Baltic nuclear blind spots - Open your eyes to renewables! (Video, 2:49 minutes)

Publication date
2008-09-01

Source: http://www.bankwatch.org/newsroom/highlights.shtml?x=2115725

September 1, 2008

A flurry of nuclear related activity is now underway in Lithuania, with notably more energy being expended by the national authorities in recent months than ever went into planning for the closure of the Ignalina nuclear plant power in 2009, a closure that has been pending since the early 1990s.

Environmental NGOs are criticising the proposal to build a new NPP close to Ignalina as it would once again lock the Baltic countries into highly centralised, non-flexible and expensive energy solutions, and as this new clip from Bankwatch's Baltic member groups shows there are viable alternative solutions to the region's energy dilemmas other than the myopic pursuit of a a nuclear magic bullet available at the earliest in 2018.

A replacement nuke close to the Ignalina site - the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant project - is being promoted literally at all costs, and the project's environmental impact assessment (EIA) report is now out with public consultations due in the coming weeks.

The EIA is already raising concerns among environmental groups in Lithuania and in the other Baltic states involved in the project. The document presents no assessment of 'zero' alternatives as required by the Espoo Convention - in other words, what would be the environmental impacts if other energy supply scenarious were applied?

Decision-makers should instead look to various energy supply scenarios and choose a combination of energy efficiency measures and a substantial increase in the use of renewable energy sources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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