“Clean” Nuclear is a Fraudulent Scam, Trading Standards Told, on Anniversary of Chernobyl

Campaigners Outside the “Clean Energy Technology Park” which is the UK’s Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing site 3 miles from the centre of Preston

Press Notice to Local and National Media…

“Clean” Nuclear is a Fraudulent Scam, Trading Standards Told by Hundreds on Anniversary of Chernobyl Disaster

Hundreds of people have signed a PETITION calling on Trading Standards to enforce removal of the word “Clean” from the UK’s nuclear fuel manufacturing plant. Cumbrian nuclear safety group Radiation Free Lakeland started the petition to counter the “clean” claims of the nuclear industry.  The petition will be delivered to Trading Standards at Lancashire County Council on the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster on 26th April. 

The nuclear fuel factory is three miles from Preston City Centre and in what campaigners call a “blatant fraud” has in the last couple of years been calling itself the “Clean Energy Technology Park (CETP).   

Fylde MP Mark Menzies is a staunch supporter of the UK’s nuclear fuel manufacturing plant citing a “new golden age” of  “energy security.”  The Fylde MP was instrumental in October of last year in securing £75M of public money for “the preservation of the “Clean Energy Technology Park”   Campaigners say that although there is uranium in the UK the major part of uranium stock used by the “Clean Energy Technology Park”  comes from other countries for example Kazakhstan, making any “energy security” claims redundant.   The mining process is, campaigners point out, “dirty and dangerous using millions of gallons of acid to dissolve uranium out of the rocks”. 

Campaigners say that the nuclear industry is toxic from beginning to end, from the mining of uranium to the very long lived transuranic nuclear wastes.  They go on to say that “for the industry to label itself “clean” is a fraudulent scam, not just dangerous to our generation but also for future generations who will have to protect themselves from contaminated areas and leaking nuclear waste dumps labelled “Clean.”    

ENDS

More Info

The text of the Petition to Trading Standards says:

“We the undersigned call for the the word “clean” to be removed from the UK’s Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing plant which the industry has re-named the Clean Energy Technology Park.

We call for Removal of the word “CLEAN” from the CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY PARK to be replaced with the accurate description of “NUCLEAR”.

To describe Nuclear energy as “clean” is fraudulent and the claim amounts to a mass marketing scam perpetrated on the British public.

Why is this important?

“Clean” Energy Security?

The raw material for nuclear is uranium which can be found in in the UK in the Orkneys but which our government buys from, for example Kazakhstan where it is largely mined by leaching out the uranium from the rock using massive amounts of fresh water and chemicals.

“Clean” Carbon footprint?

Nuclear is at least the third highest carbon emitter after coal-fired plants and natural gas. As uranium becomes more scarce more energy and chemicals are needed to get the uranium out of the ground.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority have calculated their carbon footprint for 2019/20 as 1,046,950 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). This does not include operation of nuclear reactors or include the building of Hinkley Point C with the biggest pour of concrete in the UK ever. The nuclear and fossil fuel industry are mutually intertwined. The biggest gas plant being constructed in the UK right now is at Sellafield, home to 80 percent of the UK’s existing nuclear waste which needs to be kept cool. The heating effect of discharges to the atmosphere and sea and also the use of water as a coolant for reactors and nuclear wastes are all contributing to ocean temperature rise and climate change.

An honest description of Nuclear would be : Radioactive Fossil Fuel by proxy.

“Clean” Radioactive Emissions

Radioactive emissions occur at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle from the mining of uranium to enrichment, to fuel manufacture, to operation of the reactors, to the “disposal” of nuclear wastes. These emissions occur both routinely and accidentally and have already resulted in large swathes of the world’s land and oceans becoming irreversibly polluted with man-made radioactive isotopes.

“Clean” and Healthy?

Radiation can damage the DNA in our cells.

High doses of radiation can cause Acute Radiation Syndrome or Cutaneous Radiation Injuries.

There is no such thing as a “safe dose” of radiation

The “Clean Energy Technology Park” just 3.9 miles from the centre of Preston is planning an incinerator to burn intermediate level radioactive wastes from across Europe. This would result in daily plumes of chemical and radio-toxic airborne fine particle emissions blowing accross Preston City Centre.

We call for the word “Clean” to be replaced by – Nuclear – at the “Clean Energy Technology Park”.”

Mark Menzies MP https://www.markmenzies.org.uk/campaigns/springfields-nuclear-fuels

Kazakhstan Uranium https://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/aug/14/nuclearindustry.environment

Clean Energy Technology Park  https://cetpspringfields.com/

Buried nuclear waste stays dangerous for a million years — here’s how scientists plan to stop a future disaster

In thousands of years’ time, will they even understand the language written on our ‘keep out’ signs?

https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/buried-nuclear-waste-danger-underground-future-disasters-344014