Europe's nuclear energy industry is proving to be a victim of September's terrorist attacks in the USA. A rising fear of massive radioactive releases is galvanising 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 11 September.
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.
Even strongly pro-nuclear European states have had their nerve tested by the realisation that reprocessing and other nuclear plants could be terrorist targets; the French government last week said that anti-aircraft missile batteries were to be stationed at La Hague.
In Germany, the effect has been to cement or even speed up the ongoing nuclear phase-out programme, culminating in media reports this weekend that economic minister Werner Muller has called on power firms to phase out their oldest stations ahead of schedule. This follows a pledge by environment minister Jurgen Trittin to order plant closures in case of a credible threat of attack (ED 10/10/01 http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=10783 
).
The new sense of insecurity has pervaded protests from the Irish government and UK environmental groups over the British government's decision to licence a new plutonium fuel manufacturing plant (ED 03/10/01 http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=10734 ).
Austrian protests against the Temelin nuclear power station in neighbouring 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.
Follow-up:
- Wise-Paris www.wise-paris.org/ , tel: +33 1 45 65 47 93
- and La Hague Briefing www.wise-paris.org/english/intro/ournews/news2.html
- New Scientist www.newscientist.com/ magazine;
- Foratom www.foratom.org/ , tel: +32 2 502 4595
- and press release www.foratom.org/Foratom/Press_Room/Press_releases/vgb.pdf pdf file. [77kB]
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