Antinuclear

UN report on Nuclear Safety has implications for Australia

Today, 22 Sept 11,  a special UN meeting will examine responses to Fukushima and the role/safety of nuclear power.

 UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon commissioned a multi-agency report to help guide this discussion.

It is available via http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/energy/hlm/UN-system-wide-study.pdf

Dave Sweeney Comments on the United Nations system-wide study on the implications of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant – September 2011

The report has been primarily drafted by the pro-nuclear International Atomic Energy Agency and is framed with the assumption that nuclear power is here to stay – Nuclear power has been and will remain a significant contributor to meeting global energy needs (16)

Within this flawed context there is much value and campaign utility in the report.

It clearly acknowledges:

• The severity of Fukushima and the threat of international nuclear incidents (including in paragraphs 7, 9, 11, 31, 37, 66, 74)
• The inadequacy of current threat assessments and mitigation planning, including risks from severe and unpredictable weather events related to climate change (8, 57, 60, 67, 77, 81, 87, 90, 91, 120)
• The long term impacts of nuclear accidents and radiation releases (13, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 36, 48, 49, 53, 54, 56, 70)
• The lack of an agreed approach to facility decommissioning and high level radioactive waste management (51, 70, 76)
• The weapons proliferation links related to nuclear power (18, 70, 99)
• The need for external costs to be properly accounted in assessing the costs of nuclear projects (14, 46, 68, 70, 71)

Some key areas in the Australian nuclear free policy and campaign context include:

Re uranium mining: To help countries to evaluate the potential contribution of nuclear energy to sustainable development, an in-depth assessment of the net cost impact of the following is needed….

 Local Impacts of mining: There are concerns regarding the impacts of mining fissionable material on local communities and ecosystems (70)

Re uranium sales to India:

Nuclear science and technology can also be used to develop nuclear weapons. Compliance with international legal instruments, such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, other bilateral and multilateral non-proliferation agreements and safeguards agreements with the IAEA, is therefore an essential element of the responsible use of nuclear power (18)

The potential consequences from nuclear proliferation are a matter of major concern in the international community (70)

In order to properly address nuclear security, the international community should promote universal adherence to and implementation of relevant international legal instruments (99)

 Other areas/comment of particular interest and utility include:

·         The health impact of peaceful use of nuclear energy represents an issue of paramount importance (35)

·         Full life cycle costs, particularly the health and environmental costs of routine releases, waste disposal costs and the costs that would be incurred in the event of an accident are often not included in such analyses. Internalising these costs is necessary (46)

·         There are a range of environmental impacts associated with the operation of nuclear power installations, not all of which are radioactive in nature (48)

·         There is no single universally agreed approach to the safe decommissioning of nuclear facilities, including the final disposal of spent nuclear fuels (51)

·         The trend towards longer service lives of nuclear plants brings its own challenges, such as ensuring that safety margins remain adequate. The extension of the lives of existing nuclear plants and the expansion of nuclear power programmes are also placing an increasing strain upon the limited human resources available to design, construct, maintain and operate nuclear facilities (76)

·         The principal lesson of the Fukushima accident is that the assumptions made concerning which types of accident were possible or likely were too modest. Those assumptions should be reviewed for all existing and planned reactors, and the possible effects of climate change should be taken into account (90)

September 22, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, safety