Ed Courtney: loss of a great anti-nuclear campaigner

I have only just heard yesterday the sad news that Edward Courtney, a stalwart campaigner trying to shut Oldbury power station, died last month. Ed, who lived in Charfield, was a great source of information and kept me regularly up-to-date with news items and information. I never met him but spoke many times on the phone: his loss is a great shock.

As another campaigner wrote: "Ed was the bane of the local nuclear industry and regulators. He wrote long detailed letters using his former civil service skills to unpick spin and cover-ups on issues such as nuclear incineration, local cancers and plant safety. His local MP picked up on Ed's concerns and followed through his suggestions."

Indeed Ed wrote many papers and letters - he never used a computer so I have a collection of his letters and papers - some of his papers are also scanned into websites like his submission to the Nuclear Policy Framework. His work led to many of our Green party news releases like the lack of filters at Oldbury nuclear power station - amazingly he discovered that the operators there say the reason they are releasing radioactivity into the air is because they do not want the problem of radioactive filters - the filters would apparently become radioactive waste and would then have to be disposed of in a safe manner - far better just to release it into the air!

Ed was also behind the local campaigns re potassium iodate tablets and Emergency safety procedures at Oldbury. Many news releases on these stories like here and here. Infact today I read that Weymouth and Portland Borough Council are overseeing the distribution of information booklets to 4,300 people in Portland, advising homeowners what they should do in the event of a radiation emergency in Portland Port. The homes concerned are those that lie within a 2km radius of berths to be visited by Royal Navy nuclear submarines. While this improvement to safety would have pleased Ed it would have also highlighted the complete nonsense and craziness of the situation - as he said repeatedly, nuclear makes no sense and the only sane and safe way to deal with nuclear is to shut it down and not build any more.

I get a regular bulletin of nuclear news and just in the last week or so here are some of the items that are typical - and daily confirm Ed's views:

- 30 safety incidents were investigated at Torness nuclear power station in 2005, sparking fears about the reliability of the plant.
- the Russian submarine - 800ft down on the bed of the Barents Sea and carrying almost three-quarters of a ton of nuclear fuel has been an environmental menace since it sank 14 years ago with the loss of nine crew members.
- The head of the Democratic Republic of Congo's dilapidated and poorly guarded nuclear reactor plant has been arrested on suspicion of illegally selling enriched uranium, following the disappearance of large quantities of the material.
- Two South Korean nuclear power plant workers were burnt by heated, radioactive liquid waste while helping repair a device that transforms liquid waste into a material for storage at a nuclear reactor.
- Global nuclear watchdog IAEA is cooperating with South Africa to develop a security plan ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup to avert any "dirty bomb" attack.
- Safety alarms have been routinely ignored, operating instructions flouted, and safety equipment left broken at the controversial Sellafield nuclear plant, a devastating official inquiry has found. The inquiry report - one of the most damning ever on a British nuclear installation - condemns "an alarm-tolerant culture", "long-standing failings in some key safety arrangements" and a "failure to learn from previous events" at the Cumbrian complex. Dr Mike Weightman, HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations, says that the investigation found "a significant prolonged reduction in attention to the high standards demanded for the unique nature of nuclear operations, something we are not prepared to tolerate."

I am sure Ed would be disappointed that I cannot make the Glos County planning meeting tomorrow to discuss the nuclear store at Berkeley - I was invited to make a statement after I had made a submission to the planning application to both the District Council and the County Council - unfortunately I wont be there but he will be pleased that the three key points made earlier will be available to the meeting (see also my previous post of 16th Feb) - in brief these were:
- An intermediate level nuclear waste store is the least worst option.
- Planning Committee should seekassurancesthat the store will not take waste from elsewhere.
- Planning Committee should seek assurancesthat the store will beprotected from sea-level rises: the area around the power station is known to be prone to flooding. The Environment Agency estimates risks from flooding by the sea will at least double by the 2080s and could increase by up to 20 times.

One of Ed's latest concerns was regarding 'Wifi' - see my blog for 22nd December 2006 for a discussion on that.

Ed always preferred a low-profile style of campaigning and veered away from opportunities to do TV, radio and newspaper interviews. He also He did however turn out for local demos holding up placards outside Oldbury power station and attended meetings at Oldbury and Berkeley power stations to argue his point with local pro-nukes.

I enjoyed our phone calls and discussions - I think if we had met we would have got on wonderfully - I will miss him lots.