What You Need To Know About Nuclear Power

Don’t forget to tell your grandchildren to
make sure they let their grandchildren know
how to instruct their grandchildren to show
their grandchildren how to clarify to their
grandchildren in what way their grandchildren
could enable their grandchildren to look after
our nuclear waste.

Europe must stop wasting taxpayers’ money to protect a dangerous and expensive technology. 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster, nuclear power, despite its widespread use also in Europe, remains the most dirty and dangerous form of energy.

Instead of nuclear power, Europe needs massive investments in energy efficiency and renewable energies. Any sensible energy policy must have these two elements at its heart.

When collecting signatures for the 1 Million against Nuclear Power campaign, you will meet all kinds of arguments in favor of nuclear energy. In this double-paged sheet of Questions and answers we explain why these arguments are invalid.

The nuclear industry hopes for a nuclear come-back — despite its dangers, despite its astronomical costs. A disaster like the Chernobyl accident, now 20 years ago, can happen anytime anyplace, and since Chernobyl, there were 22 serious nuclear accidents around the world.. A solution for the long-term storage & treatment of radioactive waste has yet to be found. Radioactive material from nuclear power generation can be used to build nuclear weapons. And, globalised terrorism makes nuclear power stations and the uncontrolled proliferation of nuclear material a serious security hazard.

And nuclear power is economically insane. Not a single nuclear power plant was ever built without direct or indirect subsidies, paid by taxpayers and increasing the profits of the nuclear industry. Nuclear power is also no solution to climate change: each Euro invested in nuclear energy would save ten times more greenhouse gases if it was invested in energy efficiency measures instead.

Despite this, and despite the fact that many EU Member States and the majority of their citizens are not in favour of nuclear energy, the so-called EURATOM Treaty officially obliges all EU countries to promote nuclear power. Clearly, this treaty must be abolished, it being an old relic that has no role to play in a modern Europe.

Read on: 6 reasons against nuclear power