European citizens don’t want to be left out of decision-making over nuclear power. But a recent meeting of the Espoo Convention reveals how concerns over reactor life-time extensions are being sidelined.
A meeting of the parties to the UN convention on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context (Espoo) helped to showcase the influence that politics and the nuclear industry lobby have over decisions that have potentially severe impacts on European citizens’ health and the environment.
A decision today by Ukraine’s nuclear regulator to extend the operations of another Soviet-era reactor has been made in spite of the country’s failure to implement fully the obligations it took on when receiving EU funding for its ageing nuclear fleet.
Nuclear safety activists in Ukraine who face defamation charges by the state nuclear operator Energoatom received support from Rebecca Harms, a member of the European Parliament, recently.
Labelled the €1.3 trillion investment offensive, more than 2000 projects have been identified by the European Commission’s new Task Force on Investment (made up of representatives of the EC, EIB and member states) for fast-tracked financing from President Juncker’s recently announced €315 billion stimulus plan.
While likely not the cause, the EBRD-financed Dariali hydropower plant is being constructed without proper assessment or mitigation of known geological risks. The construction must be halted to avoid further damage.
Demonstrations in Kiev have shown that road safety is not only for cars but also pedestrians and other traffic participants - a lesson that the Ukrainian road company still needs to learn and that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development should be teaching more actively.
In an unprecedented effort to defend its support for Ukraine’s nuclear programme the EBRD publicly replies to some of our objections. Several colleagues sent us their (sometimes outraged) rebuttals, which we include here in our rejoinder to the bank’s arguments.
A recent audit showed that Ukraine lacks good management at least as much as finances to reform its energy sector. EU money is meanwhile siding with a tainted company.
Ukraine plans to extend the lifetimes of its fifteen nuclear reactors, most of which will soon pass their expiration date. A new report shows how these plans that are pursued in utter silence have seen only an inadequate assessment.
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