PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER for WA! TUESDAY (28 June) from 11.50am

The Anti-Nuclear Alliance of WA will be staging a colourful protest outside the Perth Convention Centre where over a luncheon hosted by the Institute of Energy a spokesman for the nuclear industry will try again to introduce N-power into WA. (www.aie.org.au/events_index.htm ) Protestors will be demanding energy efficiency and support for renewable energy, a phasing out of coal and absolutely NO NUCLEAR POWER! With the hope of huge taxpayer subsidies (as is the case in every other place where nuclear power is used) this dinosaur industry is urging Western Australians to choose deadly nuclear power over dirty coal power - while ignoring the questions which promote real environmentally-safe energy, about the right mix of efficiency, gas and renewables. Western Australians can be forgiven for believing they are in some time warp from the last century says veteran campaigner and former senator, Jo Vallentine . 30 years ago the nuclear industry was promoting itself just as it is doing now - as ‘clean' and ‘too-cheap-to-meter'. In 1975, WA's State Energy Commission made huge projections about the energy demands of future generations of West Australians. Phillip Baxter, head of the Australian Atomic Energy Agency, and Premier Court (Snr) declared that Australia should have 40 N-power plants by the year 2000, 12 in WA! Land was sought; Ledge Point, Breton Bay and Wilbinga between Perth and Lancelin were selected for acquisition. (It was later revealed after 30 years of censorship, that Baxter, with support from several Liberal prime ministers wanted plutonium to make nuclear weapons as well…) These events incited the formation in WA of CANE (Campaign Against Nuclear Energy) which coordinated the huge and successful groundswell of opposition to this unsafe, unnecessary and outrageously expensive form of energy and clipped the wings of the uranium industry. More recently 50,000 West Australians signed the petition against Pangea's proposal for an international N-waste dump in WA, leading to the bipartisan legislative move preventing it. “So the doctrine of nuclear inevitability promoted by Colin Barnett and this Ian Hore-Lacy, is a beat-up!” said Ms Vallentine. “There is nothing inevitable about our source of energy supply. The human race can choose what is in the long term interests of this planet or, in our drive to reduce greenhouse gases, fall for the false dichotomy (Nukes V Coal) presented by the nuclear industry in its current PR blitz. The positive realistic choice we should be making for the future of the planet and all life on it is neither nukes nor coal, but serious energy efficiency in all sectors + a portfolio of clean, safe, locally appropriate renewables.” Robin Chapple, Spokesperson for the Anti-Nuclear Alliance will be attending the presentation and reporting back to protesters at 2pm. Giz Watson MLC and Rachel Siewert (Greens Senator-elect) will address the crowd. ANAWA spokesperson Robin Chapple 9371 2615 0409 379263 Protest coordinator Brenda Conochie 9271 0744 (0428 711977 at the protest site)

the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia email robin@anawa.org.au