Posted
25tth Oct 2001
Nukes Hurt by Terrorism Fallout
LONDON, United Kingdom, October 22, 2001 (ENS) - Europe's nuclear
energy
industry is proving to be a victim of September's terrorist
attacks in the
United States. A rising fear of massive radioactive releases
is galvanizing
the anti-nuclear movement and raising new questions about the
sector's long
term future.
First in the firing line are the nuclear fuel reprocessing plants
at
Sellafield in Britain and La Hague in France, following alarming
estimates
of potential radioactive releases in the case of an aircraft
collision
similar to those on September 11. According to a report by consultancy
Wise-Paris released late last month, the potential release of
caesium-137
from La Hague's irradiated fuel cooling ponds is 60 times the
amount
released in the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine. This month,
Britain's
"New Scientist" magazine reported the potential caesium release
from
Sellafield at 44 times that released from Chernobyl.
These dire forecasts were taken up in a debate in the European
parliament
today, with Irish Green MEP Nuala Ahern calling for "no fly
zones" to be
established around both plants. "Nuclear plants are a ticking
time bomb in
our midst and the only logical response is to close them all
down and end
this terrible threat," she argued. In a statement September
19, Cogema said
that, "A permanent overflight ban is in force at the site. Considering
its
geographical position, the French armed forces would have time
to intervene
if any breach of this ban were suspected." Cogema tried to reassure
the
public that no plane could deliberately crash into the facility's
irradiated fuel storage pools by explaining, "The structures
are partially
built under ground, and the pools occupy a small area in relation
to the
total area of the installations around them. It would thus be
impossible
for an airplane to crash vertically into a pool."
Even strongly pro-nuclear European states have had their nerve
tested by
the realization that reprocessing and other nuclear plants could
be
terrorist targets. The French government last week said that
anti-aircraft
missile batteries are to be stationed at La Hague. In Germany,
the effect
has been to cement or even speed up the ongoing nuclear phase-out
program,
culminating in media reports this weekend that Economic Minister
Werner
Mueller has called on power firms to phase out their oldest
stations ahead
of schedule. This follows a pledge by Environment Minister Juergen
Trittin
to order nuclear plant closures in case of a credible threat
of attack.
The new sense of insecurity has pervaded protests from the Irish
government
and UK environmental groups over the British government's decision
to
license a new plutonium fuel manufacturing plant. Austrian protests
against
the Temelin nuclear power station in neighboring Czech Republic
have also
been given new wings just as the plant is moving towards full
power for the
first time.
Only the nuclear industry itself appears oblivious to the sands
shifting
under its feet, with European association Foratom continuing
to focus its
arguments on nuclear's potential to avoid greenhouse gas emissions
at a
conference in Brussels earlier this month. Nuclear power plants
are in
operation in eight out of the 15 nations of the European Union
and generate
about 35 percent of the EU’s electricity. This nuclear share
rises to at
least 50 percent during off-peak periods, as nuclear plants
are mainly used
for generating baseload electricity.
A number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, in line
for EU
membership, also rely heavily on nuclear generated electricity.
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