Dear friend I write / "The nuclear, renewables and the Japanese lesson " The Japanese nuclear power plants are not old scrap. Nothing to do with outdated technology that led to the Chernobyl disaster. Japanese nuclear power plants can rely on advanced technology, high level of professionalism up on decades of experience. The tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with which he closed the Second World War has left a profound and indelible the Japanese population that never allow the repetition of atomic apocalypse on the ground. In fact, all these factors have contributed to the Japanese nuclear power plants inherently safer.
But ...! But then the unexpected happens. It happens that in an area of \u200b\u200bhigh seismic risk (by the way, all of Italy it is!) Is unleashed the most terrible earthquake of the last 150 years followed by a tsunami whose consequences are still far from being not only quantified but even Simplify the imagined. What happens is that as a result of the earthquake safety systems of nuclear power plant should be in the block. It happens that the reactor auxiliary cooling systems do not turn on. It happens that this leads to a loss of radioactive cesium and a country, Japan, on the verge of a new nuclear tragedy.
The size of the event taking place in Fukushima Central have yet to be defined. It could be, and all we hope, from the consequences of an accident after all negligible, as it could be the worst nuclear disaster in peacetime in Japan, and one of the most serious of all time in the world. But whatever the severity of the event, a lesson can not be drawn: the risks associated with the use of peaceful nuclear energy are never entirely predictable and therefore controllable, and the consequences may be such that it completely unjustifiable use of this technology to meet the energy needs of an increasingly voracious.
The accident is intertwined closely Fukushima with the nuclear debate in Italy. Debate at least virtually opened with a television campaign produced by the Nuclear Forum and immediately condemned by the Guarantor for clear breach of a level playing field between the two sides compared.
The application from which you should leave for a serious debate is: nuclear power may be the solution for the energy needs of our country?
Recent tensions in the Arab world and the war now open in Libya have splash back up the price of oil. Nor can continue to rely solely on fossil fuels for energy supply. And this is for obvious reasons of progressive quanto ineludibile esaurimento delle fonti, sia perchè il nostro fragile pianeta davvero non può più sostenere i ritmi attuali (per altro destinati ad aumentare) di immissione di anidirde carbonica e altri gas serra in atmosfera. Inoltre, l'instabilità politica (spesso, però, favorita e alimentata dagli stessi contrapposti interessi di questa o quella potenza occidentale) dei paesi produttori rende sempre più necessario individuare e percorrere le strade che portano in direzione dell'indipendenza energetica, quanto meno per una frazione significativa del proprio fabbisogno.
Ma è il nucleare la soluzione?
No, non lo è, e per una serie di ragioni. Intanto does not make us independent from abroad! I do not know that in Italy there are uranium deposits and, what is worse, the major producers of nuclear fuel are, for almost all, unfortunately, also countries that lack neither democracies nor internal stability. The risk would be dependent on countries that have no qualms to "close the tap" or exposed to instability and tension is just too great. But there's more! While in the case of fossil fuels in our country over the years has developed cutting-edge technologies, which are exported all over the world in the field of refining and treatment for the nuclear technology, there is no national can design, build, manage and run a station. Neither was thought to invest in research and national technology: on the contrary, cuts in research have dealt a possibly fatal blow to this as in many other areas of applied science, but then used abroad to obtain the necessary technology, spending too mind-boggling sums. It is proof that the country's nuclear program, the Government was forced to enter into agreements with France and import technology and expertise. If it is true that France is not the time nor Libya not Iran, it is true that this dependency is added to the technological dependence on sources, which makes it even less reassuring.
In addition you must consider that the use of nuclear power is now no longer considered an option on the table by all the major industrialized powers. United States, Germany, France (which, however, thanks to our government, hopes to sell turnkey plants) and Japan have decided the same now for a couple of decades, not to invest more in new plants and phase out and the nuclear program as plants now in operation will go toward collapse. The reasons for these decisions are to be found in both the difficulties and risks of supply of nuclear fuel which was mentioned above, for purely economic reasons why, contrary to what we are led to believe, the costs per kilowatt hour for nuclear energy, there dovve is taken into account including those related to waste management, is absolutely not sustainable. Last but not least, there are the safety aspects of facilities and those still outstanding, because they simply intractable, treatment and storage of nuclear waste produced during the year.
What's happening in Japan, we must convince the that, no matter how advanced the procedures and security systems, as a plant can be considered inherently safe, there are unforeseen circumstances that make it risky, extremely risky to the use of nuclear energy. And mind you that the risk attached to the army of a nuclear power plant is of a nature and size is very different from the one connected to qualisasi other human activity. A simple escape of radioactive material or a disaster the size of that of Chernobyl are all events that have CONSEQUENC very serious and can last for thousands of years of water and air pollution, contamination of vast areas, genetic mutations, birth defects, which affect not only the people involved at the time of their occurrence, but also subsequent generations. Can we today in order to satisfy our need, mortgage health and very existence of our children, our grandchildren, the generations that will follow from here for thousands of years? We have this right? Doing
catastrophic, very useful when dealing with sensitive topics, the question arises: someone, even in light of what is happening in Japan, is posing the problem of seismic risk that characterizes our country? And then, I'd be curious to know the programs of the Government Administration and storage of nuclear waste, since it is still no solution on the waste produced during operation of nuclear power plants italiane ormai ferme da quasi 25 anni.
Ma se il nucleare non è la soluzione, quale può essere la risposta al problema del crescente fabbisogno energetico italiano?
Non è difficile crederlo eppure pochi ci fanno caso, ma il nostro Paese è ricco di particolari fonti di energia. Si chiamano fonti rinnovabili e sono quelle che la Natura stessa ci mette a disposizione, gratuitamente, senza possibilità di inquinamento, in maniera illimitata e inesauribile. Si chiamano Sole, Vento, Geotermico. Sono per tutti, sono ovunque, sono per sempre, realizzando in qualche modo una vera "democrazia energetica". Sono, incredibile a dirsi, tuttei sfruttabili grazie a tecnologie nelle quali l'Italia è all'avanguardia. Do you think the energy from the sun in one hour comes to Earth is sufficient to meet global energy needs for an entire year.
look around, look at the roofs of our homes, think of how much sun these areas, otherwise useless, they receive every day. And dreamed of transforming the energy it receives from the Sun into electricity for heat and light our homes, our industries, our roads. And ask how is it possible that on every roof there are no solar panels. How is it possible that Italy, as it is kissed by the sun, crossed by the winds, with a basement warm and active, has not yet made renewable energy the flywheel del suo sviluppo?
La risposta è negli interessi economici e di bottega di chi da sempre blocca questo o quel settore, in una burocrazia ottusa e arrogante, nella miopia dlle politiche energetiche nazionali. E ne è riprova l'incredibile decisione del Governo di mettere mano in senso restrittivo agli incentivi sulle rinnovabili, modificando un decreto adottato dallo stesso Governo appena qualche mese fa lo scorso agosto e lasciando nell'incertezza migliaia di operatori. E se questo colpo di coda è stato per ora parzialmente bloccato resta la gravità di un tentativo ingiustificabile verso il quale è bene tenere alta la guardia.
Perchè se è un bene attendersi una mobilitazione large-scale anti-nuclear, and also wider mobilization in support of renewables would expect a mature and responsible company that wants to seriously commit to the growth and development of their own and future generations.
Joseph Munno
