Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Party may have won last weekend’s national election but they certainly haven’t won the argument on Germany’s nuclear phaseout.

Following on from 50,000 people gathering in Berlin last month to protest against nuclear power in Germany, and in just two days, nearly 43,000 people (at the time of writing) have signed an open letter to Chancellor Merkel along with her coalition partners, Horst Seehofer - chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU) - and Guido Westerwelle - leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) demanding that they not reverse Germany’s nuclear power phaseout.

‘CDU, CSU and FDP have won the election not because of, but despite, their position on nuclear power,’ says the letter and it urges eight nuclear reactors be closed immediately, an end to the disinformation surrounding the disastrous Gorleben nuclear waste storage facility, and the strengthening of the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. The campaign has promised ‘massive protests’ should Germany’s new government decide to reverse the decision made in 2000 to rid the country of its nuclear reactors by 2020.

German citizens can sign the letter here.

Posted by Justin at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the face of huge opposition – both in the polls and on the streets of Germany [http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/09/50000_say_nein_danke_to_nuclea.html] – Chancellor Angela Merkel has again outlined her nuclear ambitions [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601090&sid=as9F1MHi6CgE]…

In a town-hall-style meeting in Cologne three weeks before elections, Merkel told voters that prolonging the phase-out that’s planned for 2020 is “justifiable” to avert having to import power from nuclear sources in other European Union states. Utilities including RWE AG and E.ON AG have pressured the government to let them keep nuclear plants running longer.

With just over two weeks to go before Germany’s national elections, pressure is still needed to make sure the new German government does not make a historic mistake by giving a nuclear lead to the rest of the world.

If further inspiration is needed, here’s a slideshow of photos taken at the anti-nuclear power demonstration in Berlin on September 5 which was attended by 50,000 people…

Posted by Justin at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Berlin on Saturday to protest against nuclear power and put the issue at the heart of the upcoming national elections. They were led by 350 tractors driven by farmers who had begun their journey at the Gorleben nuclear waste dump.

As the gathering was taking place Greenpeace announced that its survey had found that 59 per cent of Germans were against Angela Merkel’s proposals to extend the lifetimes of the country’s 17 nuclear reactors. Even supporters of Chancellor Merkel’s own party, the CDU, and those of its potential coalition partner, the FDP, are equally split over the issue.

More news on the gathering, along with a photo gallery and video, is available (in German*) on the Greenpeace Germany website. There is also the transcript of the speech given by Greenpeace Finland’s nuclear campaigner, Lauri Myllyvirta at the Brandenburg Gate. Pictures twittered by Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner Aslihan Tumer can be seen here, here [http://twitpic.com/gkvtn], here and here.

* Google’s translation service can help those who don’t read German.

Posted by Justin at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:

Bloomberg: Nuclear-Waste Dump Shored Up as Germany Buys Time
Operators of an underground nuclear- waste dump in Germany are trying to shore up the interior faster than it’s being eroded by water leaks, buying time until they determine whether the site should be shut down. Workers will use cement to reinforce ceilings of chambers in the former salt mine, said Wolfram Koenig, president of Federal Office for Radiation Protection, the atomic regulator. Water has seeped into the site since at least 1988. About 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) enter daily, forming underground pools that must be covered to avoid contamination so the water can be pumped out safely or used to make cement.

Continue reading "Nuclear News: Nuclear-Waste Dump Shored Up as Germany Buys Time" »

Posted by Justin at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meet Swedish energy giant Vattenfall. The nuclear industry attracts serial incompetents like a big, ugly and dirty cake attracts big, stupid flies. And they don’t come much bigger and stupider than Vattenfall.

This week has seen big trouble for the company. Two serious incidents at its Ringhals nuclear reactor in southern Sweden have seen the company threatened with ‘special supervision’ measures with would put safety procedures under increased scrutiny.

One of the incidents involved the failure of an automatic safety system designed to prevent the release of radioactive material. To make matters worse almost sixty other incidents have been reported at the reactor this year alone. Ringhals employees have also tested positive for drugs or alcohol.

(Vattenfall are also the operators of Sweden’s Forsmark nuclear reactors, one of which came perilously close to a meltdown in 2006, narrowly avoiding causing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.)

To add to Vattenfall’s woes, the company has had to fire the plant manager of its Krummel reactor in Germany. The reactor had only been running for two weeks - after a fire in a transformer in 2007 closed the plant for two year - when a short circuit in another transformer caused the reactor to shut down once again. It is expected to be out of action for several months. In fact, the clock is ticking for the disaster-prone company in more ways than one…

Peter Harry Carstensen, State Premier of Schleswig Holstein - where the Krummel plant is located - said he would grant Vattenfall "one last chance" to get on top of the problems at the reactor.

"If there is one more incident like this, I will see to it that this power station is shut down," the Christian Democratic politician told Vattenfall head Tuomo Hatakka in Kiel on Tuesday.

He should have listened to Greenpeace Germany. This week the group staged another action at the Krummel reactor, welding shut five of the site’s entry gates and posting signs saying ‘Nuclear power plant Krümmel is closed because of the unreliability of Vattenfall’.

Finally the Swedish government are now asking questions. It is demanding ‘that state-owned power utility Vattenfall provide an account of its work on nuclear safety after problems at one of its plants in Germany and security concerns at another in Sweden’. The answer better be good.

Posted by Justin at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nuclear power harms Germany, in other words. Here are 22 Greenpeace Germany activists who yesterday climbed the dome of Unterweser, one of the seven oldest nuclear power plants in the country.

Copyright: © Fred Dott / Greenpeace

Documents from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office show that Unterweser and the six other reactors – with their thin reinforced concrete walls and low security measures - don’t have safety systems to protect them from plane crashes or terrorist attacks from the air.

Greenpeace is a strictly non-violent organisation. What if that had been a terrorist organisation on top of the reactor yesterday? These plants should be closed immediately.

(More information along with a video of the action is available on the Greenpeace Germany website.)

Posted by Justin at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)