So what’s been happening in the world of nuclear power recently?
Despite much of the news media now ignoring what’s happening at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, work is still continuing to bring the reactors there under control. In fact it’s very much ‘one step forward, two steps back’ with the attempt to cool the reactors and prevent further explosions.
It’s going to be a long, long process. ‘Full dismantling, including demolishing the reactors, will take decades more and will only happen after radiation levels fall,’ says a draft copy of the cleanup plan drawn up by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and the Japan Atomic Energy Commission.
It’s the same as the approach to nuclear waste disposal. We have no solution today, but rather than exposing that, the industry just passes on the hard – or even impossible – choices to future generations, so that it can continue to profit today.
These kinds of tactics seem to work very much to the nuclear industry’s advantage. People have short memories. News organisations move on to more current stories. It took years for the full effects of the Chernobyl disaster to emerge. It will be the same for Fukushima. In the meantime, the nuclear industry can continue to push its agenda and the world will forget the people of Fukushima.
(Very soon we’ll once again be bringing you regular updates about what’s happening at Fukushima.)
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On the other hand, the tide is running against the nuclear industry. After Germany, Switzerland and Italy having all turned their backs on nuclear power in recent weeks.
Strange thing are now happening in pro-nuclear France. The government is to include a ‘nuclear exit scenario’ in a study on energy policy. Three quarters of the French people are now in favour of nuclear phase out according to a survey. The idea that France may get rid off this deadly technology entirely is a legitimate option in political debate for the first time. Even the heavily pro-nuclear government suggests that the role of nuclear be reduced to 50% of the electricity mix (from today’s 80%) and the country quickly expands modern renewable technologies.
Now seems it’s the turn of Kuwait…
Kuwait is no longer eager to possess nuclear technology or to seek nuclear power for energy purposes, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dr. Mohammad Al-Sabah.
This is interesting for a number of reasons. Last September Kuwait was talking about building four reactors. Right across the Middle East countries are pushing to acquire nuclear technology – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Jordan amongst them. The reason often given is that these countries fear for their energy supplies and want to move away from a reliance on fossil fuels. But this is also very much about the strategic access to nuclear technologies and materials that can be easily converted from nuclear power to nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons proliferation is one of the crucial problems of nuclear reactor technologies, and one of the strong reasons to rather phase it out instead of expanding and spreading it further across our planet.
So what are Kuwait’s reasons for turning their back on nuclear power? One thing we do know is that the nuclear industry has lost yet another potentially very lucrative market.
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Finally, it seems the world’s jellyfish population has decided to mount its own protests against nuclear power. In recent weeks we’ve seen jellyfish shutdown both reactors at the Torness power station in Scotland, slow down reactors at the Shimane plant in Japan, and threaten the Orot Rabin nuclear power plant in Hadera, Israel (Update: See the comments - Orot Rabin is actually a coal power station not a nuclear one as widely reported. Jellyfish are against all forms of dirty energy.)
It looks as if nature decided to sent yet another species to deal with the nuclear industry, after previous missions by rabbits and pigeons.