Nuclear Energy

cliii The IAEA maintains an international database of these “nuclear events”, and has created the International
Nuclear Event Scale (INES) to categorise these events. On this scale, events are classified on a scale from 1 to
7. INES defines events as “deviations” (Level 0), “anomalies” (Level 1), “incidents” (Level 2) “serious
incidents” or “near accidents” (Level 3) and “accidents” (Levels 4 to 7). According to the IAEA, a total
number of 23 Level 3 (serious incident) and one Level 4 (accident, Tokai Mura, Japan, 1999) events have
occurred in nuclear power facilities worldwide since the introduction of the INES in 1991.
However, the scientists who did this study found that there are a host of problems with this classification
system. For one, it is entirely arbitrary, there is no internationally agreed definition as to what is a serious
“event”. Secondly, the IAEA has left it to the individual member countries to report on the incidents/accidents
taking place in their nuclear plants; and the countries often either do not report them, or, under political
pressure, under-report the severity of the event. Then, the INES scale rates the severity of a given event only
from a point of view of immediate radiological impact and not from the potential risk. It may so happen that
the direct material and environmental consequences of an event are insignificant, but the event may have come
very close to a serious disaster.
cliv Dr. Georgui Kastchiev, Prof. Wolfgang Kromp, Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Kurth, David Lochbaum, Dr. Ed Lyman,
Dipl.-Ing. Michael Sailer, and Mycle Schneider, “Residual Risk: An Account of Events in Nuclear Power
Plants Since the Chernobyl Accident in 1986”, May 2007, http://www.greens-efa.org
clv “Reactor Accidents”, http://www.nirs.org
clvi Helen Caldicott, Nuclear Power is not the answer to Global Warming or anything else, op. cit., pp. 81-83
clvii http://ecobridge.org/content/n_wdo.htm
clviii Philip Bethge and Sebastian Knauer, “How Close Did Sweden Come to Disaster?” Spiegel Online
International, Aug 7, 2006, http://www.spiegel.de
clix M. V. Ramana, Suchitra J. Y., “Flaws in the pro-nuclear argument”, Infochange India, Issue 5, 2006.
clx http://www.planetark.com/enviro-news/item/53381
clxi Christian Parenti, “Zombie Nuke Plants”, The Nation, Dec 7, 2009, http://www.britannica.com
clxii Karl Grossman, “The Nuclear Phoenix”, http://www.emagazine.com
clxiii Bob Herbert, “We’re Not Ready”, July 19, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com
clxiv Christian Parenti, “Zombie Nuke Plants”, The Nation, Nov 19, 2009, http://www.thenation.com
clxv Christian Parenti, ibid.
clxvi Christian Parenti, ibid.
clxvii Stephen Thomas, et al., “The Economics of Nuclear Power”, 2007, Greenpeace,
http://www.greenpeace.org, p. 19; Mycle Schneider, et al.,“The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2009”,
Commissioned by German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety, August
2009, pp. 42-43
clxviii Helmut Hirsch, Oda Becker, Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt, “Nuclear Reactor Hazards: Ongoing
Dangers of Operating Nuclear Technology in the 21st Century”, April 2005, Greenpeace International,
www.greenpeace.org
clxix Ibid.
clxx Helen Caldicott, Nuclear Power is not the answer to Global Warming or anything else, op. cit., p. 83
clxxi Art Levine, “Helen Caldicott Slams Environmental Groups on Climate Bill, Nuclear Concessions”, Truthout,
Jan 28, 2010, http://www.climateshift.com
clxxii For example, in 1968, Pacific Gas & Electric projected the total cost of building Unit 1 of its Diablo
Canyon plant at $445 million. By 1984, the final bill was $3750 million, an 843 percent increase. Likewise, the
Fermi Unit 2 plant in Michigan, the Public Power Supply System Unit 2 reactor in Washington state, the River
Bend reactor in Louisiana, and the Clinton plant in Illinois all cost approximately 600 percent more than
originally estimated: “Nuclear power: Too expensive to solve global warming”, The National Environmental
Trust, Washington D.C. November 1, 1999, Report available on: http://www.democraticunderground.com;
Steve Thomas, “Can nuclear power plants be built in Britain without public subsidies and guarantees?”,
Presentation at a Conference: Commercial Nuclear Energy in an Unstable, Carbon Constrained World, Prague,
March 17-18, 2008, p. 10.
clxxiii “An Analysis of Nuclear Power Plant Operating Costs: A 1995 Update”, Energy Information
Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington DC, April 1995, http://tonto.eia.doe.gov
clxxiv Mycle Schneider, et al., “The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2009”, Commissioned by German
Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety, August 2009, p. 40; Same point is
made by: Steve Thomas, “Can nuclear power plants be built in Britain without public subsidies and
guarantees?”, op. cit., p. 7.
clxxv Mycle Schneider, et al., ibid., p. 40.
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