Helensburgh CND’s ‘Beyond Nuclear’ conference is finally to go ahead as a virtual event, after being postponed twice last year due to Covid-19.
The event was originally scheduled to take place in April 2020 at Adelaide Place in Glasgow but will now be staged by Cameron as a virtual event on January 31.
Beyond Nuclear was designed to answer the question: “Why would we in Scotland want or need to have nuclear power stations when we have almost unlimited potential for clean, renewable energy production?’”
The conference will therefore be a day of two halves, starting at 11am with an examination of the negatives involved in nuclear power production in the first session, contrasting with the positives of clean renewable energy in the second.
Lynn Jamieson (chair of Scottish CND) will lead off by establishing the link between nuclear power and nuclear weapons, followed by Rae Street from CNDUK who will talk about their campaign ‘No to Nuclear Power’ concentrating on ‘expensive, dirty and dangerous’.
Next up will be the well-known radiation consultant Ian Fairlie with an update on the situation at Hunterston, and he will be followed by Sean Morris (principal policy officer UK & Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities) on the lack of preparedness for any nuclear incident whether involving weapons or power stations.
After a short break for lunch Mike Danson (professor emeritus at Heriot-Watt University) will start the afternoon session off with an overview of renewables in Scotland, and David Toke (reader in energy politics at Aberdeen University) will be demonstrating the capability of renewables to supply not just Scotland’s but 100% of the UK’s energy needs.
Next up will be Pete Roche of No2 Nuclear who will explore the jobs aspect particularly in relation to ‘Just Transition’, and the conference will conclude with Linda Pentz Gunter, (Founder of beyondnuclear.org) who will be looking at the day’s input in relation to climate change.
Both the morning and afternoon sessions will be followed by a question panel managed by the conference chairperson Arthur West, and additionally the day will incorporate multiple networking opportunities run by Alannah Maurer and David Newbigging.
Tickets are available from Eventbrite priced at £2, £5 and £10 so that people need only pay what they can afford.
Interesting. Whilst I’m not a supporter of WMD, I fail to understand why a conference in needed for something where the outcome is already established. Surely a conference on any subject is about reviewing the headwinds and tailwinds of all the options? Ie +\- nuclear and +\- renewable.