Italy’s nuclear ‘renaissance’: we’ve seen this movie before
We’ve talked about the nuclear industry using the same tactics to get their way all over the world – the cover-ups, the fixed consultations, the propaganda. But the problems the nuclear industry creates for itself are also the same the world over.
Look at Italy, for example, and its push for a nuclear ‘renaissance’ (we much prefer the original) of its own. Planning and funding problems, a rush to get things done (‘six months to finalise the sites of future plants and waste storage facilities, and to establish an independent atomic agency’) that can only lead to problems later on, and in-fighting between those who want a slice of the nuclear pie (‘[Italian industry minister Claudio] Scajola support for Sviluppo Nucleare Italia has angered other suppliers’)
We’ve been here before, and before, and before. Does the nuclear industry hand out the same script at the start of every new venture? What’s missing? Ah, yes – what nuclear tale would be complete without our favourite character, Areva…
Finmeccanica SpA Chairman Pier Francesco Guarguaglini said Wednesday the defense and aerospace company is unsatisfied with the talks with French state-controlled nuclear group Areva SA over building nuclear reactors in Italy. Negotiations with Areva "are still unsatisfactory because they don't include the activity of the reactors,"
Areva, in unsatisfactory behaviour shock? Where’ve we heard that before? Oh yes, in Finland. And in the UK. And in the US. And in… And in…
If the nuclear industry was a film studio, it would just make the same bad film over and over and over again. The films would cost a fortune to make and the public would have to pay to see them whether they wanted to or not.
Comments
CLOSE NUKES ! SLUIT DE KERNCENTRALES ! Jette le nucléaire ! ...Our advice is to close down all nuclear fission reactors without delay. They are a major source of deadly pollution. ... advise is the closing down of the nuclear reactors and all representation of nuclear fission as a more efficient way of producing energy. From the politicians’ point of view, there is power, prestige and commercial gain from nuclear energy. The average person’s mind is confused by all the scientific jargon; his voice is not properly heard in the realms of power. But the voice of the people is about to become more articulate...the urgency of dealing with dangerous nuclear reactors as an absolute priority. He also provided a fascinating picture of forthcoming discoveries. Currently the nuclear industry in various parts of Western Europe is promoting itself as the clean form of energy. The main problem… storage. Nuclear reactors in the major industrialized countries now operating or being built will produce thousands of cubic metres of high-level waste. The problem of a long-term repository for high-level wastes remains unsolved. High-level wastes are stored in stainless steel tanks, but there have been leaks… As for underground sites, the search for stable geological sites has not been successful, and we cannot predict future geological movements; earthquakes mean there are no guarantees. Intermediate and low-level wastes are buried in shallow grounds in the US and in the UK, but in the US, three sites were closed down several years ago due to contamination. Low-level waste has also been dumped into the sea. This panorama is made infinitely worse by the fact that in Eastern Europe the dangers multiply with a large number of age-ing and dangerous nuclear reactors. The entrepreneur Edward Goldsmith estimated in a recent book that there are at least 41 disasters of the Chernobyl type waiting to happen in Eastern Europe...the voice of the people, to address the problems of peace and war, starvation in the midst of plenty; to galvanize the will of the people to force politicians to address these issues. Government, today, is about power and the wielding of power, rather than about service. What is required is shifting the emphasis ! Source: http://www.share-international.org Take action now sisters and brothers ! Switch to green electricity for starters ! In Belgium Ecopower is the best: pure power from only wind mills !
Posted by: Mirjam | October 9, 2009 10:49 AM
Hi Justin...,
...and thanks very much for your defining contributions here. Has the world gone mad? A man that kills people every day getting the Nobel Peace Prize today, and Peter Garrett joining the nuclear/Rudd proliferation team, authorizing new uranium mines in Australia, and selling it worldwide to 26 countries. 'No health or environmental risks'? Please enjoy this read, and all the things Peter used to talk about by Dr Helen Caldicott - http://www.abolitionist-online.com/_07caldicott.shtml
I'd like to think there's a better reason that you seem to have sold your sole to the devil Peter, but I think it must be buried under all that high level waste you're turning a blind eye to. What a waste of a great man and all he stood for. I'm stil rubbing my eyes at what I'm seeing.
Posted by: Grateful Child | October 9, 2009 3:18 PM
So true, Justin!
Posted by: Bob | October 10, 2009 10:38 PM