02/06/08

Nuclear power: point-blank refusal from environmental organizations

Safety and radioactive waste disposal. All the knotty problems of atomic energy

“Nuclear power is of no use for Italy”. This is the strong clear-cut message launched by Legambiente, Greenpeace and WWF in response to the new government’s plan to build new plants.

The figures on costs, safety, technologies and implementation times are highlighted in a report concerning the nuclear energy policies carried out over the last twenty years, that is, since the 1987 referendum when Italy banned the production of atomic energy. According to the figures supplied, if today our country fell into line with the average EU nuclear power production (30%), we should build ten reactors similar to the one being put up in Finland (the greatest in the world) with a 10-15 thousand MW capacity and invest between 30 and 50 billion euros.

In spite of the 439 working nuclear power plants recently registered worldwide, the AIEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), claims that today nuclear power is declining as a source of energy and the worldwide demand will go down from 15 to 13 percent by 2030 (figures quoted in the report ‘Energy, electricity and nuclear power estimates for the period up to 2030). The drawbacks usually accounted for are the lack of safety of the plants, waste disposal and dismantling of outdated plants.
The environmental organizations point at nuclear costs and quote the USA Energy Department figures which estimate one Mwh worth 80 dollars, and, considering the industrial costs and subsidies, that would make it more expensive than other energy sources.

Giuseppe Onufrio, manager of the Greenpeace Italia campaign, Vittorio Cogliati Dezza, Legambiente’s national president and Michela Candotti, WWF Italia general manager point out that energy savings and efficiency as well as the development of renewable sources are the solution to stop the planet’s increasing fever. They also claim that, if the implementation of nuclear power plants was to be a priority, we should give up the EU 2020 targets which force us to reduce CO2 emissions by 30%, to produce renewable energy by 20% and to improve energy efficiency by 20% as well.

Although environment protection and energy efficiency are some of the priorities quoted in the Confindustria guidelines, Greenpeace, Legambiente and WWF emphasize the problem of the 250 thousand tons of radioactive waste so far produced worldwide, whose destination to proper disposal sites has not been scheduled yet.

In Italy the situation is similar to the rest of the world: according to the waste stock inventory conducted by Apat there are 25,000 m3 of radioactive waste, 250 tons of radioactive fuels and 1,500 m3 of waste produced annually by research centres, medicine and industry alongside 80-90 thousand m3 of waste deriving from the dismantling of our four plants.