Fracking Awareness North Somerset (F.A.N.S) is a new organisation seeking to mobilize community based resistance against fracking. We aim to build a network of groups all over North Somerset to collectively struggle against the insidious threat posed by fracking to our local communities and landscape.

F.A.N.S. will encompass and offer support for all anti-fracking/environmental groups in North Somerset, providing them with up to date information, encouragement and solidarity in fighting this cause.

Our Facebook page is now up and running and we are currently in the midst of designing our new North Somerset focused leaflets. We are also creating a new website so that we are easily contactable and can provide information and help for other groups around North Somerset.

Once our leaflet and website are finished, we are planning F.A.N.S Fortnight – two weeks of talks, presentations, meetings, workshops and film showings around the towns and villages of North Somerset. F.A.N.S Fortnight aims to educate the residents of these areas on the often complex issue of fracking. We seek to show them how they may be affected by fracking in the coming years, but also that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

So it’s all go from North Somerset! Please feel free to get in touch if you are interested in supporting us or have a new group that would like to join F.A.N.S. We would also very much like to hear from anyone interested in helping out with festivals or ideas for promotion.

Fracking will bring industrial North Sea gas extraction to our very doorsteps. Together, we can stop it.

UK Methane have applied for planning permission for a test drill in the Hicks Gate area of Keynsham. This application could be a stepping stone to full-scale Coal Bed Methane production.

Coal Bed Methane (CBM) is methane (natural gas) trapped in coal seams underground. To extract the gas, the basic method is to drill into the coal seam. Then, if the seam is permeable enough, pumping water out of the seam will be enough to start gas flowing from the well. If not, it is often also necessary to frack the seam to extract the gas.

An even more extreme technique called cavitation can be used, which involves pumping water and air or foam into the well at a very high pressure, before suddenly releasing the pressure (sometimes likened to opening a shaken fizzy drink). This causes gas, water, coal and rock fragments to explode out of the well. Cavitation can be repeated dozens of times, resulting in an enlargement of the well bore by as much as 16 feet in diameter in the coal seam, as well as producing fractures that extend from the well bore. Even if it isn’t necessary at first, wells are often cavitated later on once the gas that is easier to get at runs out.

On the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, anti-nuclear campaigners claimed two records in two days. The mass protest at Hinkley Point nuclear power station on Saturday attracted more than 1,000 people from all over the UK – the largest protests against a the construction of a nuclear power station in four decades.

And today (Sunday) the Stop New Nuclear alliance successfully concluded the first ever 24-hour blockade of a UK nuclear power station. Nancy Birch, spokesperson for the alliance said: “This is a major victory for the anti-nuclear movement and a sign that the tide is turning against the government’s nuclear renaissance.”

On Saturday, leading environmentalists Jonathon Porritt and Caroline Lucas MP joined over 1000 demonstrators at Hinkley Point to mark the first anniversary of Fukushima and to call for a halt to the government’s bid to build eight new nuclear power stations. Protesters came from as far away as Ireland, France and Taiwan.

A mini tent city then emerged as over 100 people remained outside the main gate at Hinkley overnight - camping on the tarmac in makeshift tents. The blockade formally ended at 2pm today when Japanese bhuddist monks performed a prayer for the victims of the Tsunami that precipitated the Fukushima disaster and to urge the UK government to take a more enlightened view on energy provision.

Leading environmentalists Jonathon Porritt and Caroline Lucas MP will join demonstrators at Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset to mark the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster - and to call for a halt to the development of Hinkley C. Kate Hudson, chair of CND will also be speaking at the event.

Community groups from all over the UK will be forming a symbolic chain around the EDF Energy-owned power station this Saturday March 10th. The chain will represent their battle to stop the expansion of Hinkley Point and to halt the government’s push for seven other new nuclear power stations around the UK. The event will be followed by a 24-hour blockade of Hinkley Point’s main entrance.

Allied protests will also be taking place against new nuclear power stations at Wylfa in North Wales, Heysham in Lancashire and a mountain-top demonstration in Cumbria. Rallies calling for an end to nuclear power are also expected in 15 countries including: Japan, Germany, Spain, France, the US, Argentina, Australia and Switzerland.