View all newsletters
Sign up to our newsletters

Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Long reads
23 July 2007

Nuclear: The risks remain

Incidents involving reactors in Germany and Japan have again demonstrated the dangers of nuclear pow

By Rebecca Harms

Ever since atom splitting has been used to generate energy, its risks and dangers have been controversial at least.

And since the disastrous accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, this debate has in reality been settled in Europe: The majority of the continent’s citizens are against this technology.

Proponents of nuclear fission have been trying to jump on the climate change bandwagon to resuscitate nuclear power after decades of stagnation. Unfortunately, some UN climate change strategists, as well as parts of the European Commission, have bought into the nuclear lobby’s arguments.

While we clearly need to reform our wasteful and polluting energy industry to meet today’s energy and environmental challenges grasping at even more dangerous straws cannot be the answer.

Even if the Germans, Swedish and Japanese live under the illusion that their own facilities are by comparison the safest, the operators of atomic facilities have often only avoided a repeat of the Chernobyl disaster by a hair’s breadth.

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

Only a couple of weeks ago in the end of June thick clouds of smoke poured out of a transformer in the nuclear power plant in Krümmel, Germany. The statement of operator Vattenfall claiming the fire in the transformer had no effect on the reactor itself proved to be misleading.

The same day the reactor in Brunsbüttel, a Vattenfall reactor as well, had to be shut down due to network problems. Both incidents were assigned the lowest problem classification in the Vattenfall report – “N” for normal.

Also in last year’s incident in the Swedish Forsmark reactor Vattenfall tried to gloss over the seriousness of the situation. The Vattenfall policy of downplaying the actual problems, releasing information only bit by bit and even releasing wrong information is irresponsible and leaves one wondering what else they might be hiding.

Only a couple of days after the incidents in Germany the worldwide biggest nuclear power plant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Japan made it to the headlines. An earthquake had caused a series of problems, including a fire in a transformer, a leak in a cooling pond and the damaging of a number of barrels containing nuclear waste. Also here the operator delayed communicating the real scale of the problems to the public.

The incidents have shown that nuclear energy is not the modern high technology sector portrayed by the industry itself. Aging reactors, the disability to prepare for natural disasters and a safety culture that is at least questionable pose a permanent risk to the population.

It is wrong to try and counteract the risk of global warming through an expansion of nuclear energy and the consequential nuclear risks. Promoting nuclear as a sustainable energy source, as the nuclear lobby in Brussels and elsewhere is trying to do, is misleading. Any technology that can produce such devastating consequences as those in 1986 from the Chernobyl disaster can never be sustainable. Nuclear energy is a high risk technology.

We can lull ourselves into a false sense of security by trying to forget about past catastrophes. However, the fact that there has not been another accident with a core meltdown since Three Mile Island does not mean that it will never happen again. Every year there are thousands of incidents, occurrences and events in nuclear installations and, simply because there was no catastrophic radioactive leakage, the world reacts as if there was no problem.

The permanent risk of a core meltdown is a strong argument against the use of nuclear power. The lifetime extension of nuclear power plants heightens the risk of a major accident considerably. Are we going to find a solution to dispose of nuclear waste safely for thousands or even millions of years? This question does not only still lack an answer, it goes far beyond imagination. Every country using nuclear power could build a nuclear bomb if it decided to do so. These dangers are no less terrifying given the challenges of climate change.

Only a strategy which finally makes energy companies, ministers and citizens abandon the energy production fix will help fight against climate change. Conservation and efficiency must become priorities in energy supply and use worldwide. Only Negawatt instead of Megawatt and the swift expansion of renewable energy sources can put the brakes on climate change.

Content from our partners
The promise of prevention
How Labour hopes to make the UK a leader in green energy
Is now the time to rethink health and care for older people? With Age UK

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU