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The Green Deal planned by the European Commission is intended to put the EU on the path to a sustainable and clean energy system of the future that is not harmful to other areas at the same time (“Do No Significant Harm”). The commission commissioned its technical experts group to assess technologies according to their effects and to draw up a "Green Finance Taxonomy" - the expert report recommended the exclusion of nuclear power in 2019, mainly because of the unsolved nuclear waste problem. However, some pro-nuclear member states did not accept this decision - the Commission then left the EU's joint research center, which is also pro-nuclear, another one Message to revise this expert recommendation. This 387-page report has now been leaked to GLOBAL 2000 despite confidentiality.
"Skilfully disguised and behind tried and tested phrases, the most important questions of atomic energy are distorted by pink glasses", says Patricia Lorenz, atomic spokeswoman for GLOBAL 2000. "As everyone knows, the disposal of spent fuel rods is still completely unsolved, despite anything to the contrary Claims made by some lobbyists. The so-called residual risk - the serious accidents such as in Fukushima 10 years ago - can never be ruled out. "
The report tries to sell old ideas as new, such as that safety criteria for new reactors should supposedly also be applied to old ones. This proposal already existed as a consequence of the EU stress tests 10 years ago. The retrofitting proposals resulting from this are largely ignored and reactors with known weak points continue to be operated. The main reasons for this are clear and will continue to exist: Old nuclear power plants cannot be brought up to the current technical standard and even comprehensive improvement measures would be far too expensive for the electricity prices, which are now becoming ever cheaper due to renewable energies. The existing safety directive of the EU (2014/87 / Euratom) even explicitly allows the commissioning of old reactor types such as Mochovce 3 and 4, whose design dates back to the Soviet times of the 1970s.
Targeted misleading is the assertion in this report that Generation III reactors would lead to increased safety - no mention is made of the fact that not a single one of these reactors in Europe is even connected to the grid. The few reactors under construction are characterized by massive technical problems, such as the European pressurized water reactor EPR in Flamanville, which firstly is massively delayed, and secondly already has a reactor pressure vessel which, with great difficulty, was only used for one operation by the nuclear supervisory authority due to defects has been approved for 10 years.
Nuclear waste disposal concepts for the planned deep geological repositories are described in detail in the report. Here it is stated that there is general consensus that this is the best way to permanently store the nuclear waste for a million years. It is not mentioned that this claim is already 20 years old and that there is hardly any technical and scientific progress regarding the material which has to withstand the requirements of the final disposal of highly toxic and highly radioactive spent fuel rods. There are even new fundamental concerns as corrosion has been completely underestimated in the nuclear waste containers currently in use. Corrosion problems are also unsolved in the repository technology (KBS (-3)), which currently still exists in Sweden and the Onkalo repository in Finland, which is rumored to be de facto approved.
"GLOBAL 2000 will provide comprehensive information and will do everything in its power to prevent this coup by the nuclear lobby," concluded Lorenz. “No wonder this report should be kept under lock and key! An open and factual discussion is necessary: the Green Finance Taxonomy, as the central support for Europe-wide climate protection measures through investments, must not be destroyed in its core by the absorption of nuclear energy. "
HERE find the link to the GLOBAL 2000 Reality Check on the JRC report.
You can find the Joint Research Center report HERE.
Photo / Video: Global 2000.
