous perspective.
AGAIN.. NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH BY ENVIROMENTALISTS. THE SAFETY DATA FIASCO WAS UNCOVERED BY A BNFL EMPLOYEE - NOT SHAUN BIRNIE, MR BIRNIE WENT TO JAPAN TO CAMPAIGN AGAINST MOX ALONG WITH JAPANESE ENVIROMENTALISTS.

MAN CAN NEVER BECOME GOD... THERE IS NO SUCH PERSON/THING. WITHOUT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES YOU MY FRIEND WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO SIT VEGETATING IN FRONT OF A PC RANTING ON ABOUT MAN'S TECHNOLOGICAL MASTERING OF THE UNIVERSE.

However from the perspective of the British public there's no problem. Just ask the next British person you meet whether they are worried about Sellafield or not. The nuclear industry in general and Sellafield in particular hardly register on the British public's radar.
AS I SAID PREVIOUSLY - THEY HAVE SUSSED OUT THE ENVIROMENTALIST LIES.

The key to closing Sellafield and the British nuclear industry is British public opinion. Let me say that again. THE KEY TO CLOSING SELLAFIELD AND THE BRITISH NUCLEAR INDUSTRY IS BRITISH PUBLIC OPINION. To influence public opinion you use media of all sorts. The flotilla was brilliant at this - they provided drama on the high seas to draw the cameras and get people thinking just a little about plutonium. The Barrow protestors brilliantly capitalised on the Flotilla to enhance the media effect.
TRY TELLING MORE LIES TO ACHIEVE YOUR AIMS... YOU CANNOT TELL THE TRUTH AS YOU HAVE BEEN SUSSED. IF YOU CARRY OUT DIRECT OR NON-DIRECT ACTION, THE PUBLIC WILL SEE YOU AS 'BLOODY' NUISANCES THAT SHOULD GET A JOB/LIFE.
FOR THE PUBLIC TO SIT WATCHING EVENTS UNFOLD ON TV THEY CRAVE 'ACTION' NOT BORING SHOTS OF WANKERS FLOATING AROUND IN LITTLE DINGHYS CRYING FOR THE CLOSURE OF THE IRISH SEA TO NUCLEAR CARGO.

Surely then, it makes sense to encourage and develop an 'informational flotilla' - a coalition and network of groups and individuals with the focused aim of closing Sellafield and the British nuclear industry. This is not a pipe dream and its not impossible. Germany did it - there's no reason why Britain cannot announce the phasing out of their nuclear industry and the closure of Sellafield. But British public opinion must demand it.
'INFORMATIONAL FLOTILLA' - GET REAL. GERMANY TRIED TO CLOSE THEIR NUCLEAR INDUSTRY BECAUSE THE 'GREENS' GOT INTO POWER... BUT THE NUCLEAR STATIONS ARE STILL OPERATING AND NEGOTIATING NEW CONTRACTS WITH BNFL.

Whatever we do, its important to keep in mind that (1) British public opinion is key, (2) British anti-nuclear energy is key (its their country, after all) and (3) its all about media.

SORRY MATE - YOU WON'T WIN! THE BRITISH PUBLIC CRAVE MORE AND MORE ENERGY... MORE ENERGY MEANS MORE NUCLEAR POWER - MARK MY WORDS.

by Uncle Sadie Wed Sep 18, 2002 11:10

MAN CAN NEVER BECOME GOD... THERE IS NO SUCH PERSON/THING

This is exactly the kind of thing that Auntie Sadie has repeatedly warned us about. All that free government money has clearly turned British nuclear heads into Godless communists.

Sellafield is surely the spawn of satan.

We will pray++++ for your imortal soul.

by Graham Caswell - Various Wed Sep 18, 2002 11:14 caswell at indigo dot ie

The closure of Sellafield would not threaten jobs in Cumbria. Decommissioning would take decades and, as Tim Hourigan has pointed out in an earlier post, would mean a change in tasks, not unemployment.

Of course the British public, like the Irish public and people everywhere, need a secure, stable supply of electricity that does not involve carbon emissions. But demand does not need to be nearly as high as it is now.

Conservation and energy efficient design can reduce demand substantially. Californian energy demand fell by nearly 20% within a few days after appeals during their electricity crisis last year. A similar conservation effort in Britain would, by itself, eliminate the need for the nuclear industry.

Renewables, particularly wind, have enormous potential - particularly in these islands. A huge amount of Denmark's electricity is now wind generated (I think around 30% but don't have the facts to hand so I may be wrong). There are several ways to level out supply fluctuations such as use of hydrogen cells and plain old fashion redundancy. There's is also huge potential (and security) in micro-generation.

Reflecting the ruthless wisdom of the market British Energy's share price fell again yesterday to value the entire company at only £74.4m (maybe environmentalists could buy it and close it down!). To put this in context, the company's Sizewell B plant alone cost £2.6 billion. The recent £410m handout taxpayer handout is only a small part of it - the subsidies going into the nuclear industry are vast.

Imagine if similar vast sums of money went into researching and producing windmills, user-friendly home bio-mass systems, and other renewable systems - both large scale and micro? Imagine if the playing field were even partly level.

If you internalise the costs of safety, pollution, occasional accidents, and the big ones of decommissioning and long term (and its REALLY long term) storage of highly toxic waste, then nuclear power is the most expensive method of electricity production ever conceived. Shaun Birnie is right -it's continuance is irrational. It survives partly through vested interests, but mostly because of what it symbolises (the power of man in a Godless universe perhaps?).

But the emperor is looking increasingly naked. The British public are not stupid and you can't fool all of them all of the time. 72% now want government subsidies to go towards wind and renewables and NOT to nuclear.

The half life of plutonium is 250,000 years. Recorded human civilisation is only 5,000 years old. We, who live at this time, are creating vast problems for our most remote and distant descendants so that we don't have to bother turning the lights off and can keep a large tank of water piping hot all day. 100,000 years ago we shared this planet with humanoid cousins called Neanderthals. 100,000 years from now will there still be a British university system to turn out the physicists to monitor the waste produced today? Will there still be a Britain?

Nuclear power was one of the greatest megalomaniac disasters in human history and will take generations to retreat from. It's time to end the madness.

by Michael Graaf - eThekwini EcoPeace Wed Sep 18, 2002 12:52 mgraaf at ecopeace dot org dot za Box 657 Durban 4000 South Africa

Now that the W$$D is over, stand by for announcements from the Mbeki regime that it will use more S.A. taxpayers' money to fund the new wave of reactor technology - the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor. Until now the project was at a stage of "feasibility study" with multinational partners (BNFL withdrew due to its crisis but Mitsubishi stepped in) in the consortium along with S.A. parastatals. Next will be a pilot reactor, after which Escom (S.A. energy parastatal well-known for disconnecting the poor) would be willing to buy the first ten production models.

What a wank.

by elaine rose Mon Nov 29, 2004 15:18

This is a very simplistic view of human activities and the issue of human sustainability. I suggest you sit and read many environmental science texts because i feel you must be unaware of all the issues surrounding the nuclear industry to make such a layman remark. As for dismissing environmental arguements with commemts like "get a llife/job"- this i low, you clearly have no understanding here. As an environmental scientist at britain's top department im fairly positive about my life and future job prospects. You are very nieve if you dismiss every environmental issue, that or you lack any compasion for humans and all other species this world is supposed to sustain! Get knowledge, dont be so hot headed- think things through rationally, your wellbeing and the wellbeing of your future family depends on this! Arogence has never made the world a better place!!