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Cloud over nuclear power’s future in Europe

many in government and the private energy sector in the UK are worried that the raising of the spectre of nuclear disaster will have implications for the coalition’s huge building programme for ten new power stations to replace the UK’s ageing reactors.

Nuclear safety worries spread to Europe. Disaster puts pressure on governments, with protests in Germany and concern over new plant plans in Italy and the UK  Tracy McVeigh  guardian.co.uk,  12 March 2011 Tens of thousands of people have taken part in an anti-nuclear demonstration in southern Germany. The demonstration had been planned for some time, but after the news of Japan’s nuclear emergency, organisers were overwhelmed by crowds of around 50,000 people who turned up.

The demonstrators, who stretched in a 45km chain from Neckarwestheim power plant to the city of Stuttgart, were demanding that the German government move away from nuclear power.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has extended the lifespan of Germany’s nuclear power plants, summoned senior cabinet ministers to an emergency meeting.

The Japanese radiation leak comes at a difficult time for Merkel, whose conservatives face three state elections in March where worries over nuclear safety could rally her opponents. The opposition Social Democrats and Greens have called for change and claim several German nuclear plants could not withstand a direct hit by an aircraft or an earthquake……

Privately, many in government and the private energy sector in the UK are worried that the raising of the spectre of nuclear disaster will have implications for the coalition’s huge building programme for ten new power stations to replace the UK’s ageing reactors.

The accident in Japan comes days after the Navy admitted the reactors on British submarines are ‘significantly below benchmarked good practice’, and weeks before the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, which will push fears over nuclear safety back to the forefront of the minds of the British public.

Jan Beranek, head of Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaign, asked for the construction project to be scrapped in the wake of the Japanese earthquake. “Governments should invest in renewable energy resources that are not only environmentally sound but also affordable and reliable,” he said.

Nuclear safety worries spread to Europe | Environment | guardian.co.uk

March 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, opposition to nuclear