Washington, DC. Sixty-five environmental, consumer and health groups from across the country urged Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. representatives to the Ninth United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 9) talks to firmly reject any definition of nuclear power as a “sustainable” technology.
In a March 13 letter to the Secretary, the groups stated that “…the Commission should discuss only truly sustainable energy technologies, and that the final recommendations of CSD 9 should reflect the fact that nuclear energy is non-sustainable.”
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development was established in 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of the Rio Earth Summit held that year. One of CSD’s tasks is to elaborate policy guidance and options for future activities to follow up the Rio Earth Summit, such as the upcoming Rio +10 conference scheduled for 2002, and to achieve sustainable development. CSD will meet April 16-27, 2001 to specifically discuss energy issues.
The letter emphasizes the danger posed by nuclear power technologies to industrializing nations: “Rather than use sustainability principles to promote…capital intensive, exclusive projects…CSD should ensure that they support economic development which benefits a broad base, especially small business.” Additionally “[n]uclear power does not contribute to the economic development of industrializing nationsindeed it is a drain on their resources…”
The groups outline other concerns, among them the cost and scarcity of uranium–the fuel used to run nuclear reactors; cross-boundary radiation contamination and intractable irradiated waste isolation failures; the prohibitive costs of nuclear power and the conflicts often caused between countries from construction of a nuclear reactor.
Regarding nuclear proliferation, the groups point out, “[w]e do not understand how a technology whose radioactive waste could be used to build a weapon of unthinkable destruction could be considered sustainable under any definition. Nuclear proliferation is destabilizing and threatens our national security.”
Unfortunately, during the most recent CSD talks from February 26- March 2, 2001, the United States insisted that nuclear power may be able to contribute to a sustainable energy future, stating that many countries “have been using this technology safely and see no inordinate concerns associated with using and developing additional technology for properly managing and controlling spent fuel and other nuclear materials.”
“The US needs to understand that nuclear energy is a failed technology,” said Cindy Folkers, Global Climate Change coordinator for NIRS. “The fact that the US even has to ask, ‘what do we do with the waste?’ or ‘how do we lock up bomb-making material?’ proves that nuclear energy should never be defined as sustainable.”
“In November, the U.S. agreed with nearly every other nation at the COP6 global warming conference in The Hague that nuclear power has no place in addressing global climate change,” said NIRS executive director Michael Mariotte. “It would be hypocritical for the U.S. to now try to argue that nuclear power is somehow sustainableyet that is exactly what the early indications from the U.S. delegation portend. We call upon Secretary Powell to take action to assure that nuclear power, with its weapons proliferation, safety, atomic waste, economic, and myriad of other problems, is explicitly rejected by the CSD9 conference.
While this pre-CSD meeting was supposed to produce a document with negotiating language for CSD 9, the nuclear section was bracketed and left empty. The status and content of this text is unknown and further discussions on the nuclear part of this document are happening outside of public scrutiny and potentially against United Nations procedure.
“Negotiations on CSD language are supposed to occur with full public transparency,” noted Cindy Folkers. “If we learn that discussions on these issues are continuing behind closed doors, we will take appropriate legal action in the United States.”
NIRS, WISE-Amsterdam, Earth Day Network and dozens of grassroots organizations are planning a major demonstration at the United Nations on Earth Day, April 22, to support its demands that nuclear power be rejected as a “sustainable technology” under the terms of the Rio agreement.