Nuclear power expansion plans condemned

Global coalition of “Alternative Nobel Prize” laureates and members of the World Future Council condemn nuclear power expansion plans

Press release – for immediate release

“Given the tremendous risks of this technology, the insolvable problem of nuclear waste, and the threat of constantly increasing and spreading the amount of enriched uranium and plutonium needed for nuclear weapons, we strongly urge governments to abandon all nuclear expansion pursuits including commercial negotiations to export nuclear reactor technology and equipment,” the statement reads.

Among the signatories are Nnimmo Bassey, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria; Dr. Johan Galtung, Founder of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo; Prof. Dr. Rafia Obaid Ghubash, President of the Arab Network for Women in Science and Technology; Prof. Dr. h.c. Vandana Shiva, Founder of the India-based NAVDANYA network; Prof. David Suzuki, Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, Canada; Judge Christopher G. Weeramantry, former Vice-President of the International Court of Justice, Sri Lanka; and Francisco Whitaker Ferreira, Co-Founder of the World Social Forum, Brazil.

In unusually clear language the signatories of the statement argue that nuclear energy is prone to insolvable infrastructural, economic, social, health, ecological, and security problems. The statement applauds the successful efforts being made around the world to advance renewable energy as the only viable alternative and those governments that have embarked on transforming their energy sectors. “We strongly support the aspirations of numerous regions across the globe in moving towards 100% decentralized renewable energy to meet electricity, heating and transport needs,” state the signatories.

The statement ends with a call on governments “to remove existing barriers to renewable energy development and to abandon nuclear power – in their countries as well as outside their own territorial borders – once and for all.”

The text can be accessed at full length below.

World Future Council

Birgit Jäckel
Right Livelihood Award Foundation
Mobile Phone: +491702449348

JOINT STATEMENT

ABANDON NUCLEAR POWER

Hamburg, July 16th, 2013

We, the signatories of this statement, Councillors of the World Future Council and recipients of the Right Livelihood Award, express our categorical condemnation of the continuing use and expansion of nuclear power as an energy source for humanity. The catastrophic effects of the meltdown of nuclear reactors or the release of high level nuclear waste from on-site spent fuel storage pools — whether by accident, act of war, terrorism or a natural phenomenon — can never be adequately treated and will leave an unbearable inheritance to future generations. Nuclear energy is prone to insolvable infrastructural, economic, social, health, ecological, and security problems. It also requires immense capital expenditures and governmental subsidies; faces rising uranium fuel prices; and creates significant lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy, by contrast, reduces dependence on foreign sources of uranium and decentralizes electricity supply so that an outage would have only limited impact on any society.

We applaud the successful efforts being made around the world to advance renewable energy as the only viable alternative and those governments that have embarked on transforming their energy sectors. We strongly support the aspirations of numerous regions across the globe in moving towards 100% decentralized renewable energy to meet electricity, heating and transport needs. We call upon governments, in the interests of present and future generations, to initiate the transition from dangerous nuclear and fossil fuel energy to renewable forms of energy.

Our special concern is with countries such as Argentina, Brazil, China, India and South Africa which are either in the process of expanding existing nuclear programmes or intend to initiate such programmes in the near future. Given the tremendous risks of this technology, the insolvable problem of nuclear waste, and the threat of constantly increasing and spreading the amount of enriched uranium and plutonium needed for nuclear weapons, we strongly urge governments to abandon all nuclear expansion pursuits including commercial negotiations to export nuclear reactor technology and equipment. Furthermore, we stress that the energy choices being made today will fundamentally affect every society and the ability to globally combat climate change and create a clean, safe and secure energy future for all.

Our current fossil fuel-based energy system is characterized by complex centralized infrastructures in which the fuel must be transported to the power plant, and energy production and distribution is controlled by only a handful of key players. The supply chain is vertical, and the benefits are shared among only a few stakeholders. The necessary global transformation towards 100% renewable energy flattens the supply chain to a horizontal system in which millions of communities and individual citizens will benefit by becoming both suppliers and consumers of safe and renewable forms of energy.

We, therefore, call on governments worldwide to remove the existing barriers to renewable energy development and to abandon nuclear power – in their countries as well as outside their own territorial borders – once and for all.

Signatories have signed in their individual capacity. Organizational affiliations are provided for informational purposes only:

Hafsat Abiola-Costello, Member of the World Future Council; Founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) and China Africa Bridge, Nigeria

Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2003; Founder of SEKEM, Egypt

Swami Agnivesh, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2004, New Delhi, India

Dr. Martín Almada, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2002; Founder of the Fundación Celestina Perez de Almada, Paraguay

Uri Avnery, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2001; Founder of Gush Shalom, Israel

Dr. h.c. Maude Barlow, Member of the World Future Council; Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2005; First Senior Advisor to the UN on water issues; Chairperson of The Council of Canadians

Dipal Chandra Barua, Former Managing Director of the Grameen Shakti (Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2007); Founder and Chairman of the Bright Green Energy Foundation, Bangladesh

Nnimmo Bassey, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010; Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria

Andràs Biró, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1995; Life Chair of Másság Foundation, Hungary

Dr. Leonardo Boff, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2001, Brazil

Carmel Budiardjo, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1995, UK

Helen Mack Chang, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1992, Fundación Myrna Mack, Guatemala

Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1992, Bangladesh

Nicholas Dunlop, Member of the World Future Council; Secretary General of Climate Parliament

Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, Right Livelihood Laureate 2006; Senior Fellow of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, USA

Asha Hagi Elmi, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2008, Somalia

Dr. Scilla Elworthy, Member of the World Future Council; Founder of the Oxford Research Group and Peace Direct; Director of Programmes for the World Peace Partnership, UK

Prof. Anwar Fazal, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1982; Director of the Right Livelihood College, Malaysia

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Johan Galtung, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1987; Principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies; Founder of the Peace Research Institute Oslo and TRANSCEND International, Norway

Ina May and Stephen Gaskin, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2011 and 1980; PLENTY International, USA

Prof. Dr. Rafia Obaid Ghubash, Member of the World Future Council; former President of the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) ; President of the Arab Network for Women in Science and Technology

Prof. Martin A. Green, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2002; Executive Research Director of the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia

Dr. Monika Hauser, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2008; Executive Member of the Management Board of medica mondiale e. V., Germany

Dr. Martín von Hildebrand, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1999; Founder and Director of Fundación COAMA (Gaia), Amazonas, Colombia

Helena Norberg-Hodge, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1986, Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture and Initiator of Ladakh Ecological Development Group; UK

Evaristo Nugkuag Ikanan, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1986; Instituto para el Buen Vivir, Peru

SM Mohamed Idris, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1988, Founder and President of Sahabat Alam Malaysia; Founder and President of the Consumers’ Association of Penang

Wes Jackson, Member of the World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2000; President of The Land Institute, USA

Bianca Jagger, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2004, Founder and Chair of Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation; Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador; International Conservation of Nature Plant a Pledge Ambassador; Member of the Executive Director’s Leadership Council of Amnesty International USA; Trustee, Amazon Charitable Trust, UK

Dr. Ashok Khosla, Member of the World Future Council; President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature; Chairman of the Centre for Development Alternatives; Co-President of the Club of Rome, India

Dom Erwin Kräutler, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010; Bishop of Xingu; President of the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Catholic Church in Brazil

Dr. David Krieger, Member of the World Future Council; Co-Founder and President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Dr. Ida Kuklina, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1996; Member of the Union of Soldiers Mothers Committees of Russia Coordination Council; Member of the Council of RF President for Development Civic Society and Human Rights

Dr. med. Katarina Kruhonja, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998; Founder and Director of the Centre for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights, Croatia

Prof. Dr. Alexander Likhotal, Member of the World Future Council; President of Green Cross International

Dr. h.c. Frances Moore Lappé, Member of the World Future Council; Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1987; Founder of the Small Planet Institute, USA

Birsel Lemke, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2000, Turkey

Dr. Rama Mani, Member of the World Future Council; Co-Convenor of Agents of Transformation; Vice-Chair of the Academic Council on the United Nations System

Prof. Dr. Raúl A. Montenegro, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2004; Professor at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina; President of the Environment Defense Foundation FUNAM

Suciwati, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2000; widow of Munir, Indonesia

Prof. Manfred Max-Neef, Member of the World Future Council; Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1983; Director of the Economics Institute, Universidad Austral de Chile

Anna R. Oposa, Member of the World Future Council; Co-Founder of Save Philippine Seas and Global Shaper, Manila Hub, World Economic Forum

Dr. Katiana Orluc, Member of the World Future Council; Director of Development/Strategic Affairs, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21)

Juan Pablo Orrego, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1998; President of Ecosistemas, Chile

Nicanor Perlas, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2003; Co-Founder and President of the Center for Alternative Development Initiatives, Philippines

Dr. Vithal Rajan, Member of the World Future Council; Member of the Jury of the Right Livelihood Award; Vice-President of Oxfam India; Chairman of the Confederation of Voluntary Associations, India

P K Ravindran, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1996; Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishat, India

Fernando Rendón, Right Livelihood Award 2006, Gabriel Jaime Franco and Gloria Chvatal of the International Poetry Festival of Medellín; Colombia

Dr. Sima Samar, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2012; Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Afghanistan

Prof. Dr. Vandana Shiva, Member of the World Future Council; Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1993; Founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology and the India-based NAVDANYA network

Sulak Sivaraksa, Member of the World Future Council, Right Livelihood Laureate in 1995, Co-Founder of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, Thailand

Dr. Hanumappa Sudarshan, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1994; Karuna Trust & VGKK, India

Prof. em. Dr. Michael Succow, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1997; Founder of the Michael Succow Foundation for Nature Conservation, Germany

Prof. Dr. David Suzuki, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2009; Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, Canada

Pauline Tangiora, Member of the World Future Council; Maori elder of the Rongomaiwahine Tribe

Shrikrishna Upadhyay, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2010; Executive Chairman, Support Activities for Poor Producers of Nepal, Nepal

Judge Christopher G. Weeramantry, Member of the World Future Council; Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2007; former Judge and Vice-President of the International Court of Justice; Founder, Trustee and Chairman of the Weeramantry International Centre for Peace Education and Research (WICPER); former President of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), Sri Lanka

Francisco Whitaker Ferreira, Member of the World Future Council; Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2006; Co-Founder of the World Social Forum, Brazil

Alyn Ware, Member of the World Future Council; Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2009; Founder and international coordinator of the Network Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), New Zealand

Alla Yaroshinskaya, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1992; Journalist and former Adviser to the Russian president; former Member of the Russian delegation to the United Nations for negotiating an extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Russia

Angie Zelter, Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2001; Trident Ploughshares, UK