G-8 Pushing
Dangerous Energy
Friends of the Earth Italy and other FoE
Europe activists demonstrated at the March
2
nd
meeting of the G-8
environmental ministers in Trieste, Italy.
The aim of the protest, which was
accompanied by a press conference and the
release of a publication, was to highlight
the G-8’s failed policy on nuclear power
plants in Central and Eastern Europe.
The new Friends of the Earth publication
"Limited Safety/Unlimited Risk" criticizes
the G-8’s failure to shut down high-risk
reactors and demands that these governments
stop squandering taxpayer money in
subsidies to its ailing and discredited
nuclear power industry. Although
governments promised at the 1992 G-7
meeting in Munich that decrepit
Soviet-designed nuclear plants in Central
and Eastern Europe would be shut down to
prevent another disaster like Chernobyl, so
far none of these high risk reactors have
been closed.
Every penny spent on extending the
operational life of high risk "dinosaur"
reactors diverts investment from other
opportunities; CEE countries have a massive
potential for energy efficiency projects.
According to FoE Italy’s Laura Radiconcini,
"Lower safety standards in the East
constitute a threat on two fronts: the very
real threat of dangerous reactors in
operation, with Krsko 140 kilometres from
Trieste and Temelin 30 kilometres from the
Austrian border, and the risk that lower
standards in the East become a
justification for low levels of safety in
the West. No country can say that nuclear
safety is a national issue – radioactivity
knows no borders."
Further information and the report are
available from Patricia Lorenz, FoE Europe,
e-mail: Patricia.Lorenz@foeeurope.org.
