All Nuclear Power Plants in Europe are Unsafe – $32 billion required for Safety

Nuclear Power which supplies more than 15% of the world’s electricity is doing a serious examination of its benefits compared to the massive risks. Nuclear Advantages vs Disadvantages are being weighed by countries after the Fukushima accident and many nations have decided to completely abandon nuclear energy. Amongst the most prominent are Germany and Japan which are amongst the top 10 generators of nuclear power in the world. Now a European Union Report has come out with some damaging findings about the state of 134 nuclear reactors in Europe. The study says that all reactors require technical upgrades and improvements and many countries have not implemented safety measures even one year after Fukushima. It would require around $32 billion to be spend on safety upgrades in the next 3 years to prevent a repeat of Fukushima in Europe.

Oil Rich Middle Eastern Nations like Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia have been planning to build nuclear energy plants for quite some time now. They have been extensively engaged in discussions with Asian consortia to supply technology and expertise for building nuclear power plants in their countries. However the Fukushima incident has given some of them cold feet. While countries like Vietnam and China are pressing ahead with their nuclear expansion plans, Japan, Germany, Switzerland have decided to give up nuclear power. Widespread nuclear protests in Germany made the Government take the drastic action of stopping a number of nuclear reactors.

This report comes at a time when massive nuclear protests in India are being witnessed in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Note the cost of nuclear power has grown at a distressing pace with massive time and cost overruns. The Areva Nuclear Plant is going to cost Rs 20 crore a MW which is much more than a Thermal Power plant and even costlier than Solar Power which has the highest capital requirement amongst major energy sources. Besides, disposal of nuclear energy waste is a huge problem even for countries like USA and Japan which have huge nuclear power industries. For a country like India with poor safety record, nuclear waste disposal would be a nightmare. India should learn from the example of Germany and Italy and stop going down the nuclear path and look for other green energy sources. Note different forms of Renewable Energy have their own pros and cons but Nuclear Energy Risks are too great to be ignored.

Read About Pros & Cons of Renewable Energy.

ET

From missing seismic devices to insufficient emergency back-up systems, stress tests on Europe’s nuclear power plants show hundreds of problems requiring billions in new investment, an EU report showed Tuesday. It notably cited the case of 10 reactors where on-site seismic instrumentation has yet to be installed. In some 50 others seismic instruments needed to be upgraded. It also said only four countries currently operate a back-up emergency centre in case the main control room becomes inhabitable in a severe accident.