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Belgium says no nukes, but should it?
photo by marijla (Flickr CC)
Growing anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe has reached another milestone. Following Germany’s move to close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, Belgium has decided to shut its own starting in 2015 and completing by 2025, according to a Reuters report.
Much like the companies that run Germany’s nuclear stations, Belgium’s energy operator, Electrabel, warned of blackouts, environmental pollution and a decrease in energy independence as a result of the imminent shut down of the country’s 7 atomic power plants.
From AFP:
Already a net importer of electricity, Belgium could become increasingly dependent on its neighbours, increase its carbon footprint by replacing nuclear with thermal energy, and be forced to considerably hike the price of electricity for consumers.
Nuclear power is a tricky issue that divides many Greens. Well-known environmental writers such as Mark Lynas and George Monbiot have come out in favor of nuclear in the face of fossil fuel-driven climate change. They believe the risks posed by atomic energy are dwarfed by the risks of not using it. Simply put: shutting down nuclear plants at this point in time will cause an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, pushing the world closer to the brink of catastrophic climate change.
Lynas explains:
The current deployment of nuclear power worldwide of 430 reactors reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 2 billion tons per year. And that really is the beginning and the end of the argument if you’re in the slightest bit concerned about global warming. And all of the oft-stated green objections to nuclear power are either urban myths or an order of magnitude less important than global climate change.
Nevertheless, in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, Belgium sees things differently. It joins Germany, Switzerland and Italy in a move away from nuclear power. Contrastingly, the Czech Republic and Poland are positive about their own nuclear ambitions. Europe is clearly not united on this issue.
We are generally familiar with the risks of nuclear power: Chernobyl and recently Fukushima are both frightening, though very different, examples.
On the other hand we need to acknowledge that coal kills – far more than nuclear power, albeit in more subtle ways that we are perhaps more used to and less aware of, such as respiratory diseases.
And then there are mining disasters, like the explosion in a Chinese coalmine last week, which killed 29 people.
Of course what we really need are more renewables like solar, wind and wave power. But if sudden decisions to close down nuclear plants (which admittedly pose risks) result in more coal usage (which unequivocally kills thousands of people every year) maybe being uncompromisingly anti nuclear isn’t the Greenest position at this point in time.
And then there are the wars we fight over oil…
Tags: atomic, Belgium, climate change, coal, energy, Europe, Fukushima, Lynas, nuclear, plant, power
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It’s alright to compare it from the history it’s where we get our lessons to be learned. unfortunately for that Bataan power plant Philippine government is still paying for its maintenance to prevent any leaks and some of the parts are still being paid for its interest….hu hu hu, sniff, sniff…
Wow I didn’t know about the Bataan plant. I looked on wiki and one source said it had over 4,000 defects and lies near a fault line. Good job they stopped work on it then.
I think the time to phase nuclear out for renewable energy would be far longer than 2 years… probably 10x longer and using newer, safer models. I admit it’s all still a bit scary to me, but why are we not scared of all the coal deaths too? It’s like how Hiroshima frightens people far more than the Tokyo firebombing, but similar numbers died horribly in each, as they did in Manila and perhaps 2-3 times more were killed in Nanking. OK now I’ve gone off on a historical side track, but the comparison stands.
We’re aware of the tragedy caused by nuclear power plants. We also have a nuclear power plant in ‘Bataan’ supposedly the answer for a cheaper and cleaner source of electricity , which never had any chance to operate coz of the fear of the damage it could create. but isn’t it a ridiculous move to cease from using nuclear as a power source to a coal fueled electricity? I hope It has a time frame that for the meantime they’ll use this power source while preparing something eco- friendly alternative….And the time should not be longer than 2 years..hopefully…