Nuclear power? No thanks!
It was April 28, 1986 when the news of the Chernobyl disaster first broke
in the Netherlands. The sun was shining and spring was about to defeat winter.
The radio news informed us that a nuclear accident had apparently occurred
at a nuclear power station in the Soviet Union. No details, no panic. Yet
as anti-nuclear campaigners, we immediately started thinking about the impact
this accident could have on our media work. First we needed to know how serious
it was and it soon became clear that it was bad, very bad. This time was very
different from all the small accidents and incidents that regularly plagued
the nuclear industry. This was much worse than Three Mile Island.
Within a few days, the Dutch government would announce its plans to build
at least three new nuclear power stations. The decision was extremely disappointing
and annoying; we had just completed years of heated discussions, actions and
travelling around the country to mobilize opposition against the further growth
of nuclear power. The official debate organized by the government at huge
cost and lasting years had resulted in a clear outcome; a vast majority of
the population did not want new nuclear power stations. On May 2, activists
and experts gathered to discuss the response to the governmental decision
that had ignored years of intense debates.
What followed the Chernobyl disaster was years of disinformation, underestimation
and lies. Would the situation have been the same if the disaster happened
in Europe or the United States? Very probably so, given that the global nuclear
industry seems to thrive on secrecy, deception and neglect. As a result of
the accident at Chernobyl, and the shockwaves it sent around the world once
news of its extent slowly reached the public domain, many countries, including
the Netherlands, dropped their plans for new nuclear power stations.
Now 20 years on, governments around the world are again threatening our societies
with plans for new nuclear power plants. The impressive and alarming stories
told in this book, put together by Mads Eskesen, are an important contribution
to the experiences shared by people across the world and serve to remind us
that the lessons of history must not be ignored.
Nuclear power is not cheap, not clean, not sustainable and is not the solution
to climate change, which is another environmental danger we are facing. We
want a truly clean energy future, and we want it now! With this book we hope
to inspire and encourage citizens around the world to become active and urge
decision makers to leave the nuclear era behind once and for all.
Peer de Rijk, World Information Service on Energy, Amsterdam
