By Pamela McGowan

Last updated at 13:33, Thursday, 08 October 2009

Anti-nuclear campaigners will target the new Bishop of Carlisle’s enthronement this weekend to protest against his pro-nuke stance.

The Rt Rev James Newcome

Bishop James Newcome, who replaces the retiring Bishop Graham Dow, will be welcomed at a service in Carlisle Cathedral on Saturday.

But even before taking up the post, the 67th Bishop of Carlisle has caused controversy with his comments backing nuclear power in Cumbria.

His remarks – declaring it as a green option for the future – have angered activists from environmental groups both locally and nationally.

Marianne Birkby, of Radiation-Free Lakeland, has helped organise the protest outside the cathedral.

She said it will be a peaceful and fairly small-scale demonstration, but one they hope will help persuade the bishop to think more carefully about his nuclear stance.

She said: “He came out with a pretty strong statement in favour of nuclear new-build in Cumbria, saying it is the green option for the future.

“What we are saying is that nuclear power is as far away from a green option as it’s possible to get. In Cumbria we have already got the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear waste – to actually put new reactors alongside that is completely preposterous.

“It seems as though he has been bamboozled with claims that it is the answer to climate change when it is not.”

She added that not only is there growing evidence that radiation from nuclear sites causes cancer, a serious incident at Sellafield would result in contamination across Europe and mean evacuating a huge part of the UK.

“If you look at Chernobyl, a dozen farms in Cumbria are still under restrictions 20 years on. How is that a green solution?” she said.

“I do not have a problem with the Church of England giving nuclear workers sustenance and solace, that’s how it should be, but to come out with such a strong political statement, it means the Church of England is basically supporting new nuclear build.”

Members of Radiation-Free Lakeland will be joined at the protest – between 10am and 12noon outside Carlisle Cathedral – by activists from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Friends of the Earth, the Green Party and Cumbria Action on Climate Change. They will also be asking the public to add their names to a letter calling on the bishop to meet scientists to discuss the impact of the nuclear industry on Cumbria.

First published at 11:32, Thursday, 08 October 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk