“Revealed: Military Influences on UK Nuclear Power Decisions.”

Event Date: 19th March 2024
Location: Internet 8pm GMT

A joint webinar organised by Abingdon Peace Group and Salisbury CND.  We are very happy to have Professor Andrew Stirling as our speaker.

This webinar will review the current situation in which the government seems irrationally wedded to civil nuclear power. Despite its very high costs, very long lead-times, inflexibility and unsolved problems of long term storage of waste, plans forge ahead for yet more investment in this area.  It is only when the military need for nuclear engineers and infrastructure is understood that the government’s planning can be seen for what it really is.  These links have been denied for years and Professor Andrew Stirling has been at the forefront of exposing the truth.  This distortion of the Uk’s energy policy and its implications for electricity users, and indeed the climate, is something we all need to know more about.

The link for the webinar is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/91315134101?pwd=RmxHLzBQaXlHYjFSRm5nREVzYjdSdz09

Andy Stirling is Professor of science and technology policy at Sussex University. He has a background in the natural sciences, a master’s degree in archaeology and social anthropology (Edinburgh) and a D.Phil. in science and technology policy (Sussex).[2]

Formerly a board member of Greenpeace International, Stirling has worked in collaboration with a diverse range of organisations. His research interests include technological risk, innovation policy, scientific uncertainty and public involvement in decision-making, and he has been involved in developing some participatory appraisal methods.[2]

He has served on several policy advisory committees, including the UK Government’s Advisory Committee on Toxic Substances and GM Science Review Panel as well

as the European Commission’s Expert Group on Science and Governance.

The website of Sussex University includes an interesting and comprehensive introduction to their work:https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/explore-our-research/business-and-economics/shining-light-on-nuclear-deterrent.

You can watch our previous webinar held on 25th February 2021 to learn all the latest information on this topic at that time.  Click on this link to watch the previous webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHqL1OS2og0&feature=youtu.be

This link to one of our News items will also be of interest NFLA Media Release – Roadmap to warfare: new policy exposes links with UK military nuclear projects

The governments latest publication, CIVIL NUCLEAR: ROADMAP TO 2050 published January 2024 can be seen here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/659fb2783308d200131fbe17/6.8610_DESNZ_Civil_Nuclear_Roadmap_report.pdf

“The UK Government has effectively now abandoned its previous efforts to deny the importance of military drivers of UK civil nuclear policy. Without any reflection on what this says about previous efforts to suppress discussion of this issue, the Government is now openly emphasising its significance.

“This represents a complete vindication of the clear and distinctive point that critical nuclear commentators have made for so long, despite official hostility, ridicule, obfuscation and denial, that civil nuclear represents a hidden bulwark that maintains the production, maintenance and potential employment of Britain’s arsenal of nuclear weapons”.

“Put simply British electricity customers are being deceived into paying above and beyond the money already openly allocated in the nation’s military budget towards the production and maintenance of these weapons of mass destruction and the means to employ them through the diversion of some of the income received through electricity bills to help train and retain staff and maintain a nuclear infrastructure which is used in part to support the military, as well as civil, nuclear programme.

““This Roadmap is just the latest manifestation of a longstanding government policy to engage in what effectively amounts to a massive deception of the British public; only this time ministers have finally been caught out.

• Scientists for Global Responsibility has a report on the hidden military implications of Britain’s nuclear power strategy.  

Jonathon Porrit’s recent article is also very well worth reading : Government’s new Nuclear Roadmap exposes its grim intent to subsidise our so-called “independent nuclear deterrent”