NUCLEAR POWER-

                                             

.                                            NOT WORTH THE RISK

         NEWS 173 MAY 2011

      NFLA and nuclear concerned groups issue joint statement of 8 demands
for UK nuclear safety following the Fukushima incident

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) have joined together with a large number of other nuclear
concemed groups such as Friends of the Earth, CND, Nuclear Consulting Group and members of the
umbrella group 'Communities Opposed to No Nuclear Energy Development' to issue a joint statement
of 8 demands of the UK Government, nuclear regulators and nuclear industry on nuclear health and
safety policy following the Fukushima nuclear reactor accident in Japan (1).

The Fukushima reactor inCident is now the world's second worst nuclear incident in the history of the
nuclear age, following the Chernobyl disaster. As this media release is issued, it has been reported
that parents in Tokyo, some 140 miles from the incident have been advised not to give very young
children tap water after some samples contained more than three times the legal limit for radioactive
iodine (2). It has also been reported that the Governor of the Fukushima prefecture was warned 6
years ago of the dangers of letting spent fuel accumulate in cooling ponds at the prefecture's nuclear
plants and the need to put it into much safer dry stores as soon as possible. The Governor passed
these concerns on to the reactor authorities, but clearly they were not heeded (3). Furthermore, the
radioactive isotope iodine-131 has been found at rates 127 times the permitted level in ocean
samples found near the reactor (4).

As a result of the incident in Japan, the Energy Minister Chris Huhne, has asked the Head of the
Nuclear Installations Inspectorate to initiate an urgent review of nuclear heath & safety in the UK (5).

In order to increase public reassurance at this time, the nuclear concerned groups make the following
8 demands of the UK Government, regulators and the nuclear industry as follows:

·                     The UK Government's nuclear safety review must be undertaken in public and be fully open
and transparent. It should include non nuclear industry representatives and consider nuclear
reactors, spent fuel stores and reprocessing plants.

·                     The HSE's 'exclusions' arrangement in the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process and
those arrangements, such as deferring issue resolution in order to artificially meet the nuclear
new build timetable, must be abandoned. The GDA process and the governance regime of
nuclear safety in the UK should be reviewed as a result of the Fukushima incident.

·                     There should be NO public subsidies for nuclear new build as per the UK Government
coalition agreement. All the groups oppose the development of new nuclear build in the UK
and are concerned that the development of the low carbon price gives an indirect subsidy of
up to £3.2 billion on the nuclear industry.

·                     The health effects of low level radiation on land and in the marine environment need to be
independently verified.

·                     UK Government Ministerial statements that they have confidence that the proposed
arrangements for new build radioactive waste management will exist should cease or be
required to be justified or qualified;

·                     The UK Government should commission an urgent independent security review on current
and projected radioactive waste and spent fuel interim storage arrangements.

·                     The UK Government and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority need to resolve over 100
identified scientific and technical uncertainties before developing a deep-underground
radioactive waste repository.

·                  The UK Government should abandon the option of using separated weapons-grade plutonium
as reprocessed Mox fuel for use by domestic and overseas customers.

Manchester City Council, Town Hall, Manchester, M60 3NY

Tel.: 0161 2343244 Fax.: 0161 2343379 E-Mail: offlce@nuctearpolicy.info Website: http://www.nuclearpolicy.info