If we are not ready to see the ecological threat as the most important one, we are risking unforseeable consequences for the coming generations.
Global Warming
The temperature of the earth as a result of industrialization has increased by almost 1°C. This is shown in the documentation „An unpleasant truth“ by Al Gore, former Vice President of the USA. Extreme weather has become usual, hurricanes are becoming more frequent, ice in polar regions is melting, sea levels are rising.
According to scientists from Kiel, further warming of the athmosphere in the whereabouts of up to 5°C is possible before the year 2001, if mankind does not decrease its consumption of fossile fuels. One of the most far-reaching consequences: the ocean level could rise by as much as one meter until the year 2100.
(Source: Kieler Forschernetzwerk untersucht die Folgen der Erderwärmung
Mona Botros, Pressestelle,08.10.2006, Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, Kiel)
Am On April 26th, 1986, reactor no. 4 of the Ukrainian nuclear power station of Chernobyl exploded. Most hit by this catastrophe were the Ukraine, with receiving 15% of the radiation, and Belarus with 70% of the nuclear fallout. According to Prof. Dr. Edmund Lengfelder from the Otto Hug Strahleninstitut and University of Munich, it is realistic to assume that about 70,000 people died as a result of Chernobyl. Most common results of Chernobyl are thyroid gland diseases and thyroid gland cancer. Other forms of cancer, such as breast cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer, skin and prostata cancer, have increased. And Chernobyl had consequences on the health of people in Western European countries as well.
NUCLEAR ENERGY IS NOT SAFE!
Even when operating properly nuclear facilities cause damage to man and environment by their radioactive emissions. In the proximity of nuclear power stations and reprocessing plants leukemia in children is higher than in more remote areas.
The dangers are increasing – The risk of a nuclear catastrophe in Europe is about 16 percent.
According to the official Risk Study of Nuclear Power Plants ("Deutsche Risikostudie Kernkraftwerke - Phase B"), done by the „Society for the safety of nuclear power plants“ (Gesellschaft für Reaktorsicherheit) there is a risk of 0.1% that a nuclear catastrophe is about to happen in the 40 year lifespan of a nuclear power station. There are 150 nuclear power stations in the EU. This means that the probability of a nuclear catastrophe is about 16% - the probability to get a 6 when rolling a dice..
There are about 440 nuclear power stations operating world-wide. The probability that anything could happen is 40%.
"The risk of a nuclear catastrophe is on the rise” says Henrik Paulitz, expert on nuclear energy of the IPPNW. “Like a car that experiences more and more problems in the course of years, so do older nuclear power stations. The older the nuclear power plant, the more problems there are with safety relevant components. For 20-30 years, pipes and fittings of German nuclear power plants had to cope with extremely high pressure, high temperatures and radioactivity. With every year, the probability of cracks in welding joints is increasing. One crack in a welding joint could lead to a maximum conceivable accident.“
With the rise of non-state terrorism nuclear power plants are at risk of being the target of terrorist attacks. No nuclear power station in the world would survive the attack of a civil aircraft. And in Germany there is a tendency to prolong the running time of the most dangerous and unsecure nuclear power stations. One of them is the nuclear power plant in Biblis, only a few flight minutes from the airport of Frankfurt.
NUCLEAR ENERGY IS NOT PEACEFUL!
A technology can cause dead cannot be peaceful. Nuclear power plants produce plutonium, which can be used for the production of nuclear bombs. In the so-called reprocessing plants of La Hague (France) and Sellafield (England) plutonium is obtained from spent fuel elements. Meanwhile, there are several hundred tons of plutonium, some of them coming from German nuclear power plants.
Even in Germany scientists are working with material that can be used for nuclear weapons. Highly enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear bombs, is supposed to be used in the „Research reactor" of Garching near Munich. In the war against Yugoslavia and probably in other wars as well depleted uranium was used, a uranium enrichment waste product. And there is an uranium enrichment processing plant in Germany in the city of Gronau.
Against this backdrop I demand:
- to immediately shut down all nuclear facilities
- to immediately develop regenerative energies (solar, wind, water, biomass and geothermal energies)
MY ACTIVITIES FOR A GREEN FUTURE
In 1990, together with Dagmar and Rainer Ossig and Reinhold Chmielewski I founded the society „Children of Chernobyl, Mönchengladbach“. In the past 15 years we had given several hundred children of Chernobyl the chance to have a vacation in Mönchengladbach, many children had the opportunity to receive medical treatment in our city. And the relatives of sick and dead children received support from our society.
In my journalistic contributions for taz, Friedensforum, Publik-Forum etc. I consistently reminded of the dangers of nuclear energy.
The international nuclear industry is cooperating in a way that frightens me. German nuclear waste from the uranium enrichment plant in Gronau is being directly exported to the Russian city of Novouralsk. Interestingly enough, Novouralsk is a closed city, a leftover structure from Stalinist Russia. Thus, the German nuclear industry does not need to be worried. No worry with environmental activists, who might find out something about the state of affairs of the German nuclear waste in Novouralsk.
At my initiative, WASG of North Rhine Westfalia decided to work for a partnership of the cities Novouralsk and Gronau. Such a partnership would put a light on the fact that “we” are exporting nuclear waste to an utmost undemocratic territory: a closed city.
Closely cooperating with Russian environmentalists such as like Grigorij Pasko and Natalja Mironowa I raised the issue of cooperation between the nuclear industries in the West and in Russia on several occasions.
In 1994 I organized an environmental, anti-nuclear conference for the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Kiev (Ukraine).
In 1995 I invited the Russian environmental journalist Alla Jaroshinskaja to Germany. In 1992 Mrs Jaroshinskaja received the alternative nobel prize for her research work on the Chernobyl catastrophe.
When Siemens in 2003 planned the transfer of a fuel element plant from Hanau to China, I invited Russian anti-nuclear activist Natalia Mironowa to Germany, where she actively got involved in the fight against this transfer. Her visit was financed by the Marion Dönhoff Foundation. In the end, the planned deal did not materialize, largely due to the resistance of the civil society in Germany. And the activities of Natalja Mironowa also did their part.
Since 2004 I have been inviting the Russian environmentalist and journalist Grigorij Pasko to Germany. These journeys are being financed by the Marion Dönhoff Stiftung. In Germany, Pasko was talking to ecological and human rights groups and giving interviews to TV stations and newspapers, where he was criticizing the export of German nuclear waste to Russia.
See also: My partners Grigorij Pasko, Natalja Mironowa.
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Bernhard Clasen © 2001 - 2007 Design: Zaira Aminova |