30 May 2007 - Olkiluoto,
Finland — On Monday, activists blockaded
the entrance to the Olkiluoto nuclear plant
construction site - briefly shutting down
a project already massively over budget
and plagued by more than one thousand reported
breaches of safety standards.
Update (31 May): The EU Energy Commissioner
is prepared to meet with Greenpeace during
his visit to the nuclear reactor Olkiluoto
3 construction site tomorrow.
Update (1 June): We met with the EU Energy
Commission today, and he agreed there should
be more transparency and openness. The last
three activists have come down and are safe.
(read more)
Police arrested the activists in the blockade,
but six others went into the site and climbed
80 metres up the highest construction crane.
They stayed there over night, through the
next day and through a second chilly night
with temperatures dropping into the low
teens (Centigrade).
Today, three of the activist (2 from the
UK, 1 from France) made the long climb down,
leaving their supplies for the three Finnish
activists remaining on the crane. These
last activists will try to hold out at least
until Friday when the EU Energy Commissioner,
Andris Piebalgs, is scheduled to visit.
“Safety rules are being bent to save time
and money, said Lauri Myllyvirta”, one of
the activists occupying the crane. “This
is completely unacceptable for a nuclear
power project. An evaluation is urgently
needed so that the myth of cheap and safe
nuclear energy is dispersed. Nuclear is
not and cannot be a solution to the threat
of climate change”, he continued.
Police are keeping journalists out of what
is supposedly a "secure" area
- preventing them from taking photos of
the activists on the crane. But two other
activists walked in and wandered around
the construction site for hours.
What's wrong at Olkiluto
It's massively behind schedule. Construction
that was supposed to take four years will
now take at least six.
It's massively over budget. The original
cost estimate was 2.5 billion euros. Now
it's expected to top 4 billion euros.
The project was supposed to require no
public subsidies. In reality it is reliant
on an export guarantee financed by French
taxpayers and a dirt-cheap loan from public
banks.
The original quality requirements weren't
being met - so they were relaxed. The consequences
of a faulty reactor being put into service
could be disastrous.
And besides all that, nuclear power is
a nightmare of problems in general. There's
no proven solution to the piles of waste,
encouraging more countries to use nuclear
power leads to nuclear weapons proliferation,
the plants are ready made terrorist targets...
Nuclear is a costly and dangerous distraction
from real solutions to climate change like
saving energy and renewable energy. In Finland,
for example, energy consumption by new buildings
can be cut by more than 70 percent.
That's why construction should stop now
- before any more money and time is wasted.
The responsible company, Teollisuuden Voima
Oy, should also publish all 1,000+ quality
problems, and repay the state aid it has
received for the reactors.
+ More
Blue planet - Big Blue March for the whales
28 May 2007 - International — People took
to the streets in more than 50 locations
around the world for the Big Blue March,
voicing their support for the world's whales,
and calling for an end to commercial whaling.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC)
opens in Anchorage, Alaska on the 28th May,
and more than 70 nations will attend, to
discuss the fate of whales throughout our
oceans.
There were Big Blue Marches all over the
world - in New Zealand and Australia, India,
Argentina, Ecuador, Netherlands, Peru, Spain,
USA, UK, France, Portugal, Columbia, Venezuela,
Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile,
Mexico, Morocco, Romania Sweden, Singapore,
Turkey - the list goes on and on!
Over the last week or so, a "migrating
human whale" has been making its way
up America's west coast - from Mexico to
Canada and finally to Alaska. After a Big
Blue parade to Anchorage's Captain Cook
Hotel - venue for the IWC - Greenpeace supporters
took the green Alaskan grass to form a human
humpback whale.
+ More
Break through for the deep-sea
26 May 2007 - International — After four
years of campaigning to bring an end to
deep-sea bottom trawling, an international
agreement has been made to protect just
under 25 percent of the high seas from this
incredibly destructive fishing method.
Representatives from countries around the
world gathered in Chile to carve out a fisheries
agreement for the South Pacific region.
Following a resolution made by the UN in
2006, the countries at the meeting responded
strongly with measures to stop destruction
of deep water corals, seamounts and other
sensitive habitats by vessels that are bottom
trawling in international waters.
From September 2007 bottom trawling vessels
in the South Pacific will not be able to
fish in areas that have or are even likely
to have vulnerable marine ecosystems, unless
they’ve completed an assessment to show
they won’t do any damage.
The New Zealand fishing industry is responsible
for 90 percent of bottom trawling in the
region. New Zealand delegates told the meeting
these measures would "severely constrain
the ability of their fishing industry to
continue bottom trawling on the high seas
around New Zealand” and suggested that it
may even have the effect of putting an end
to bottom trawling.
We'll be watching to make sure that New
Zealand - and all the member countries -
put the agreement into action, and implement
the measures that will protect the irreplaceable
biodiversity of deep sea ecosystems.
Read our press release for more detailed
info and visit www.southpacificrfmo.org
for outcomes from the meeting in Chile.
