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Anastasia Balezdrova

"Since they have placed wind turbines here, the neighbour’s goats have become gay." It is funny, isn’t it? This is just one of the tragicomic responses of the members of local communities, which are against the installation of systems for energy production from alternative energy sources.

"Whether we like it aesthetically or not is the least of the problems. Within slightly more than a century, humankind has managed to consume a significant part of natural resources. The technology that enables us to replace them with cleaner sources is available. We need only political will to trigger it," said Yiannis Tsipouridis, managing director of the company "DEI Ananeosimes "part of the Public Power Corporation.

He stressed that energy needs globally are constantly growing and the highest consumers are developing economies such as China, India and Brazil. "It is a myth that the installation of environmentally friendly and photovoltaic parks requires greater funding than the funding necessary for plants using coal. The widespread belief that nuclear power plants are built almost overnight with very low overall cost is wrong too. In many countries, governments announce a specific price, but while the plant is being built, and it usually takes years, the price can jump several times."

The dangers of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons were the subject of the open discussion held at the initiative of the Committee against Nuclear Dangers at the Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights.

In her introductory speech, the president Alice Yotopoulos - Marangopoulos, honoured professor at the Panteion University, said that humankind should abandon nuclear energy and focus on cleaner sources. "The use of nuclear weapons is even more unacceptable. Hundreds of "dirty" bombs with destructive consequences for people’s health were used in Kosovo recently." She welcomed the decision of the German government to turn off seven nuclear reactors immediately after the nuclear accident in Fukushima last year and described as positive the fact that Barack Obama is ready to take action in this direction, although the Congress will not allow him to do so.

"It is difficult to answer the question as to whether it the accident at the nuclear plant in Fukushima could have been avoided," said the First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Athens Takaaki Nemoto. He presented the findings contained in the interim report of the committee seeking the causes of the nuclear disaster. "According to the expert, there were four main factors. The first one is that rescue teams were slow to get to the plant, because the earthquake had destroyed the road surface." Takaaki Nemoto made it clear that in a nuclear accident, the Japanese law provides for the immediate convening of an operational staff with the participation of the Prime Minister. "The report shows that the then Prime Minister spent most of his time in his office with his associates, which delayed the work of the special team." According to the committee, the melting of nuclear fuel in the first and the third reactor of the plant could have been avoided if the managing company had properly interpreted the incoming information and acted appropriately in due course. Workers at the plant were not quite trained enough to operate the cooling system and did not know how to manage it. "TEPCO had not figured out that a situation might occur in which all power sources of all blocks would be disabled as a result of a natural disaster and had not carried out an adequate theoretical and practical training of the employees of the plant," reads the report.

"If this happened in the country with the most disciplined workers in the world, just imagine what could happen in countries like ours, where we are not even able to move because of processions and strikes, as was the case today," added Alice Marangopoulos.

"Humankind started thinking more seriously about how safe nuclear energy is after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Tons of nuclear fuel, which shot out into the atmosphere, spread everywhere. This shows that the consequences of a nuclear accident are never local. They affect the entire planet," said the honorary professor of nuclear physics and elementary particle physics at the University of Athens, Apostolos Panayiotou. He explained how nuclear reactors work and what the failures in the three largest nuclear accidents were – the Three Mile Island in 1978, in Chernobyl and Fukushima. "In the accident at the Three Mile Island NPP, there  was a partial melting of the core and the accident was defined as fifth degree. In Chernobyl and Fukushima, the melting was complete and the degree of the ccidents was the highest but I think that at least one degree has to be added in the table." While in Chernobyl, the nuclear fuel leaked from the reactor, in Fukushima it ran down and entered the soil. Takaaki Nemoto from the Embassy of Japan said that there was a material under the reactor to absorb leaking radioactive materials and not to allow them to reach the aquifer. "However, we should not forget the thousands of tons of seawater used to cool the reactors. This water entered the soil and returned to the ocean. We do not know at present where the pollution has reached." According to the professor, many countries of the world are becoming sceptical about the installation of nuclear reactors. "A theoretical study shows that 232 reactors will be suspended by 2058, since no policy changes in the countries after the accident in Fukushima. have been made." He pointed out that the life of a reactor is 40 years and the medium age of the existing ones is 26 years. At the same time, many countries are introducing legislation that prohibits the installation of reactors. "A referendum was held in Italy in 2011 in which people took a stand against nuclear energy once again. In Austria, since 2009, there has been a decree that prohibits its use. A reactor has been turned into a solar reactor even before its entry into operation." Apostolos Panayiotou said that many other developed countries have announced that they will abandon nuclear energy, after finding sources that can give them the necessary energy.

The forum paid particular attention to the issue of nuclear weapons. "One reactor produces 20-30 tonnes of used nuclear fuel annually. From it can be extracted 10 kg of plutonium sufficient to make a plutonium bomb. The remainder of this process is used even to make the so-called "dirty" bombs," said the professor.

The former diplomat John Brady Kiesling presented the existing international and interstate treaties against nuclear weapons proliferation and their diplomatic framework. To trigger some of them, all states defined as "nuclear" have to ratify them. Countries like India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea firmly refuse to participate in such arrangements. Interestingly enough, Pyongyang initially supported the idea against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, but later withdrew.

The head of the Greek branch of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Maria Sotiropoulou drew attention to the consequences of nuclear accidents on human health. "When I was preparing for today's meeting I thought of the legendary dancer Isadora Duncan. She asked Pierre and Marie Curie to give her a small quantity of the newly invented radium to sprinkle it on her stage costumes and fascinate viewers with its mysterious radiance even more. Then, the French physicist showed her his hands covered with wounds."

Yiannis Tsipouridis said in conclusion, "The crazy thing is that we build nuclear power plants in the most seismic regions of the world. We must understand that the only way to save the planet is to turn to cleaner and safer ways of producing energy. Ultimately, there is wind and sun in all countries to a lesser or greater extent. No security measures are needed to protect wind generators and photovoltaic panels, nor is there the threat of a terrorist using them to make weapons."