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Anastasia Balezdrova

For almost a week, the world has been breathlessly following the developments of the large earthquakes’ impact on the nuclear reactors in Japan. The citizens of the island country have been moving for two days from the north to the safer - in terms of radiation - south. The residents of the capital Tokyo are also leaving it and it seems that the countdown for what seems to be an inevitable disaster has begun.  

Experts say that the worst scenario, which is very possible to happen, is for the six reactors of the plant in Fukushima to be completely destroyed one by one. In this case, the core in the first three reactors of the centre will melt and radioactive material from the stored used fuel will leak from the other three ones. If the scenario is confirmed, humanity will face such a disaster for the first time. Experts recall that there was melting of nuclear materials in the case of Chernobyl.

"25 years after the accident in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and while the consequences of the earthquake in Japan are developing continuously and seem increasingly hopeless, the anti-nuclear movement is more urgent than ever, its dynamic intervention is urgent and the coordination of its participants is especially important." This was the motto of the workshop entitled "Fukushima - Chernobyl: Coordination of action against the nuclear threat," which was held in Athens.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Mediterranean Anti-Nuclear Watch, International Organizations and Globalization Watch, The Greek Medical Association against Nuclear Threat, and members of environmental and other activist organizations.

In their speeches they stressed that Greece is surrounded by countries that have operating nuclear power plants on their territories or have expressed the will to build such. "The anti-nuclear movement aims to close all nuclear power plants," said Panos Trigazis from the International Organizations and Globalization Watch, which traces the development of nuclear science at the level of official UN documents and other international organizations.

"It is important to inform the public opinion about the dangers of nuclear facilities. We observed a revival in the global nuclear lobby about 15 years after Chernobyl. These people continually state their positions in favour of nuclear energy. Our goal must be to convince the public that nuclear energy is neither green, nor cheap, but at the same time terribly dangerous, as we see from the events in Japan."

The participants at the meeting commented especially negatively on the statement of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey will continue to work on its nuclear programme. "Any investment has its risks" is the phrase of the Turkish prime minister, which the members of anti-nuclear movement designated as cynical and humiliating to human life that will be threatened by the construction of nuclear power plant in Turkey.

According to the participants in the meeting, the technology in the Bulgarian Kozloduy nuclear power plant is outdated and therefore the plant should close, and Belene nuclear power plant should not even be built. "After the tragic events in Japan, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered reactors to be temporarily closed for six months. We should make sure that they will not be re-opened after this period."

The participants in the meeting decided to write a joint petition to collect citizens’ signatures against nuclear power plants. "Under the Lisbon Treaty, if one million signatures from citizens of member countries are collected, the European Commission is obliged to consider the specific matter, whether it wants it or not." The text of the petition is to be specified and then submitted to the government. A protest rally will be held on Syntagma Square in Athens by the end of the next week.  

The participants in the meeting paid particular attention to nuclear waste, "as there was fuss about it originally, but then nobody knows where it goes." They stated their satisfaction that Greece does not intend to allow the construction of nuclear power plant on its territory "for now" and decided to intensify their efforts in informing the public opinion about renewable energy sources and energy saving.

In late April the anti-nuclear movement will organize other events on the occasion of the quarter of a century of the Chernobyl disaster.