Well, yesterday Monday the 29th was a very busy day for anti-nuclear campaigners in the westcountry and what felt like a small victory. Around a dozen anti-nuclear campaigners associated with the Stop Nuclear Power Network attended the so-called public meeting (which was actually a very private affair when push came to shove) at the Armada Conference Rooms in bristol. The security was very tight for a "public" meeting, with pre-registration a must followed by a requirement for photographic ID once there and bag searches once in! all very unusual for a public meeting. Could this have anything to do with DECC knowing how unpopular these policies are already???
The whole thing was very badly organised with immediate changes to the advertised agenda, (not helpful for anyone who only had a limited time to participate in the meeting). Accessibility was very poor, there were no facilities for disabled people all toilets were upstairs making it very difficult for anyone with mobility problems. The Room was very tightly packed with people unable to move freely between tables to move between the tabled discussions. When regitering to attend the meeting DECC had asked you to tick boxes about which areas of NPSs you were intereseted in but then failed to use this information to ensure you were able to engage with your chosen areas of interest. I had expressed an interest in overarching energy strategy, nuclear, Appraisal of Sustainability, Renewables, and habitiats assessments. Upon arrival I was made to chose between just 2 tabled discussions then when it came to it my names was down on none of the subject areas I had chosen!
The questions and answers sessions were very limited ensuring there was only space for a few tokenisitic questions all of whose answers were in true governmental style, evaded and talked around.
The tabled discussions were badly organised with the facilitators struggling to hear what people were saying. The questions that were asked were very interesting as whole focus in the room was anti nuclear, the nuclear issue completely dominated the meeting. The proof of what the public are intereseted in (f any where needed) was the fact that 3 tables had to be allocated for the subjects of nuclear and renewables whilst all other topics had just one table. The facilitators at the tables tried desperately to bring in some pro-nuclear discussion but on the whole failed miserably, there was only one pro-nuke comment on our table which was concerned with saying we should turn radwaste into an assestt by using it as a fuel for new reactors! doh! The process of the consultation was highly criticised including the time allowed to read the documents before this meeting as well as the structure of the meeting itself, these critisms included the structure of the meeting not allowing repondants being able to fully engage with all of the issues that they wanted to, and there not being enough time for everyone to even ask (and have answered) one question. Eventually people became frustrated with the process and the answers from the panel and so we began to disrupt the event. I stood up and started to tell a cautionary tale about nuclear power, others began to heckle as all of the facilitators and security descended on me to try and shut me up. By then others began to join me, it was interesting to see the class divisions start to play out in the room, when one activist swore and stormed out of the meeting a couple of people were more offended at the bad language than at the idea of mutating and killing more people in order to have more nuclear power. Network campaigners remained in the meeting and continued to heckle the DECC people as they evaded giving honset answers to the attendees. All of the questions that came from the floor were at this point were anti-nuke you could see the colour draining out of the faces of the panel as the nice little neat meeting they had planned fell to pieces in front of their places. Many people walked out of the meeting. By the end of the meeting the summing up said it all the DECC rep had to report that there was a very strong objection to nuclear new build (no shit) and the head of nuclear NPS macdonald had conceded that there may only be one or two reactors built ultimately. This was very telling for me about the governments real agenda. Why if nuclear is such an important part of the energy mix would they consider dropping most of their plans for new reactors? greatly reducing the predicited output into the grid? I feel that the governments agenda and committment to new nukes is inextricably linked to their nuclear weopons agenda. You can have nuclear energy without nuclear bombs but you cant have nuclear bombs without nuclear reactors or piles!
The only people in the audience who tried to shut us up were either industry insiders or people who genuinely felt that there voices were being heard by engaging with this process. I talked to a couple of them at the end and I explained that disrupting the meeting was not stopping people engaging with the consultation as it was in fact open until January and that we felt that all even the policy statements themselves are proof that the government have already taken these decisions behind closed doors and that this consultation was just a box-ticking exercise. The government having been widely critisised for their inability to consult effectively previously. There was a banner dropped from the outside of the building. And all of the activists involved will be making sure that the policy statements are critically analysed and the consultation responded to by the conulstation deadline for what it is worth. I did an interview with somerset sound for the drive time at 5. And all in all was pleased with the strength of anti-nuclear feeling that was expressed in this meeting. I think the people in their Ivory Towers got a bit of a wake up call about the feeling at the grass roots level. they filmed the whole event, bet they dont show how the meeting descended into chaos though! I will upload footage for the event as soon as I can get near neccessary leads to do it!
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