Delegates to a nuclear suppliers’ conference taking place in central London this morning (Monday) were greeted by ten anti-nuclear activists displaying banners calling for a boycott of energy giant Électricité de France (EDF), the organisers of the conference.

Stop Nuclear Power Network broadsheet (Apr 2010)

The paper you are reading was produced by the Stop Nuclear Power Network, a non-hierarchical network of groups and individuals committed to resisting nuclear power in Britain and worldwide (see bottom left). With this paper, we are trying to do something to counter the spin of government and nuclear industry. Nuclear power is not the answer to climate change, neither is it safe, nor is it economical, nor is it needed.

EDF Energy bought British Energy to gain access to sites for nuclear new build. It subsequently sold a 20% stake to Centrica, better known to the public as Scottish Gas or British Gas. They aim to build new nuclear at Hinkley Point, Sizewell, Heysham, Hartlepool, and Bradwell.

German RWE, in Britain better known as RWE npower, bought sites at Kirksanton and Braystones in Cumbria for new nuclear. In addi­tion, RWE formed a joint-venture with another German utility com­pany, E.on, under the name Horizon Nuclear Power, to develop nuclear power at Wylfa and Oldbury.

The government and the nuclear in­dustry claim that the low level of ra­diation emitted by nuclear power sta­tions during their normal operation is not harmful. Radiation also occurs naturally, they argue, and the small amount of radiation added by nuclear power stations is insignificant.

However, no dose of radiation is safe. Radiation damage is cumulative. Each dose received adds to the risk of develo­ping cancer, or mutating genes in the reproductive cells.