Communicating the nuclear: learning by old mistakes?

by Anna de Polo

Recently in Italy the debate on nuclear was reopened, as usual characterized by an exchange of views, more or less authoritative, and low information content. It’s difficult to form opinion on this theme, because the Italian remain bewildered by the conflicting voices that rise on all sides, especially since even the scientists do not seem to agree.

Though we don’t want to tackle this thorny issue here, we want to underline the importance of information and sensibilization, especially about the risks that nuclear power involve an particularly in prospective of its eventual re-entry into Italy. In this regard, we can follow the example of France, which recently has created a government portal on the prevention of natural, health and technology (including the risk of nuclear accident) hazards, to inform and prepare people for disasters of various kinds. It comes spontaneously to make a comparison with the portal of Protezione Civile, the only Italian one in which similar information can be found under the heading "health and anthropogenic risk". Unfortunately, both the form and content are not exhaustive as the French equivalent, but could be improved if also here new nuclear power stations will be opened. The experience of Čhernobyl, in fact, teaches, as reported in several books (see Ulitsa Sadovaya, wanted by the voluntary association Mondo in Cammino), the serious environmental and health consequences of the accident would have been limited if there had been a (better) institutional information about the risks of radioactivity. Just as technology has treasured the disaster of '86, making great strides in building safer nuclear station, host-nuclear countries should learn from that experience and train their people so they know what measures to take in case of accident. It’s wrong to think of Čhernobyl as an event of the past, why keeping memory helps us not to make the same mistakes in future.

In this regard, is scheduled for Sunday, September 19 in Mestre, during the Fiera della città aperta (Open City Fair), organized by the Ecoistituto Veneto Alex Langer, a meeting with Professor Yuri Bandazhevsky, a Byelorussian doctor who, in about 240 research works, has demonstrated the temporal effects of prolonged exposure to low doses of radionuclides. Bandazhevsky's position leaves no room for compromise: "atomic energy, as it’s produced for now, is not safe and the boundary between civil and military use is very ambiguous", he said in an interview. "Governments need to think about it, because nuclear power is a grave danger". In the meeting will also take part Bonfatti Massimo, president of Mondo in Cammino. The meeting will be replicated on September 21 in Torino and on 22 in Novara. For those wishing to get an idea on the nuclear issue without leaving their home I point out on Sunday night the episode of Presadiretta, by Riccardo Iacona, which is focusing on this subject.

Whatever decision the government will take on nuclear power, it remains to ask why they wish to spend astronomical sums to build new power plants, when we could invest them in renewable energy and energy saving, more sustainable and certainly less dangerous. Even Margherita Huck, more open on the nuclear theme than Bandazhevsky, said that "she does not deny the importance of nuclear power, but she personally believes we should focus more on renewable energy". If at the base of the concept of sustainable development there is the idea that Earth was lent to us by our children, are we really going to return it to them with attached radioactive waste?