REVIEW CONFERENCE: CLIMATE CRISIS – WHY NUCLEAR IS NOT HELPING

In October 2019, a conference was held by “Don’t Nuke the Climate” and GLOBAL 2000 against nuclear energy as a supposed climate savior.

Recently, the nuclear lobby has been trying to present itself as the “green” technology that can produce electricity for the energy transition in a “CO2-free and reliable” manner, thereby enabling the exit from dirty energy sources such as oil and coal. Entire conferences on “Atoms4Climate” are organized with this in mind. At the climate conferences, the nuclear lobby acts aggressively and advertises subsidies – only through subsidies can nuclear power be expanded and kept running.

It has long been clear that nuclear power cannot be part of the urgently needed climate protection measures. On the contrary. According to the independent scientists, tackling the climate crisis is about saving CO2 as quickly – and as cost-effectively – as possible.

Nuclear power cannot make a contribution here – it is the most expensive technology – and is far too complex and slow to build to be able to make any contribution at all in the period of the next ten years that is relevant to the climate crisis. The construction time alone of the few reactors that went into operation in recent years took more than 10 yearsexternal link, opens in a new tab, plus there were planning and approval times of another decade.

Even the basic argument of “CO2-free” nuclear power plants is untenable – nuclear power is not a climate saver: The uranium mining chain and the construction and operation of nuclear power plants cause far more greenhouse gas emissions than renewable energies, depending on the uranium content The ore releases between 88 and 146 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour.

The conference

The international conference “Climate Crisis – Why nuclear is not helping”, organized by “Don’t Nuke the Climate” and GLOBAL 2000, took place in October 2019 at the same time as the first IAEA Nuclear Climate Conference. Over two days, facts and figures about nuclear energy were presented and strategies were discussed to keep outdated technology out of the fight against the climate crisis. Key questions were:

Are the pro-nuclear energy arguments correct or influenced by outside sources?
And can new technologies such as “Small Modular Reactors” improve the situation or are they uneconomical and not yet developed far enough?

The questions were developed in lectures and workshops and discussed in lively exchanges. The documents for reading the conference can be found below. The event was held in English, which is why most of the documents were written in English. You can download the program for reading here . The slides for the presentations (mostly in English) can be found here . We have collected photos of the event and a protest in front of the IAEA at the start here .

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… The international conference organized by “Don’t Nuke the Climate” and GLOBAL 2000 that took place at the same time as IAEA’s very first climate conference in Vienna in October 2019 has examined the hard evidence-base, the facts and figures – in order to prepare strategies to keep fresh money for the outdated technology that is nuclear. Key questions included: Whether those forecasts which support new nuclear are accurate – or are they unfairly biased? And whether any novel nuclear technology, such as Small Modular Reactors, are viable – or are they uneconomic and very far from deployment?

The program of the conference can be found here . All slides from the presentations are here , and pictures from the conference and the protest beforehand are collected here .

Role of nuclear and climate goals in IEA, IAEA, IPCC scenarios
Critical look at forecasts – Overestimated for nuclear and underestimated for renewables? Nuclear generation increases, on average by around 2.5 times by 2050 in the 89 mitigation scenarios considered by the IPCC. What the IPCC report also says about nuclear (leukemia, proliferation)
Speaker: Georg Günsberg, Strategy Consultant Climate and Energy Politics, Vienna

Presentation Major Energy Scenarios

Can we afford nuclear power to save us from global warming?
Speaker: Steve Thomas, University of Greenwich, UK

Presentation Cost Of Nuclear Power

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs): Findings from a key report by Paul Dorfman, MV Ramana and Sean Morris
Speaker: Paul Dorfman, The Energy Institute, University College London

Presentation of Small Modular Reactors

Operating a very old fleet of nuclear power plants
Is it the most realistic scenario? Can aging plants contribute to energy security and which additional risks will arise due to climate change phenomena?
Speaker: Oda Becker, Independent technical consultant, Hanover

Presentation of old nuclear plants

Propaganda versus reality of new generation of reactors (GEN IV)
Speaker: Christoph Pistner, Nuclear Engineering & Facility Safety, Ökologieinstitut Darmstadt

Presenting Reality New Reactors

Exclusive Presentation of the WNSIR 2019 by Mycle Schneider and the author of the special chapter on Nuclear Power and Climate Change by Amory Lovins RMI
For nuclear to be considered a viable option in managing the decline of the fossil fuel economy, new reactors must be economically viable and built on-time – however, practical experience demonstrates that nuclear is hugely expensive and very much behind schedule. Nuclear costs and risks mean that plants can only be built with vast state aid (public subsidies), including loan guarantees and long-term power purchase agreements.
Speaker: Mycle Schneider and Amory Lovins – via video conferencing with Q&A

Presentation WNISR 2019

Presentation Nuclear Power and Climate Change

Nuclear power powers the bomb
Speaker: Angelika Claußen, IPPNW president for Europe, Germany

Presentation Nuclear Powers Bombs

Nuclearization of Africa and the role of IAEA
Speaker: Makoma Lekalakala, Earthlife South Africa

Presenting Human Rights Issues

Billions for EURATOM (in German)
Speaker: Christoph Rasch

Presentation costs EURATOM

First results of working paper on climate crisis and NPP
Energiaklub Presentation of the first results about NPP safety and operation under climate crisis condition.
Speaker: Eszter Mátyás, CEU PhD

Presentation Climate and Paks NPP

Presentation Nuclear and Safety

The European Nuclear Power Risk Study 2019
Doctors study analyzes accident consequences based on real weather situations (France, Swiss NPP) and shows the high risks arising from severe nuclear accidents also for neighboring countries.
Speaker: Claudio Knüsli, IPPNW

Presentation EUNUPRI2019

The conference & workshop day were organized by the Don’t Nuke the Climate network of anti-nuclear organizations and networks from all over the globe, that work together to keep nuclear out of the climate agreements and the Paris agreement: The conference
was organized by Don’t Nuke the Climate Network of anti-nuclear organizations and networks from around the world working together to keep nuclear energy out of the climate agreements and the Paris Agreement:

…………………………………………………….. www.dont-nuke-the-climate.org/about-us https://www.global2000.at/news/nachlese-konferenz-climate-crisis-why-nuclear-not-helping