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Austrian and Bavarian challenges to extending life of Germany’s old nuclear reactors

Anschober said there had been a “decision for the profit interests of the atomic energy lobby and against safety concerns.”

Nuclear extension sparks Austrian meltdown — The Local. 7 Sept 10, Germany’s plan to extend the lives of its nuclear reactors has upset neighbouring Austria, where a environmental official has warned that a reactor near the border poses clear “safety risks.”
Rudi Anschober, environment minister for the state of Upper Austria, which borders Bavaria, also warned that the Austrian Federal Government was preparing to attack Germany’s plan.

The extension of the “Isar I” nuclear reactor at Essenbach, which lies about 100 kilometres from the border with Austria, was “not responsible,” Anschober said on Tuesday in Linz.

Christian Social Union city councillors in Landshut, the southeast Bavarian city, also demanded the ageing reactor be closed down quickly…..
Anschober said there had been a “decision for the profit interests of the atomic energy lobby and against safety concerns.”

Austria’s federal Environment Minister Niki Berlakovich has previously said Germany’s nuclear extension was a “serious setback for renewable energy” and atomic energy was no solution to climate change.

The government’s decision has also raised the prospect of fiercely renewed blockades and protests against nuclear waste transport and disposal. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition has so far not announced how it will deal with the extra waste generated by the extension of the reactors’ lifespans.
…the revival of the Gorleben extension plan was only a phony solution to waste disposal, said Wolfgang Ehmke from the Lüchow-Dannenberg Citizens Initiative for Ecological Protection.

Environmentalists also vowed to blockade the next waste transport to Gorleben, where two interim waste storage units currently sit. A shipment of waste is expected in November and many environmentalists planned to take decisive action, said Luise Neumann-Cosel, a spokeswoman for the group X-tausendmal quer.

It was clear in Gorleben “that thousands of people are ready to breach the boundaries to peacefully resist the irresponsible nuclear policies of the coalition,” she said.Nuclear extension sparks Austrian meltdown – The Local

September 8, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, radiation, radioactive, reactors