14 DAY TRIAL // Greenpeace is fairly busy protesting Procter & Gamble's use of palm oil these days, but this does not mean that it has ceased to pay attention to other threats to the environment and public safety.
On the contrary, it was this past March 5 when as many as 240 members of this organization joined hands to protest Europe's nuclear power industry.
On its website, Greenpeace writes that roughly 44% of the nuclear reactors that Europe currently relies on in order to have its energy demands met are simply too old to be online.
It details that, out of 151 nuclear reactors that are now operational across the European Union, 66 are older than 30 years, 25 have been around for longer than 35 years, and 7 are older than 40 years.
What the organization means to say is that these reactors have long passed their initial design lifetime, and should therefore be shut down without delay.
Greenpeace does not want these nuclear reactors to be pulled the plug on because it is worried that they might have gotten terribly tired during their many years of hard work and therefore deserve a vacation.
What the organization is concerned about is the fact that, because of their age, the reactors have high chances to experience failures that might lead to a disaster similar to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
“It's common sense that as these aged and increasing decrepit nuclear reactors get older so the chances of serious faults in them increase,” the environmentalists say.
“We demand that reactors older than their initial design lifetime should be closed immediately. We believe that for safety no further lifetime extensions should be granted,” they add.
According to Greenpeace, most of Europe's old and decrepit nuclear reactors that risk going haywire at any time are located in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
It is high officials in these countries that Greenpeace wants to convince to implement urgent measures and make sure that another tragedy such as the one at Fukushima never again happens.
Hoping to get its message across, the organization staged a series of protests across Europe. Thus, just yesterday, several activists unfolded anti-nuclear power banners inside Switzerland's Beznau II, i.e. the oldest nuclear power plant in Europe.
In Sweden, another group of Greenpeace activists hung a similar banner from the reactor roof top of Oskarshamn 2, and in Spain Greenpeace members took action against Garoña. Other protests against nuclear power took place in Belgium, France and The Netherlands.
“Europe can't rely on old reactors to deliver the carbon reductions needed to save the climate and a single greenhouse gas reduction-target for 2030 is therefore out of the question. We need three binding European and national targets of 45% renewables, 55% carbon emissions cuts and 40% energy efficiency by 2030,” the organization offered as an explanation for the decision to hold these protests.