October 27, 1998

Declaration of the Sixth NNAF Meeting Thailand

Oct. 27 – Nov. 1, 1998

We realize that citizens of the industrialized world have been disillusioned by nuclear power and are successfully rejecting it, and that the industry is dying in most of those countries. It is this vanishing domestic market which has recently driven nuclear interests to step-up their sales pitch to Asian countries.

• the aggressive promotion of the nuclear business in the Asian region; we oppose the expansion of nuclear technology in Asia. In particular, we strongly condemn the marketing and pro-nuclear propaganda carried out by the governments of Japan, Canada, US and Europe.
• the construction of any new nuclear facilities, whether for research or power generation. In particular we oppose: the research centre in Nakorn Nayok Province, Thailand; the 4th Nuclear Power Plant planned – in cooperation with US and Japanese companies – in Taiwan; plans to introduce nuclear power in the Philippines and to expand nuclear power in India.
• weapons testing, in particular the recent tests carried out by India and Pakistan.
• plutonium reprocessing and the international shipment of reprocessed nuclear fuel, in particular the planned MOX fuel shipment from Europe to Japan.

• The health risks from radiation in all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle (including uranium mining, nuclear fission itself and waste treatment) are undeniable and unacceptable, including “normal” atmospheric leakage from research.
• Nuclear power is an incredible drain of capital, often destroying a country’s economy. It simply is not economically viable, especially when power plant decommissioning, and costs to human health are taken into account.
• There is still no safe way of dealing with radioactive waste despite decades of well-funded research.
• Misinformation and lack of accountability have marked the government of Thailand and most other countries in their efforts to develop nuclear energy programs. In most cases where the democratic process has been allowed to operate, citizens have rejected nuclear power.
  
• Nuclear energy is no solution to the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that lead to climate change. This is true for two reasons: (a) Although nuclear power plants themselves don’t emit CO2 (the main greenhouse gas), the production of nuclear power entails an entire cycle – including mining, enrichment of uranium, transportation, plant construction – which produces CO2 at every stage. (b) Because nuclear power plants must produce electricity at constant levels, CO2-producing conventional power plants are often are built along side them – in places like Japan – to meet surplus demand during times of peak energy use.
• Nuclear power supports a “development” model which condones ever increasing through-flows of energy, recognizes no limits for industrial growth, and which is inherently violent in that it encourages humans to exploit and manipulate the world for their own selfish desires.
• Nuclear power programs are inextricably linked to the development of nuclear weapons, which themselves drain economies of scarce capital and contribute to fear and violence between nations.

• To reform the policy and structure of power utilities away from unlimited-growth and profit-through-high-sales models of operation. Instead, we need to develop energy visions concerned with health, ecological sustainability and social well-being designed to meet peoples’ actual, specific needs.
• To use renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and biogas and learn from indigenous approaches to sustainable living. Governments should encourage efficient technologies and conservation in all energy sectors.
• To phase out existing nuclear power programs in favour of these sustainable alternatives.