Europe, Headlines

ENVIRONMENT: Nuclear Threat Worries Greens

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Mar 16 2004 (IPS) - Environment groups are calling on Swedish authorities to make nuclear power plants safer against terrorist attacks.

A group of nine Swedish and Danish non-governmental organisations (NGOs) reject claims that Swedish nuclear power plants are secure enough to withstand airplane crashes.

The NGOs are FMKK (the Swedish anti-nuclear movement), Friends of the Earth Sweden, The Danish Ecological Council, Friends of the Earth Denmark, The Danish Society for the Conservation of Nature, The Danish Organisation for Renewable Energy, Nature and Youth, Eco-net, and Copenhagen’s Environmental and Energy Office.

Swedes are among the most pro-nuclear people in the European Union (EU). Nuclear power accounts for about half the electricity generated in Sweden. The country has 11 reactors at four locations – Barsebäck (1), Forsmark (3), Oskarshamn (3) and Ringhals (4).

A report released last month by Sweden’s Nuclear Safety Inquiry Commission had declared that "no further measures are necessary at the Swedish nuclear power plants in order to protect them against terrorist attacks."

But FMKK chairman Kjell Andersson told IPS "we don’t believe that any of the Swedish reactors are safe when it comes to terrorist attacks, with or without the use of airplanes."

Niels Henrik Hooge from Barsebäckoffensiv said something "urgently has to be done" to prevent an accident which could have "catastrophic" proportions..

"The plants need real enhancements like extra reactor roofs or tall steel concrete pillars around them," he told IPS. "There are probably other possibilities that no one has thought of, and this is something that the experts have to look in to on a sound scientific basis."

The NGOs say the terrorist attack in Madrid Mar. 11 which killed some 200 people has strengthened their appeal. "How could it not?" said Hooge. "This is the first major terrorist attack in an EU country."

Andersson said Scandinavian countries could be potential targets for terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. "Remember, for example, that Denmark is part of the coalition behind the Iraq war," she told IPS.

Hooge is particularly concerned about the safety of the Barsebäck 2 power plant located just 20km from Copenhagen and close to Kastrup international airport. He is calling for the power plant to be closed down "as quickly as possible".

Because of Barsebaeck 2’s close vicinity to the Danish metropolitan area, the NGOs say assessments of the Swedish nuclear power stations "are important not only to the Swedish but also to the Danish population."

The report by the commission has not been publicly released. The NGOs are now demanding publication of the report so they can "evaluate whether some reactors are more at risk than others."

Andersson is also questioning the validity of the report. "The analyses are exclusively made by people within the established controlling systemàpeople from independent research institutes and the international expert community are not welcome."

The NGOs say the report is in "sharp conflict with estimates in practically all other countries that have developed nuclear power programmes" where extra safety measures have taken potential terrorist attacks into account.

The German Radiation Protection Agency has asked for closure of five of the oldest nuclear power reactors because it says they could not withstand an airplane crash, some of them not even from a small aircraft.

The NGOs point out that these German reactors are the same age or newer than many of the Swedish reactors.

The commission report says it is "not necessary to require additional measures to protect the plants against acts of terror involving the use of aircraft as weapons."

The report says the current safety status of the plants is satisfactory. It says "the first line of defence must be measures to ensure that aircraft and material of similar destructive capacity does not fall into the hands of terrorists." It says plant managements are in continuous touch with police authorities over the perceived level of threat.