unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/06/89)
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/* ---------- "GREENPEACE REFUTES IAEA ON GREENHOU" ---------- */
Subject: GREENPEACE REFUTES IAEA ON GREENHOUSE EFFECT AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
Date: September 27, 1989
Via GreenLink:
==============
Vienna, Austria (GP) -- Greenpeace today refuted claims by Dr
Hans Blix, Director General of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), that concerns over the Greenhouse Effect should
prompt a re appraisal of nuclear power.
"By citing carefully selected figures to overstate the potential
of nuclear energy to counter the Greenhouse Effect, and to
understate the real nature of nuclear risks, the IAEA is failing
to fulfil it's function as an inter-Governmental regulatory body
responsible to both nuclear and non-nuclear member countries",
said a Greenpeace spokesperson.
In an inaugural address to the 33rd Annual General Conference of
the IAEA, Dr Blix discussed the contribution that may be made by
nuclear power to reducing the Greenhouse Effect. He pointed out
that electricity production is responsible for about 25 % of
human carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. However, this
figure does not take account of the effects of gases other than
carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by human activity,
such as CFC's, methane and nitrous oxides which together
contribute substantially to the Greenhouse Effect. In his speech,
Dr. Blix failed to follow the calculation to its conclusion. Even
if all the coal-fired electricity plants in the world were
replaced by nuclear power, Global Warming would be reduced by
only some 10 percent.
If nuclear technology were to be pushed to its limit to fulfil
this relatively modest abatement of the Greenhouse Effect, it
would mean the construction of several thousand more nuclear
power stations around the world, multiplying radioactive waste,
proliferation problems, and accident risks accordingly. Such a
programme would require the construction of one nuclear plant
every few days for several decades and would cost tens of
trillions of dollars. The international debt problem would be
further compounded.
Dollar for dollar, investment in energy efficiency reduces
carbon dioxide emissions by more than six times as much as
spending on nuclear power. Programmes in industrialised countries
for the improvement of energy efficiency in industry, transport,
and in the home may be implemented in a fraction of the time of
such vast nuclear projects and represent the most cost-effective
and rapid response in the Energy Sector to Global Warming.
Greenpeace also maintains that Dr Blix seriously understated the
potential of renewable energy sources. In 1983, the IAEA itself
estimated that the total global potential of renewable energy
amounted to more than twice as much as current world energy
demand. More cautious assessments of the potential of renewables,
such as that published by the World Commission on Environment and
Development, which exclude from consideration the more
environmentally damaging options, suggest that renewable energy
can in principle supply all the energy required to accommodate
world development and an inevitable committed world population
increase.
"What is required is concerted and committed global investment
in high technology energy efficiency and low impact renewable
energy, rather than further spending on an ailing and uneconomic
nuclear industry", said the Greenpeace spokesperson.
Greenpeace is in Vienna for the IAEA General Conference following
the submission to the IAEA earlier this month of two technical
reports on nuclear risks and international liability for nuclear
pollution. These reports, commissioned from independent expert
consultants, conclude that IAEA publications have mis-represented
the true nature of nuclear risks, and that the present
international nuclear liability regime acts as a subsidy to
nuclear power at the expense of non-nuclear countries.
Greenpeace is calling for the IAEA to withdraw its published
figures for nuclear risks, and for the development of a nuclear
liability regime which follows precedents already applied to
other hazardous industries.
Greenpeace has invited the IAEA to respond to the conclusions of
these reports at an Open Meeting to be held in Vienna at the
Concordia International Press Club, Bankgasse 8 at 1900 on
Thursday 28th September 1989. National delegations to the IAEA
Conference and the Vienna press corps have also been invited.
For more information, contact: Andy Stirling, Michael Undorf,
Florian Faber: Greenpeace
Tel: 0222-713-00-31/0
ARPA: unitex@rubbs.FIDONET.ORG
---
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