High-risk nuclear power plants

The event and the horror of Fukushima are not so far… On March 11, 2011, an earthquake, triggering a nuclear accident, called into question the existence of nuclear power plants and especially the risks associated with them.

Since man has access to nuclear power, he has entered an era of permanent dangers. As with any novelty, its use is subject to a long process of learning. And it is only in the face of disasters that we realize (or not) the extent of our actions. Unlike other inventions, nuclear power has the power to bring about global changes and consequences, marking the world for centuries.

• Nuclear risks to the environment : a nuclear disaster leads to immediate soil pollution and environmental pollution, contaminating all regions nearby for years. Even if we are told loud and clear that nuclear power plants are ultra-secure sites, is there really a safe nuclear facility ? Human error, a climatic event or a technical failure are all possibilities for triggering a nuclear catastrophe. From an environmental point of view, many risks are still poorly taken into account, especially during the treatment of nuclear materials and waste. What happens to these radioactive substances, created every day to produce electricity (uranium, plutonium…) ? When they can not be stored in specialized, numerous and saturated centers, the most dangerous substances (ie those that will take thousands of years to become “non-toxic”) will simply be buried deeply ! Thus, in 2016, the State gave the green light for the continuation of the project of industrial center of geological storage (Cigeo) in Bure. But you can imagine that toxic materials, which can not be recycled, will not remain wisely in depth, but will inevitably rise to the surface, with the consequences that we already know : contamination of water and soils for years and over large areas.

• Nuclear risks to health : if nuclear power plants affect the environment, they also play a role in the increase of diseases in certain regions via radiation. This is how it kills our cells, causes cancers or even malformations. Can we speak of a mere coincidence between the nuclear experiments in Polynesia and the exponential increase in thyroid cancer in women during this same period and still today ?

Nuclear risks in the territory :we all remember the Chernobyl accident or the more recent Fukushima accident. But many other disasters have occurred since then, in nuclear power stations but also during the storage and / or transport of radioactive materials.

• Today, 80% of the nuclear power plants in operation in the world are over 20 years old. A power plant with a lifetime of only 30 years, a major challenge awaits us… The signs are already visible for a few years already and very recently, the fruit of an aging French nuclear :
• At the beginning of February 2017, theCattenom nuclear power plant in the Moselle (inaugurated in 1986) had to deal with a major fire which did not affect “any sensitive zone of the plant”… A week later, Declares itself. Luxembourg is prepared to co-finance the closure and conversion of the Cattenom power plant itself for fear of being “wiped off the map”!
• On February 9, 2017, the Flamanville nuclear power plant(also in 1986) experienced a fire start and an explosion in one of the engine rooms, causing the intoxication of five people. If there would be no environmental risk according to the prefecture, this was not the case in 2014…
• After an unsuccessful attempt to restart, the Tricastin nuclear power plant(1980) experienced several detonations and an impressive smoke release. If EDF certified on that day that there had been no release into the environment, it returned to its statement one year later and eventually confessed that there were indeed radioactive releases of tritium.
• In view of these various recent events (and the list is still long), the safety of nuclear power in France is becoming even more worrying.