Rush to build reactors in central and eastern Europe

Issue 

Rush to build reactors in central and eastern Europe

WASHINGTON — More than twice as much government-backed money from the West has been directed at expanding nuclear power in central and eastern Europe as has been spent on either making existing dangerous reactors safer or closing them down, according to new research published on January 15 by Friends of the Earth in London and Washington.

The report, Dangerous Liaisons: Western Involvement in the Nuclear Power Industry of Central and Eastern Europe, by Tim Jenkins, reveals that:

1) The total of money provided to date by Western governments to the nuclear sector in the former Soviet bloc — less than $800 million — is tiny compared to multibillion-dollar needs to close down and decommission the region's chronically unsafe reactors, including 15 of the Chernobyl design;

2) Twice as much of that money is going toward expanding nuclear power generation as is going towards improving reactor safety;

3) The US contribution exemplifies this imbalance. While a paltry $15 million is going into reactor safety, the Export-Import Bank has offered a $136 million loan to Westinghouse to complete a partially constructed reactor at Temelin in the Czech Republic.

Simon Roberts, Senior Energy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth in London, said, "Central and eastern Europe bristles with rickety reactors with inadequate safety systems and poor management procedures. Yet, rather than pay to avoid another Chernobyl, western governments seem intent on increasing the risk by funding a reckless nuclear expansion."

Dangerous Liaisons follows Friends of the Earth's earlier publication of Russian Roulette, a report which showed that closing Soviet-built nuclear power plants throughout the area was ecologically imperative and economically sensible given that energy efficiency measures and safer gas-fired power stations could comfortably cover the region's energy needs.

Said Alex Hittle, International Coordinator at Friends of the Earth-US: "The nuclear industry, long wedded to public subsidies, is prying loose public money to build unnecessary plants in economically troubled countries."

The report also points out that Western electric utilities are providing incentives to these countries to complete partly built nuclear plants and to patch up existing ones by signing long-term contracts to buy the current and/or future electricity output of the plants.

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