Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield

Since our last bulletin, the news has broken that South Yorkshire will be home to the new Centre (NAMRC) with a prominent role and  £25 m research funding for Sheffield University. (£15 m from the government and £10 m from Yorkshire Forward). The NAMRC will be the focus for the majority of the UK civil nuclear manufacturing supply chain, developing advanced manufacturing technologies that are expected to deliver low cost, high integrity components to the U.K. nuclear industry. But it will also be a crucible for exports of components useful to the nuclear energy industry abroad. The Project is led by the University of Sheffield in partnership with Manchester University and with Rolls Royce as a lead industrial partner, while 30 other industrial partners are expected to join. The grand idea is to create a “Low Carbon Economic Area” for Yorkshire and the Northwest, led by regional development agencies.

November AGM

This year we enjoyed an extremely successful AGM thanks largely to the debate we organised on the subject of the link between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons which was introduced by Stewart Kemp. Some 50 people turned up for this debate. While there is definitely a link in that both need the same basic technologies of centrifuging and enriching of uranium, the link –for developed countries such as the UK which already have the ability to make nuclear weapons- is not overwhelmingly strong and this in turn led some of us to query as to how deep Sheffield cnd’s involvement in a potential anti-campaign should be. At a further, informal meeting during our Christmas dinner we decided we needed to explore possibilities of a coalition for campaigning at our January meeting. (see below).

An anti-nuclear coalition?

Our first meeting in 2010, on 20 January, was wholly devoted to a debate on the new nuclear threat to Sheffield and what – if anything – we should do about it. We invited representatives from various green organisations around the city to join us in this exercise and the meeting was well attended .As the debate progressed it became clear that there are substantial differences between the various positions which is going to make any anti-coalition hard to get off the ground. While every one agreed on the dangers of nuclear power stations (ie. nuclear waste, accidents, costs to overseas communities associated with uranium mining extraction, diversion of investment from renewables) and all these issues got a thorough airing, nevertheless there was no consensus as to just how important these negatives are compared with alternatives, or indeed other priorities. For example, one view, expressed by a rep. from the Campaign against Climate Change, holds that while not our preference, nuclear energy has a role to play simply because all renewables have physical limits and our government has not pushed for renewables in time to replace fossil fuels. Another view, from a Trades Council rep explained how the NUM was forced to compromise with Government over nuclear energy just in order to get a clean coal agreement on the agenda.. Then there is the issue of jobs. The government has invested in the much loved Sheffield firm of Forgemasters  to make nuclear power stations. This makes it difficult to persuade local people of our opposition to nuclear plants. Another point made by Sheffield CND is that while there is a link between nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, the former is our main campaigning issue and as we have so few active members and resources, prioritizing our activities remains a real constraint. And so on.

We did all agree, however, that it was of the utmost importance to raise awareness of what is happening in Sheffield on the nuclear energy front and that we really need to push for a wide local debate on the issues, preferably in advance of, and linked to, the upcoming general election campaign. To this end is was agreed to set up a Co-ordinating Committee initially with the aim of  organising a Public Meeting sometime end March/early April in a large venue such as St Mary’s. An earlier proposal to this effect had been received from Linda Duckenfeld  (who could not herself attend the meeting) and had mentioned two names of speakers willing to be contacted about this. It was also thought that we needed to get Richard Caborn MP to come to this event as he had been instrumental in getting the nuclear deal for Sheffield. The meeting will be called under the title: “Nuclear Energy: a Sheffield Response”. David Garlovski promised to run with the proposal and several others came forward to assist. David may be contacted on email.- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

In winding up the meeting, Sheffield CND Chair Bernard Ogley suggested that there were a number of things, concerned members of the public could do, notably write to your MP’s but also: Rose Winterton, the Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber, (at Houses of Parliament, Westminster, London) and Terry Hodgkinson, Chair of Yorkshire Forward (Victoria House, 2 Victoria Place, Leeds LS11 5AE). Students and academics at Sheffield and Manchester Universities should be writing to their Vice Chancellor to challenge their universities’ involvement.

Aldermaston

We have booked a 16 seater coach to go to Aldermaston (blockade the base) on 15 February, (except that we will arrive much after the blockade at about 2 pm), to give our support and solidarity. The coach will set off from Pond Street at 8.30am. Tickets £20.00. As we have made losses on previous coach bookings, we urge all those interested to come forward now and email or phone This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it