France begins winding down its reliance on nuclear power

 

France began shutting down its oldest nuclear plant last month after 43 years of operation, the first in a series of closures the government has proposed though the the country won’t altogether abandon its reliance on nuclear power. 

France began shutting down its oldest nuclear plant last month after 43 years of operation, the first in a series of closures the government has proposed though the the country won’t altogether abandon its reliance on nuclear power.

Yet the closure of the two reactors at the Fessenheim plant along the Rhine River on France’s border with Switzerland and Germany, is part of a broad energy strategy to rely more on renewable energy sources.

That strategy would see French dependence on nuclear energy from supplying three-quarters of its electricity to about half by 2035.

The shutdown has also been a key goal of anti-nuclear campaigners since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Experts have noted that the reactors at Fessenheim, brought online in 1977, fall far short of even those reactors at Fukushima, with some warning that seismic and flooding risks in the Alsace region have been underestimated.

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Data: 01.03.2020

Fonte: www.bellona.org

Trump’s Chernobyl

 

Thirty-four years ago in Moscow I watched the government mishandle a disaster. Why does it feel like it was just yesterday?

 

 

It seems terribly wrong that so fine a spring day should be carrying a deadly danger. The daffodils and cherry blossoms proclaim renewal and hope; the crisp, clear air seems incapable of anything so treacherous.

Yet we walk in fear. We want to scrub ourselves again and again against the invisible attacker; we wonder where to hide, how to escape. What can we give our children to protect them? Should we stock up on food and toilet paper? Can we trust the government, which seems bent on making soothing sounds and putting blame elsewhere?

It’s the spring of 1986, and I’m in Moscow with my family as The Times’s bureau chief. Since April 26, when a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant erupted and spewed radioactivity far and wide, we have been wrestling anxiously with the unknown — as reporters, trying to distinguish fact from propaganda; personally, trying to cope with a threat that rides silently and invisibly with the wind.

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Data: 13.03.2020

Fonte: www.nytimes.com

Bellona’s Russian nuclear project celebrates its 25th anniversary

 

Bellona’s nuclear project is a tale of how a Norwegian organization and the world community helped Russia dispose of Soviet radioactive waste

The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 was one of the reasons the Bellona Foundation came to be. In its homeland, the organization engaged in spectacular protests against Norwegian industries that were polluting the environment.

But they were also concerned about their proximity to the Soviet Union and its military activities, which threatened the entire region. Above all, the Norwegians were worried by nuclear testing on Novaya Zemlya and the presence of the Northern Nuclear Fleet.

During the Cold War, Norway had no influence over the nuclear and radiation safety of the Arctic region. With the advent of Glasnost, Bellona was presented with the opportunity to spread information and take practical action. It was this that gave our comprehensive nuclear project a start.

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Data: 10.02.2020

Fonte: www.bellona.org