Fennovoima still doesn’t know where to bury their nuclear waste, but Pyhäjoki is now on that list to the great disappointment for the municipality that wanted just to take “advantage” of the project.
Kupoli
Mannerheimintie 5 b, 7th floor, Helsinki
https://kupoli.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/
Who would take the nuclear waste of the NPP project envisioned in Pyhäjoki for the next 100 000 years?
June 2016 should have been – once again – a landmark in the story of Fennovoima, – by the end of the month – the company should have announced the plans concerning the final disposal of it’s nuclear waste.
Fennovoima’s deal with Posiva to bury it’s nuclear waste in ’the cave’ of Onkalo has failed, and Fennovoima has announced in it’s press release that the location for final disposal will not be solved during this summer by any means.
Is Posiva going to experience the similar kind of ministry level political pressure that forced energy company Fortum to join Fennovoima? Or will this project – known from Croatian postbox company Migrit, with it’s un-payed salaries of million euros, and permission application delays– start a new risky game of final disposal of nuclear waste in some municipality of Finland?
On Wednesday 29th of June, we will march to show that we’ve had enough of the nuclear power project! It is economically, politically and technically dangerous! At one o’clock we will gather on Narinkkatori from where we will start our march to the Ministry of Employment and Economics with our message.
Organisers:
Friends of the earth’s group on nuclear power
Women for Peace
Women against Nuclear Energy
With us are also:
Greenpeace
The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC)
The Finnish Nature League
https://www.facebook.com/events/1031041273654149/
ydinvoima (at) maanystavat.fi
It is good to know as well that…
* Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland (STUK) has announced that it is concerned about the security culture of the nuclear power project, Fennovoima. It requires open management practices and detailed reports about knowledge and experience on nuclear energy.
* According to the public opinion polls made by Helsingin Sanomat and WWF; only 1/3 support the project and half are against.
* The critical voices have been silenced on all levels. For many years, the people who have been resisting this project by using democratic channels have experienced frustration. Three times local politicians in Pyhäjoki have denied calls for referendums the nuclear issue.
* This unprofitable NPP project could not exists without the support of tax payers. Private investors have either left the project (eg: S-group) or are trying to abandon it (eg: Kesko and Valio). It is impossible to find investors. Contracts are designed to make divestment from Fennovoima very difficult.
* Negligence and omissions have led to accidents on the work fields of the main designer of Fennovoima (Atomproekt, daughter company of Rosatom) in Sosnovyi Bor (Russia) and Ostrovets (Belarus). This year in Ostrovets, metal construction was crushed during concrete casting. In 2011, in Sosnovyi Bor a 1200 ton metal construction collapsed. At the same site, in July 2015, a 70 ton tube construction caused damages when it dropped into the reactor.
Due to the events during the Reclaim the Cape action week in April and after long-standing hard struggle the protest camp against Fennovoima’s nuclear project in Pyhäjoki, Northern Finland will take a break in order to consider next steps against Fennovoima’s project.
This break does not mean that the resistance would be gone. But now it is a good moment to step back for a while and reconsider how to continue the struggle. At this moment, we want to focus our resources to understand the events of the action week and further to the past of the protest camp, to ponder upon the possible sentences of our comrades in the beginning of July, and how to react to that. And finally, to guarantee the wellbeing of our local supporters.
The struggle is not over. It will only taking a different form.
Open meeting with representatives of Environmental Rights Centre Bellona (Беллона Россия), Ksenia Vakhrusheva and Andrey Ozharovsky (bellona.org) and other NGOs in Russia Александр Колотов (Krasnoyarsk) and Андрей Талевлин (Chelyabinsk) at Kupoli, Helsinki on June 10th at 15:00. There will also be representatives of a research institute on environmental problems and national operator for radioactive waste management. A chance to share information about ongoing anti-nuclear activities in Finland and Russia. The event is organized in collaboration with Friends of the Earth at the University of Helsinki. Welcome!
Kupoli is located at Mannerheimintie 5 B, Helsinki (7th floor). Unfortunately, Kupoli is not an accessible space. You can get to the 6th floor by elevator but the 7th floor is accessible by stairs only. There is no accessible toilet in Kupoli either. In case you have any questions, please contact parempaavirtaa [at] riseup.net.
The original article (in swedish) can be found here.
Activists that got arrested during the demonstrations against Fennovoima’s nuclear power plant in April, were kept in the police custody for whole two weeks before they were released or moved/displaced. Yle News has been talking with one of them that have witnessed the inhuman treatment by the police. The last week in April the activists that had put up a camp in Pyhäjoki next to Fennovoima’s nuclear power plant building area, got some reinforcements from several other countries. The activist group Stop Fennovoima planned several demonstrations during the week, when the Chernobyl accident’s 30th year anniversary attracted attention.
Two of the activists that made their way to the Hanhikivi cape to demonstrate, were the swedes Anna and Peter, that want to stay anonymous in this article.
They participated in the occupation on Hanhikivi and in the actions that fast escalated into violence between the police and the protestors. On Thursday the 28th of April they got arrested together with about thirty other protesters.
Demonstrators in Pyhäjoki clashed with the cops on the Chernobyl accident’s 30th anniversary on the 26th of April. Anna and Peter got arrested two days later during a more violent action.
Three days and nights inside without a shower.
After the arresting they were brought to a cell in the Raahe police station, but they never got informed about their rights.
– During the three first days we didn’t get to know anything about our rights. We didn’t get any toothbrush, neither go to shower or go outside. It was only when the lawyer got involved that we got to even know that we had the oppurtunity to do this, Anna tells.
It was therefore several days and nights (24h) before the activists got informed about their rights, something that according to the law should happen immediately when the arrested person gets into custody.
Anna also tells that the treatment didn’t get more humane even if they at last got to take care of their hygiene and spend time outside.
– I had imagined to get to see sunlight or take a walk on a piece of grass. But the outside part was only a cold and dark room with concrete walls and a small opening in the mesh fence.
Anna and Peter spent their three first days and nights (24h) in a room without a window and without pastime such as books or paper and pen.
Naked through the corridor
Anna also describes the hospitality from the cops as cold and at one point also sexist. She describes how she have got treaten humilating when she after three days in custody got the oppurtunity to take a shower.
– I got a tiny towel, one of those that are used for wiping hands with. When I was ready the guard refused to give me my clean clothes from my bagpack. I was more or less forced to walk out in the corridor with the towel that almost didn’t cover anything.
– It’s anyway a working place but I got to go naked to the cell with a tiny piece of fabric when the guard walked behind me, she says.
According to Anna and Peter the cells didn’t get cleaned during the beginning of their time in custody and after a while the rooms got filled with left-overs from food and cardboard boxes. Neither the floor or the toilettes got cleaned.
A letter to the president of Finland and to the Prime minister of Finland.
Peter is still sitting in custody, waiting for a trail, but he got transfered to the prison of Oulu the 16th of May, after two weeks and four days in the cell in Raahe police station.
Peters mum has written a letter to both the President Sauli Niinistö and to Prime minister Juha Sipilä where she demands/requires for an investigation around the behaviour from the Police in Raahes custody.
The letter where she asks why her son has been kept in degrading and inhuman conditions, have also been sent to the Swedish ambassador, Amnesty, minister of interior Petteri Orpo and Justice Minister Jari Lindström.
– The treatment he has exposed to is inhumane. Everybody has to have the fundamental rights to get out and have it clean around them, says the mother. Last Sunday she got to see Peter for the first time since the arrest, when she visited the prison of Oulu.
Have to speak English with relatives
Peters mum got the information about her son’s arrest on the 1st of May. But when he called her from the custody he was forced to speak English, otherwise the police would break the call.
– The first time I talked with him he was totally in a verge of a breakdown. We were also forced to speak in English with each other, so it was a very weird situation, says the mum.
She thinks it’s remarkable, considering that Finland is an bilingual country where there should also be service available also in Swedish.
Anna also tells that the was forced to speak English with her parents.
Risking one year in prison
Peter is for the moment waiting for his trial that will be hold the 8th of June in Ylivieska-Raahe district court.
He will be prosecuted along with a Finnish activist for rioting and violent opposition of an official.
The prosecutor has demanded a prison sentence of 1 year and 3 months.
“No hard feelings”
Anna was in custody for 12 days and nights (24h) before she got released on the 10th of May. She tells that her defence lawyer’s secretary has been very helpful to get her on a flight back to Sweden.
But she doesn’t have any good view of the Finnish prison system. She remembers clearly the last comment that she got when she got released and was pointed the way to the bus stop.
– When I got released the police said: “No hard feelings”. I think it’s quite notable last words after that experience.
“We haven’t received any complaints”
When Yle News is calling the police to get a comment the reporter is directed from one police to another. In the end, it appears that the responsible head of police custody in Raahe is on vacation. His deputy chief superintendent Jyrki Pelkonen says, however, that they did not receive any complaints.
– The police department leadership is not aware of such information. We have not received any complaints and no one has requested that the matter should be investigated. I can not confirm that this is true, says Chief Inspector Jyrki Pelkonen at the police department in Oulu.
Finland criticized by anti-torture committee
The Finnish authorities have as recently as in August last year, been criticized for the so-called police detention – the police custody facilities, where detainees are temporarily stored.
A report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CPT) urged authorities to stop keeping people in police station cells.
The report, published on 20 August last year the CPT suggests that until the authorities completely stopped keeping people in police custody premises, they must guarantee at least an hour of proper exercise outdoors per day for the prisoners. In addition, they must offer pastime in the form of sports, books, television or board games.
According to the law:
– Keep the detained rights curtailed more than is required.
– Detainees should get treated fairly and with respect for human dignity.
– Detainees should not without valid reasons get discriminated because of race, national or ethnic origin, color, language, sex, age, family status, sexual orientation, health, disability, religion, social opinion, political or industrial activity or any other cause terms of the detained person.
– Detained person should be given the opportunity to notify a relative or another person if the detention.
– Detained should immediately after arrival at a local cell get informed of the conditions of the detained and the rights and obligations. The information shall be available in the most used languages in accordance with the detainees needs.
– Foreign detainees should be informed of the opportunity to be in contact with their home country missions. Foreign detainees should also be offered an interpreter, whenever possible.
– The set of rules that apply to detainees, should be held accessible for the detainees.
– Detainee should have appropriate storage and washing room at their disposal.
– Detainee should be given the opportunity to spend time outdoors every day at least an hour, unless the detained health or a particularly valid reasons constitute an obstacle to it.