Hazardous
waste, illegitimate and dangerous new reactors
and a diversion to the solutions to climate
change - here's why France's picture of
nuclear energy is just a 'great illusion'…
02 February 2009
International — Despite
the French government's global marketing
of its flagship European Pressurised Reactor
(EPR) as cheap and safe, nuclear energy
is rapidly becoming the most expensive way
to produce electricity, and its highly radioactive
waste poses an ever-increasing problem.
Greenpeace has recently
uncovered evidence that nuclear waste from
the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) -
the flagship of the French nuclear industry
- will be up to seven times more hazardous
than waste produced by existing nuclear
reactors, increasing costs and the danger
to health and the environment.
This alarming evidence
was buried away in the environmental impact
assessment report from Posiva, the company
responsible for managing waste at the world's
first EPR under construction at Olkiluoto
in Finland, and in EU-funded research.
Expensive and hazardous
The EPR is designed to extract more energy
from nuclear fuel than any commercially
operating reactor in order to maximise electricity
output. This "high burn-up" method
causes the amount of readily-released radioactive
substances in spent fuel to increase disproportionately.
The storage of the hazardous waste will
be more costly for a range of reasons -
including an increase in the repository
size due to the greater distance needed
between canisters, more extensive and longer-term
monitoring being necessary, and increased
security being required.
According to John Large,
an independent nuclear consultant, "…not
only will spent nuclear fuel produced by
the EPR be more dangerous than is acknowledged
by the French nuclear industry, but also
storage and disposal will be more expensive
than the industry and governments proclaim
and will increase the overall cost of nuclear
energy. The French nuclear companies Areva
and EDF, which aggressively market the EPR
as safe and cheap, have completely ignored
the implications of the increased hazards."
No appropriate waste
facilities exist - or are even being planned
- in Finland, France or any of the countries
considering buying the EPR (including the
UK, the US, Canada and India). In Finland,
plans for burying the nuclear waste that
are awaiting approval are simply inadequate
for preventing interim and long-term health
risks, and will pass on huge financial liabilities
to future generations.
"Illegitimate and
dangerous"
The EPR construction project in Olkiluoto
has been hampered by all manner of chronic
problems, delays and cost overruns. It was
supposed to have been completed by April
2009, but now faces at least three years'
delay - its cost has doubled to over €5
billion and serious construction and safety
problems have been identified.
The very same mistakes
have plagued a second EPR construction at
Flamanville, France, which started just
over a year ago. It too is now delayed -
by nine months at present - and is already
running at over 20 percent of its budget.
Despite all this, President
Sarkozy announced last week that a new EPR
is to be built in Penly, France. Greenpeace
believes that building yet another reactor
under these circumstances is entirely illegitimate
and simply dangerous.
The Penly decision was
taken without any public consultation, open
bidding or analysis of energy needs. No
other options, such as energy efficiency
or renewable energy potential, were considered,
no comparisons were made in terms of costs,
environmental impacts or needs; in fact,
the official study analysing France's electricity
needs beyond 2020 is still ongoing, so there
is nothing to justify the decision to pour
vast amounts of money into building another
problematic reactor.
Its only justification
is to provide a massive contract to the
state-owned industry. In these times of
fiscal crisis, however, it is crucial to
make the right choices: and investment instead
in renewable energy would provide not only
climate protection and cleaner energy, but
more and better jobs and a truly sustainable
state infrastructure.
The great illusion
At a time when France is setting itself
up as the political and industrial champion
of a supposed worldwide expansion of nuclear
power, Global Chance - an association that
includes among its members several of France's
few independent nuclear experts - has produced
a report that shows how France's nuclear
promises are a dangerous illusion. France
is locked into nuclear power in a way that
presents an obstacle to the development
of renewable energy and energy efficiency
measures.
The Global Chance report
shows:
how France's nuclear
programme fails to rise to the challenges
of climate change and energy security;
how France has not benefited economically
from their 'all electric, all nuclear' approach
how nuclear power is liable to suffer serious
accidents - whether due to system failure,
natural disaster or deliberate attack
how no satisfactory solution has been found
for the management of long-term waste; and
how France contributes to proliferation,
which remains a major risk for global security.
The Greenpeace briefing France's Nuclear
Failures - The great illusion of nuclear
energy summarises the lessons that can be
drawn from the Global Chance report.
Energy [R]evolution!
Nuclear power is nothing more than an out-of-date,
expensive and failed technology from the
last century. It undermines the solutions
to climate change by diverting urgently-needed
resources away from the true renewable and
energy-efficiency solutions that governments
who are serious about climate change need
to invest in.
Greenpeace's Energy
[R]evolution blueprint shows that renewable
energy and greater energy efficiency can
deliver half the world's energy needs by
2050 and ensure that people have a clean
energy future that is free from the dangers
of hazardous nuclear waste.
