--Peter Jankowissch, then Austrian Foreign Minister, addressing the First Special Session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna in September 1986 four months after the Chernobyl nuclear accident had contaminated Austria and the rest of Europe with radioactive fallout.
The whole nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining and enrichment to the use of nuclear reactors and reprocessing of reactor fuel, creates radioactive wastes and routinely releases radioactive gas and water into the environment.
Nuclear power technology is also inherently linked to nuclear weapons technology and thus fuels global nuclear proliferation.
Greenpeace actively works to promote alternatives to nuclear power such as renewable electricity production and energy efficiency and conservation.
THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
The nuclear industry is now facing eventual extinction from the global energy marketplace due to environmental and economic concerns. There were 421 commercial nuclear plants in operation at the beginning of 1996, ten fewer than there were at the industry's peak in December 1988. Between the end of 1990 and 1991, the total installed nuclear generating capacity actually declined for the first time since commercial nuclear power was put to use in the 1950s.
In the United States, all reactor orders made over the past 20 years have subsequently been cancelled. Between 1972 and 1990 there were 119 nuclear plants cancelled by United States utilities. In Canada, the nuclear industry has not placed an order for a reactor since 1974. In Latin America, only four reactors are now in operation: one in Mexico, one in Brazil and two in Argentina. In Cuba, the construction of two Soviet- designed reactors was halted in 1992 for economic reasons.
A number of European countries have made formal commitments to shut down their nuclear programmes. Austria abandoned its only nuclear plant at Zwentendorf, Greece scrapped plans to build its first nuclear plant and Italian voters decided in November 1987 to block the expansion of the country's nuclear programme. In June 1990, the Italian parliament approved a measure to dismantle the country's three existing reactors.
In February 1992, the Belgium government reaffirmed an indefinite moratorium on new reactors. In 1990, Switzerland voted for a moratorium on reactor construction for 10 years. In April 1991, the Spanish government reaffirmed its 1983 moratorium on nuclear construction. In September 1993, the Finnish parliament voted against government plans for a fifth nuclear reactor. In Germany no new nuclear plants have been ordered since the mid 1970s and there are no plants under construction. In addition, in 1989 - 1991, three of the major nuclear projects under way were abandoned.
In 1989, the British government abandoned its plans for expansion when attempted privatisation showed the true costs of the nuclear industry. Now there is only one reactor under construction at an estimated cost of US$ 5.7 billion. Sweden decided in 1980 referendum to phase out all nuclear power by 2010 despite using more nuclear energy per person than any other country in the world.
In France, long held as the Western nation most committed to nuclear power for energy, the state electricity utility in 1992 had built up a dept of US$ 38 billion. Growing technical problems have led to extensive maintenance and repairs, costing the public billions of francs.
The nuclear industry is desperate. The lack of orders for new reactors in North America and Western Europe has forced the industry to look elsewhere for a substitute market -- namely Asia and Eastern Europe. Nuclear power is being promoted in both regions by Western nuclear companies with the help of their respective governments. They are being aided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a United Nations-backed organization whose primary aim is to promote dangerous nuclear power.
The world has experienced a number of perilous nuclear accidents. The explosion at the Soviet-built Chernobyl Reactor Four released 190 tonnes of highly radioactivity materials into the environment ten years ago. According to some estimates, at least 9 million people have been effected directly or indirectly. Over 70 percent of the radiation fell on the population of Belarus and the entire zone has become a zone of international ecological disaster.
The near-melt down at America's Three Mile Island facility in 1979, only 200 miles from New York City, is known as the worst commercial nuclear accident in United States history. A sequence of equipment malfunctions and operator errors lead to the accident and industry officials attempted to cover up the full extent of the accident, and the amount of radioactivity released into the environment has never been ascertained. The reactor was permanently shutdown.
Other accidents at the Sosnovy Bor reactor in Russia, Japan's Monju fast breeder reactor, Argentina's Atucha reactor, Spain's Vandellos reactor, and France's Superphenix fast breeder reactor all demonstrate the potential for future nuclear accidents with catastrophic human and environmental costs.
Given the safety risk of nuclear reactors, the fact that nuclear power is more expensive than other forms of energy and the immediate need for a global commitment to alternative forms of energy for the future, Greenpeace is campaigning to end the nuclear power threat. Please join us in this effort.