I N THE SWISS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THREE suspend the procedures for licensing new plants. A BLOCK OF NUCLEAR OCCUR IN BELGIUM AND POLAND. DOUBTS AND EVEN EMBARRASSED IN FRANCE, WHERE ARE UP 59 reactors and 80% of electricity is nuclear generated CLAIMED WHILE THE REFERENDUM on the atom.
L 'effect Fukushima' is already in place. In Germany, Angela Merkel, who had decided to extend at least ten life of 17 years old plants in Germany, is back on his feet. There will be three months of reflection, but the orientation is toward an immediate closing, note that Berlin would exit from nuclear power.
In Switzerland, the federal government will suspend the proceedings to authorize three new power plants, only after a thorough review of security systems, the project can move forward. A block of nuclear power looms in Belgium and Poland. Poland trailing behind countries such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic had pointed to the nuclear option to gain energy independence. Even in France, where in funzione 59 reattori e l'80 per cento dell'elettricità è di origine nucleare, serpeggiano dubbi e imbarazzo, mentre il movimento ecologista reclama il referendum sull'atomo. Quanto all'Unione Europea nel suo insieme - ha comunicato il commissario all'energia Gunther Oettinger - intende riesaminare gli standard di sicurezza.
Nel mondo sono in funzione 450 reattori che complessivamente forniscono il 14 per cento dell'elettricità consumata globalmente. Molti sono di vecchia generazione. Da vent'anni la costruzione di nuovi impianti segnava il passo. Solo di recente era iniziata una inversione di tendenza, dovuta soprattutto alla decisa Nuclear choice made by China and India. Now everything is questioned. The logic of a generalized reverse so it is quite understandable. Japan has a strong culture earthquake, and in fact the largest civil construction has even endured the shock of a devastating earthquake measuring 9 (that is another matter, of course, for small houses near the coast swept away by the tsunami).
Japan also has a strong culture of nuclear energy half of this which is the third-largest economy comes from the atom. In addition, the country is, so to speak, vaccinated by the tragedy of the bombs in August 1945 destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The experience of the horrors of war and their consequences has increased attention to the problem of radiation and nuclear safety in civil aviation. Nevertheless, we are here with bated breath to follow the development of serious accidents to reactors in Fukushima, two of which are already partially destroyed by explosions due to the accumulation of hydrogen. The situation is so difficult to cool the reactor core is pumping sea water. It 's a solution that reflects the seriousness of what is happening, because it is salt water, sea water will damage plants in such a way as to make it unrecoverable. But even so it is not said that we can prevent the merger core reactor. An incident now classified level 4 and then would jump to level 7, the worst conceivable, the one touched by the Chernobyl reactor.
If Japan with all its seismic technology and its nuclear experience is opposite to this emergency - the reasoning is that many citizens and policy makers are doing - as you can still argue that the central Nuclear plants are safe? And then the 'effect Fukushima "could be translated into a new and perhaps final stop atom. Each argument is of course linked to the attempts being made to block the merger of the reactor cores, the success or otherwise of These efforts mark the course of history.
In Italy the Minister Prestigiacomo, Alfano and Ciccio have already said that it goes: never change course on the wave of emotion. But the impression is that the thoughts of Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland and other countries is just the wave of rationality. The Japanese events are clear in their message.
On the other hand, even from a pragmatic point of view, though until recently it was difficult to locate nuclear power plants in Italy, not so much because most of the land is unsuitable because of the seismicity and the scarcity of water for cooling, but because you encounter the hostility of the population, now build consensus seems really a mission impossible.
course, the central Fukushima have their age and the four EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) purchased turnkey from Berlusconi to the market for Sarkozy have extra precautions ( an additional containment building, a "floor" that would limit the damage of any meltdown, a lower production of radioactive waste).
But the substance of the EPR reactors are more conventional, and only presenting the public with a totally new generation of reactors could perhaps replace quell '"Fukushima effect" that now seems prevalent.
If we add that these four plants would produce only six percent of our electricity needs, and not tomorrow but in ten years, the development of nuclear power, partly shared by sectors of the opposition, at this time seems to have little hope.
Piero Bianucci
