You have to be joking..... You're not!

Thanks to an article by Alan Simpson, Labour MP for Nottingham South from 1992-2010, and published recently in the Morning Star, I discovered that EDF proposes to have company volunteers who will... 'go out into the community and schools to tell the story.'
Yes, on the streets... Hundreds of them, jogging.  "Their stated objective will be to 'normalise nuclear to consumers.' " He also, in the same article, explains briefly how the nuclear power industry uses Public Relations in relation to MPs. and it's a bit of an eye opener.
Frankly, the idea of hundreds of EDF volunteers jogging round the streets trying to normalise nuclear, strikes me as quite funny.  The company volunteers going into schools, does not.
A quick Google search for the EDF website, revealed that they have been offering the "Pod", a free programme for greener schools,...  to our educational establishments and according to the Met Office figures, posted I guess some time ago, this has been ongoing since 2008 and had more than 14,300 schools involved and over 3.7 million school children involved.  If you are wondering what the Met Office has to do with EDF, well, the web page I found had it neatly subtitled, "Education >> Collaboration >>  Working with EDF Energy."
Don't get me wrong, some of the things that they do are really good and they are "collaborating" with some excellent organisations. It reminds me of Monsanto's and Bayer's funding towards "National Pollinator Week" in the USA from June 16th to 22nd. The Organic Consumers Association would  appreciate it if you would share their article http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_30250.cfm
 It also reminds me, perhaps unfairly, but then that's the way my memory works, of some research that the NIS (Nuclear Information Service) and Medact did over a two year period and made public in February. They found that over fifty British universities, that's over a third of British universities, receive funding from the Atomic Weapons Establishment, AWE. Although much of the work supported by AWE is "Blue sky" research and not aimed at any special application, some of it is considered to have"dual use" potential. This is the link: http://nuclearinfo.org/article/awe-aldermaston/atoms-peace-investigation-int-links-between-uk-universities-and-atomic
In a following short blog post, which I found very helpful, they examined  AWE's own comments, which led them to this conclusion, "AWE aren't funding research in universities for philanthropic purposes: they're doing it because they think the results will be of use to Britain's nuclear weapons programme."
This means, the way I see it,  that even if you think you are going to be doing research purely for the good of humanity, there could be a horrible twist to it.  You can find out which universities are involved from the article and I shall be blogging about this again later!

Meanwhile back at EDF and their company volunteers, who, I gather, will be taking  "Talk Service " into schools:
"The concept is simple. Use the best advocates – our people – to talk to colleges, schools and other organisations in the communities where we work. The aim is to create open and honest dialogue and to help people understand more about the industry."
 Really? Well, if that's the case, perhaps it would be only fair, and in accordance with a balanced education, if the schools invited someone from CND or Greenpeace, or the local groups campaigning against new nuclear power plants or nuclear waste, to come along and give their views at the same time. Not, by the way, a troll in anti-nuclear clothing, but a genuine, clear thinking, moral activist.
Are children in Britain today taught to think for themselves, or is it "Don't rock the boat, we have to keep the sponsors happy." ?
Happily, across the Irish Sea, which is apparently the most radioactively polluted in the world, there are school students who seem to be very aware of the problems.  I don't think that EDF would cut any ice with the then 14 to 17 year olds who made "Nuclear Winter" an animated film which was given a special recognition award at the recent International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro. 
"A ship dumps its cargo of nuclear waste in the Artic, stirring something strange up from the depths".
Wow! http://www.pureproject.ie/what-we-do/pure-animation-movies/ (Scroll down a few films to find it... but worth the trip.)

See it, even read about it, don't miss it.

As I write this blog, it's around one o'clock in New York City, and it's around six o'clock in London. This means that if I were planning on what to do, if I were New York City this afternoon or evening, I'd perhaps have time to think about going to a film.. and if I was going to a film, I know where I'd be heading.
Today is the last day of the travelling Uranium Film Festival's stop over in the USA.
 Film after film by courageous, innovative and talented directors  have been shown over the past few days and culminate in an evening of three films, "08:15 de 1945", "In My Lifetime" and the film based on the famous book of the same name, "Quietly Into The Disaster"...
To find out more, go to the festival's website, http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/traveling-festival/usa-2014/new-york-city/wednesday-feb-19
 Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, a report which has taken two years to compile was launched by NIS, The Nuclear Information Service, and Medact. It states that over fifty (over one third) of British Universities have received funding from the Atomic Weapons Establishment. http://www.nuclearinfo.org/article/awe-aldermaston/atoms-peace-investigation-int-links-between-uk-universities-and-atomic 
I am so grateful for the people who keep showing us what is happening, when a whole lot of other people would rather they didn't!