6 days have gone by since the global governments agreed on banning Nuclear Weapons.
Nevertheless at the United Nations today, during its Sustainable Development summit and occupying the biggest exhibition space, are panels falsely promoting nuclear energy as a sustainable energy source (by IAEA).
Why nuclear energy is unsustainable:
- Nuclear energy waste (spent fuel) can continue to be used to make dirty bombs
- Despite 50 years and billions of subsidies, the Nuclear industry has not found a way to safely dispose of its radioactive waste, which remains extremely hazardous 100,000 years in the future
- Nuclear radiation even in extremely low levels is bad for human health, in particular for women and children. Studies in the US and Germany have shown that children living close to nuclear energy plants have higher risks of cancer.
- Uranium mining, which mostly takes place in indigenous territories has lead to death and disease of local workers and their families such as in the case of the Navajo tribe.
- Nuclear industry itself counts with severe nuclear accidents every few decades. In reality we have had very bad nuclear accidents every decade, which have destroyed livelihoods and made use of land for living and agriculture impossible for years to come. The victims of these accidents have suffered discrimination and not been sufficiently supported and they and their children life in fear of cancer and other diseases. (see: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima)
- Finally, the tax payers end up with the bill for the full costs of nuclear energy, which is heavily subsidised. Solar and Wind energy are already cheaper. It makes no economic sense at all to invest in nuclear energy.
We therefore send this message to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Antonio Guterres, to call on him to dismantle the pro nuclear energy exhibition at the Sustainable Development summit this week, and to entirely review the mandate of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and begin a process that would convert its sole purpose to inspections and safety, and to drop the promotion, of nuclear energy.
Sascha, Hanna and other members of the Women's Major Group who are engaged in the UN process on Sustainable Development
See also
WILPF's analysis http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/resources/fact-sheets/critical-issues/5445-nuclear-energy
