829 NUO-NŬ-KÈ（No Nuke）Action Alert,Taiwan

Say No to Nuke!!

Hand in hand, rock down the power plant!

Where:

Ren-He Matsu Temple, Audi Village, Gong-Liao Township, Taipei County, Taiwan.

When: 2010\08\29 13:00~19:00

What:

1. Rock concert featuring anti-nuclear singers and bands from Taiwan and Japan.

2. Farmer’s market selling local farm products. Anti-nuclear information available.

3. Human chain demonstration （Starts@4PM from Ren-He Matsu Temple）

It has been a major social controversy for over 20 years. The 4^th Nuclear Power Plant in Gong-Liao Township, Taipei county, sited right next to the beautiful Fu-Long beach , has long been a nightmare to people living in Gong-Liao, as well as everyone who is concerned about the safety and unjustness of nuclear power in Taiwan.

Under the pressure of government policy , Tai-Power Company claimed publicly to commercially run the NPP4 by the end of this year. However, from the beginning of this year, there have been several cases of accident revealing serious safety issue in the power plant. There’s no reason that people in Gong-Liao should take the risk of such underlying danger!

Last year, the NUO-NU-KE campaign team launched a series of activities such as rock concert and outdoor film screening to bring about public attention .This year , with the participation of RULES and several creative artists and activists, we aim at different forms of protest to advocate anti-nuclear position, calling for nuclear-free alternatives.

We invite everyone who is concerned about environment issue to gather together , stand by the local people, shout our appeal out loud .No more nuclear-related industry! Stop filling nuclear fuel rods!!

Join Us NOW!!

What is Nuo-Nu-Ke?

It is actually 「No Nuke」 being directly pronounced in Mandarin Chinese tone. Literally, it also refers to a group of people who are very determined to say no to nuclear power.

Why human chain?

On 4^th April,2010, over 100,000 activists gathered in Northern Germany to build a human chain stretching 120KM to protest against the nuclear power program in Germany . It was the biggest anti-nuclear protest in Germany since the 1980’s, with participants from every aspects of the society.

We hope to bring about people’s attention through this kind of mobilization. Let’s go hand-in-hand and make non-nuclear future come true!!

Organizers: Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, Rules

Co-organizers: Green Party Taiwan, Taiwan Environment Protection Alliance（others to be announced）

Taiwan 829 nonuke video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm-CSFmhqbo&fmt=37

諾努客NO NUKES

http://taiwannonuke.blogspot.com/

Statement from the 2nd Congress of the Global Young Greens (GYG)

Go For GREEN Energy~No More Nuclear Power Energy~

We, the Global Young Greens (GYG) recommend that our members promote the sharing of information concerning  nuclear power in each country and strengthen the network with a view to stopping all existing and proposed nuclear power plants, uranium mining and nuclear waste disposal in the world.

We oppose nuclear power plants because nuclear power plants are not GREEN.

Nuclear power plants are not a solution to climate change. It is dangerous to have nuclear power plants in regions with significant risk of earthquakes.

There is no realistic solution to the disposal of spent nuclear fuel.  

The nuclear fuel cycle of uranium digging, reprocessing to derive plutonium and high level nuclear waste disposal affects human health in communities and to workers by the risk of radio active exposure.

GYG support the anti-nuclear movements in every country, especially Germany, Japan and Taiwan. We support:

• the “Anti Atom Demo” in Berlin on 18 Sep. 2010 which will protest government’s postponing the phase-out of nuclear power,
• “STOP KAMINOSEKI” in which many local residents have been opposing the construction of a nuclear power plant for 27 years in Japan and
• “NO NUKE 2010” action in Taiwan, which protest government’s speeding up the construction of a 4th nuclear power plant to celebrate the 100th National Day.

The expansion of nuclear power plants MUST BE STOPPED NOW

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The expansion of nuclear power plants MUST BE STOPPED NOW

August 29 2010 is First UN International Day Against Nuclear Tests

The 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 29 August as the International Day against Nuclear Tests through the unanimous adoption of its resolution 64/35 on 2 December 2009.   The Day is meant to galvanize the efforts of the United Nations, Member States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, youth networks and the media in informing, educating and advocating the necessity of banning nuclear tests as a valuable step to achieving a safer world.   The Preamble of the resolution emphasizes “that every effort should be made to end nuclear tests in order to avert devastating and harmful effects on the lives and health of people …and, that the end of nuclear tests is one of the key means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.”

Read the full article here: http://www.un.org/en/events/againstnucleartestsday/

Taipei Times: Environmentalists take aim at nuclear industry

People in a busy shopping district in Taipei yesterday afternoon had a shock when they saw what looked like Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) employees in full protective suits moving a yellow barrel with a radiation hazard sign and the words “radioactive waste” on it.

In reality, it was a skit by environmentalists to raise public awareness of the dangers of nuclear energy. 

Read the full article here: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2010/08/08/2003479871

Areva: the first nuclear victim of the recession, but will it be alone?

(Source: Datamonitor) French nuclear energy company Areva has struggled to expand its portfolio in recent years, as have a number of its competitors. Of all reactors being built by 2015, Areva will be responsible for none, while EDF will only be responsible for one. Asian companies may be gaining market share, but this does not dispel the possibility that this is just the beginning of a downturn in the industry.

In some respects, it should come as no surprise that Asian companies have taken the helm. The West suffered more from the recession than Asia, making financing far harder to obtain, and nowhere is financing more important than in the nuclear industry. Reactors take 10 years to build, with no return on investment (ROI) before this point. Although nuclear power is an excellent baseload fuel, it remains a very risky investment.

In a recent tender in Abu Dhabi between Areva/EDF and Korea Electric Power Company (KEPCO), it was KEPCO's cheaper reactor design that won. This highlights a further challenge for the industry. Not only do companies need to find willing investors, they have to quote prices that some believe are unrealistic for a safe reactor.

Read the full article here: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4387823#

Vietnam denies US nuclear negotiations

HANOI: Vietnam said on Friday that it had not yet begun negotiating with the United States on sharing nuclear fuel and technology, despite Washington saying that talks were ongoing. “Vietnam and the United States have not yet carried out negotiations on peaceful uses of nuclear energy agreement,” foreign ministry spokesman Nguyen Phuong Nga said. Washington said on Thursday that it was in talks with its former Cold War foe over civilian nuclear technology, but declined to say whether Hanoi would be allowed to enrich its own uranium, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. 
Read full article here: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/world/23315-vietnam-denies-us-nuclear-negotiations

MANILA, Philippines—The Aquino administration has permanently shelved plans to rehabilitate and operate the mothballed 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, given the social complexity and safety concerns hounding it.
“BNPP is not an option anymore,” said Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras at a news briefing Tuesday.

Almendras said, however, that nuclear energy remains an option in the Energy Reform Agenda that the department is now drafting.

“We are in the process of studying it. We are not closed to it and we are evaluating it,” he said, adding: "We have been told that there have been significant technological advancements relative to safety. They are now talking about 50-megawatt nuclear power plants being equally economically viable as the really large ones.”

Aside from energy security, the energy chief added that one of the factors driving the government to consider nuclear power is the fact that it can help bring down energy prices in the Philippines in the long-run, when oil prices are expected to have grown much more.

Already, a number of local government units have expressed willingness to host such a nuclear facility, according to Almendras.

Read the full article here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100727-283462/Govt-puts-foot-down-on-Bataan-nuke-plant

Petition Request about Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plants in JAPAN

We call upon the immediate stop of Hamaoka nuclear
power plants. The Great Tokai Earthquake is coming
directly below them!

http://www.geocities.jp/genpatusinsai/images/20040817Eng.PDF

Nuclear Related Activities in Burma

The Democratic Voice of Burma has been accumulating information about a nuclear program in Burma for years, but recently they have come across a source with truly extraordinary information. He worked in special factories making prototype components for missile and nuclear programs. Like the Israeli technician, Mordecai Vanunu, he has brought hundreds of color photographs of the activities inside these factories. DVB has asked us to organize this information and analyze what it means. The goal of this report is to report our findings to DVB in support of their documentary film on Al Jazeera. We are also providing a great deal of raw data for the nonproliferation community to assess.
Burma is one of the world’s most repressive regimes. It is ruled by a junta of generals who have been in power for decades. These generals seem to have no political philosophy, such as socialism or fascism, only pure simple greed. To remain in power they depend on a brutal secret police and suspension of most human rights. With the passage of time they seek more ways to hang onto power as their wealth grows ever larger and the dissatisfaction of the population threatens to oust them.
There are many signs that Burma looks to maintain power by having military power that would make foreign intervention very painful for an aggressor. The power may not be necessarily aimed at aggression by Burma on its neighbors; rather it is a defensive power that signals its neighbors to leave them alone. The model for this is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK, commonly known as North Korea. North Korea is too poor to threaten anyone except its immediate neighbors but its possession of nuclear weapons inhibits any outside intervention in its repressive regime.

Read the full article here: http://www.dvb.no/burmas-nuclear-ambitions-dvb-reports
Watch it in youtube at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grw9N4UdCoQ&feature=player_embedded

INCOMING PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT NOYNOY AQUINO URGED TO REVIVE BATAAN NUCLEAR PLANT

THE NUCLEAR LOBBY HAS BEGAN IN THE PHILIPPINE! Read this article below. Partido Kalikasan strongly opposes the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plants (BNPP) in the Philippines. Solidarity statements from other Greens in the region are most welcome.

http://ph.promo.yahoo.com/purple-thumb/editors-log-article?blogid=editors_log&postid=374&viewPost=1

MORONG, BATAAN―Incoming president Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III should consider nuclear energy as a viable solution to meet growing energy demands and help alleviate fears of a power crisis, according to officials from the power industry.

Aquino's openness to adopting nuclear technology could pave the way for the inclusion of nuclear energy in the country's “energy generation mix” to prevent power shortages when the supply of fossil fuels―the country's primary source of electricity and energy―runs out in the next four decades, says Dennis Gana, head of corporate communications at National Power Corp. (Napocor).

“Not only is Napocor pushing for the opening of BNPP, but especially the adoption of nuclear energy as a long term source of power,” Gana points out.

“Today, we have been suffering from energy generation deficiencies in Mindanao and Visayas, and even in Luzon the supply is very thin. Nuclear energy is eyed as an option to improve the generation mix and the commissioning of BNPP (Bataan Nuclear Power Plant), which was never operated as a commercial power plant,” he says.

The plant has a capacity of 620 megawatts of power, which could prevent the six-hour power shortages in the Luzon-Visayas grid or five percent of the country’s energy requirement in the country, adds Gana.

Located in Morong, the BNPP was built under the late former president Ferdinand Marcos in response to the oil crisis during the 1970s. The plant costs P2.2 billion to build. After the 1986 Edsa Revolt, the late former president Corazon Aquino mothballed the plant due to overpricing and safety issues, later disproved by international experts.

The Interagency Core Group on Nuclear Energy, formed by Department of Energy and the Department of Science and Technology, will present to Sen. Aquino a report on the status of the nuclear energy adoption in the Asian region.

“We are now preparing the report that will address issues related to BNPP and some proposals which can be used in deciding whether to reopen the plant, build a new plant and to keep their options open in terms of going nuclear,” says Gana.

As of 2007, there are 111 nuclear reactors in Asia Pacific including those in China, India, Japan, South Korea. Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia arte finalizing plans to build nuclear plants, says Mauro Marcelo, Napocor asset preservation head.

“We are surrounded by countries with nuclear power plants. Kahit hindi tayo magtayo maaapektuhan tayo,” says Marcelo, who was part of the team that conducted functional test of the BNPP in 1984, when it generated 5MW from the heat of reactor pumps.

By opening BNPP, the country would be able to utilize its $2.3 billion loan in the plant, which was paid fully only in 2007 out of taxpayer's money, says Gana.

Under the bill filed by Pangasinan Representative Mark Cojuangco, the rehabilitation of BNPP, over the next four or five years, would cost $1 billion, according to a study by Korean Electric Corp. (Kepco).

This would include refurbishments including the update of manual dials to digital controls, which would still be relatively cheaper than the $5-$6 billion required to build a new plant in the next 15 years.

“We already have the plant here which we paid for and it offers us an option to have a secure and reliable energy source,” says Napocor’s Marcelo.

“There are no firm plans on how to source the fund. But the pending Congress bill by Cojuangco included a budget provision. So if this bill is passed into law, the provision will be included. In another scenario, the most probable source would be investors and the Department of Finance (DoF) can help source the funds since the facility is government-run,” says Gana.

The facility is maintained and preserved at a cost of P40 million, especially for the generator, pipes, gears and controls. The cost would be shouldered by the DoF soon, he adds.