The Hindu Business Line : Germany’s concerns over nuclear energy

I was planning to write on the extraordinary German model of “Inclusive Education”, but decided to put pen to paper on the issue of nuclear power. Why?

Let me take you through some headlines last week, coming out of the G-8 meeting and the rest of the world.

July 08: G-8 leaders meeting in Toyako, Japan pledge to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But, there is still disagreement on how to get there!

The environmental campaign group WWF said that the G-8 leaders had not lived up to their responsibilities during this summit. “The G-8 are responsible for 62 per cent of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the Earth’s atmosphere, which makes them the main culprit of climate change and the biggest part of the problem,” WWF said in a statement on Tuesday. “WWF finds it pathetic that they still duck their historic responsibility.”

The organisation Oxfam, which fights poverty across the globe, criticised the slow pace of action on climate change. “At this rate, the world will be burned to a crisp by 2050, by which time the leaders of the G-8 will long have been forgotten,” said Oxfam International climate expert, Antonio Hill. “The G-8 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 is half-hearted. There is also no base year given. This G-8 agreement is not a breakthrough, it is little more than a stall tactic.”

July 09: An accidental leak of over 30,000 litres of a solution containing uranium in South of France. Emergency bans put on water use in the area by local authorities. Residents and environmental organisations deeply worried at a time when much of Europe is re-embracing nuclear power as way to slow global warming. The accident’s timing is explosive. Just a day before, the German Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, stood out in the crowd at the G-8 summit in Japan because Germany is one of the only large industrialised nations that has rebuffed the renaissance of nuclear energy.

July 09: The Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, meets the US President, George W. Bush, on the sidelines of the G8 summit and the two leaders confer to take forward their landmark nuclear deal.

July 10: The Left withdraws support to the United Progressive Alliance Government on the proposed nuclear treaty with the US and calls for a vote of no-confidence against the government. And, the most hilarious report I read: Dateline, Washington July 10: Devout Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, appeals to all Indian political parties to display “magnanimity” and support the “edgy” Indo-US nuclear deal. What amuses me is that a spiritual guru considers himself competent, capable, qualified to express serious opinion on a subject where even top nuclear scientists such as the former DEA Chairman, Dr M. R. Srinivasan among several others, have restrained themselves.

The European Scene

In Europe, Germany is now isolated when it comes to nuclear power. Other G-8 countries — including France, Italy and Great Britain — are focussing on nuclear energy as a way to cut CO{-2} emissions. France is sometimes seen as a role model for combating climate change because 80 per cent of its electricity comes from nuclear power. As a result, even the trains are largely carbon-free. Essentially, it is nuclear-powered transportation. But, one of the biggest problems with nuclear power is that it produces nuclear waste. And, even in France, finding a place to put nuclear waste has been a messy affair. Germans have largely reached a nationwide consensus on the need to do everything necessary to combat climate change but, they remain wary of the radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants.

Phase out

In Germany, 17 nuclear reactors are online in commercial use. Together, they produce a total of 21,426 MW of electricity. The oldest reactor has already been online for 34 years. Even in meticulously organised Germany, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) registered over 200 incidents involving these reactors. Defective components and operating errors were among the most commonly reported problems. The last major incident happened in July 2004, when contaminated water from the Neckerwestheim II reactor leaked into the Neckar River in south-west Germany. Germany’s oldest reactors from the 1970s will go offline by 2009 at the latest. All remaining reactors must be shut down by 2021.

Nuclear Waste

No matter how much longer reactors remain in operation, the German Government faces an urgent decision over the permanent storage of radioactive waste. Current problems at the Asse nuclear waste dump in the northern state of Lower Saxony illustrate the fatal consequences of the failure to take appropriate steps to store radioactive waste. In the 1960s, nuclear strategists dreamed of building an exemplary permanent storage model in Asse. Today, the entire nuclear waste storage facility is expected to sink, taking with it 89,000 tonnes of weak-moderately radioactive waste, including 11 kg of plutonium, causing serious risks. As there is no final repository for radioactive waste in Germany, the German utilities now store their low and intermediate radioactive waste in nearly 50 locations.

The French Way

The Tricastin nuclear site where the leak occurred is one of 59 nuclear plants supplying nearly 80 per cent of France’s electrical power. Paradoxically, this happened on the same day the celebrated G-8 statement was released. Radioactive material had leaked into the ground and two rivers near the Tricastin nuclear facility located 40 km from Avignon. The incident has sparked a national fury in France and annoyed residents and environmental organisations. Mistrust has grown after officials downplayed the seriousness of the episode. The catastrophe also has the potential to make people and countries that are now re-embracing nuclear power have second thoughts.

Now evidence is emerging that a new nuclear dumpsite in the Champagne region of France is leaking radioactivity into the ground water, threatening contamination of tritium and at a later stage other radionuclides.

Those of you opening bubbly Champagne, beware! It is common for governments, which have sold their soul to nuclear energy, to minimise and pretend there are not any problems. As I write this (Saturday, July 12), an international anti-nuclear rally is underway in Paris.

Indian Scenario

India faces severe challenges regarding the operational security of nuclear installations, from uranium mines to nuclear power stations.

There remain severe failures on the overall management and disposal of nuclear waste. Our cities are not even capable of managing muncipal waste. I shudder to think how they will manage our nuclear waste in 2020!

Right to Information Act

The search is still on to find a permanent waste disposal site but due to the veil of secrecy, there is no official disclosure about radioactive wastes in India.

The waste keeps shifting from one plant to another, thereby exposing the workers working in these plants. Will some enlightened Indian citizen invoke the Right to Information Act ?

To conclude, I quote from Chandokya Upanishad which articulates: Yadaiva Vidyaya Karoti Shradhaya Upanishada Tadeva Viryavattaram Bhavati!That if eventually, we must succeed, we should apply our knowledge with faith, conviction and with deep thinking. I hope on the nuclear energy issue, we do.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany.Feedback may be sent to mailto: mohan.murti@t-online.de> mohan.murti@t-online.de)