Here in Switzerland many are pointing to the Japanese disaster as the reason behind these Green victories, rather than a sea-change in the political views of the voting public. This is probably the case, and no doubt the pan-European Anti Nuclear movement will gain more momentum before the storm clears in the Far East.
I get the feeling that, back in Britain, nuclear is at best a non-issue, at worst the lesser of two evils (the greater being the great, dirty coal-fuelled stations). Being from Hartlepool and having a parent who works in the power station (as well as my own previous employment there) I feel largely indifferent to the whole thing. At present, and at least until we invest enough in renewable sources of energy to make them a viable alternative, nuclear is the best we have. Much more important, in my opinion, is ending our reliance on foreign energy supplies.
Here in Switzerland the public and country are in a much better position to end the use of nuclear energy: the population is lower and the country needs less energy than Britain. There are plentiful alpine rivers waiting to be tapped as hydro-electric sources. Two of the cantons (Basel-Stadt and Geneva) have even included in their constitutions a ban on energy from nuclear sources- Basel is home to an impressive hydro-electric station that straddles the Rhine just to the east of the city. Finally, the people here have an option to actually do something about their relationship to nuclear energy.
I guess time will tell if Fukushima really has been the signal for the end of the atomic age.
I don't agree with the whole "it's the best thing we have until we invest in renewables" line, that governments often take regarding nuclear power. If we simply moved the huge subsidies the nuclear industry gets from the government, we'd have a much greater percentage of power coming from renewable sources. The fact is that nuclear results in a shed load of nuclear waste that will remain hazardous for thousands of years, that's hardly responsible environmentalism in my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteGermany's reaction to Fukushima has been pathetic. While I don't begrudge the Greens their success - I'd probably have voted for them myself, and at least they have always been opposed to nuclear power - the way that the entire German political system has lined up to disavow nuclear purely as a reaction to Fukushima is nauseating. I agree with you; there is no realistic alternative to nuclear, so what will Germany do when its nuclear stations go offline? Coal?
ReplyDeleteIn any event, Fukushima is hardly representative of where nuclear technology is at now. Germans have just gone into complete hysteria about the whole thing, and the political system is encouraging it.