It's your problem. Not mine.
Clean and renewable, please.
There's not much things I'm proud of here in Portugal. But one of them is the exploration of natural resources to produce clean, renewable energy. I need to reinforce the "renewable" energy part, since a quick look at Electricity Map can make us think countries like France are doing everything well environmentally speaking. They're not, because almost everything is powered by nuclear energy.
Source
Nuclear plants are dangerous, expensive, non-renewable, they produce toxic waste... They emit less CO2 but is it worth it? The cost of building and dismantling one of those is more than enough to research, develop and place batteries and other renewable energy sources that could solve most of our energy problems in the short term.
Almaraz
Portugal never accepted nuclear energy. There is an investigation reactor and there were plans to build energy reactors, but they were rejected. I guess, because the population just didn't want it. This didn't happen in Spain, where there are still 5 active nuclear plants. The government has pledged to dismantle them once wind and solar energy become viable... Whatever that means.
One of Spain's nuclear reactors is in a place called Almaraz, just 100km away from Portugal's frontier. And it's cooled by the waters of Tejo, the river that crosses Portugal and the city of Lisbon. It's not a regular river, as you may guess. And Almaraz is not a regular nuclear plant... It's the oldest nuclear plant in Spain, built in 1981 with a lifespan of 30 years (so it should be closed 7 years ago). They have renewed their licence of exploration until 2020 because their "Spent Fuel Pools" had capacity to 2021.
Almaraz's location
Almaraz had 2800 incidents since it started in 1981. In the first six months of 2016 it had 40 incidents. So let's say it's not at all a safe place.
What's the deal?
In 2017 Spain's Nuclear Safety Consil (CSN) has approved the creation of a "Centralized Interim Storage Facility" (CISF), that is a sort of warehouse to store spent fuel, pretty much like the regular pools. What for, if the pools are able to keep spent fuel until 2021 and the plant should close in 2020?
Well... That denounces the true intentions of that facility: extend its lifespan until 2030. Almaraz is not safe but hey... The river flows to Lisbon, not to Madrid :) They're profiting about 1 million € per day, since the investment is already paid for. And if they could make it work for another 10 years... Just do the maths. All without taking major environmental "risks".
This is why portuguese people are concerned. Personally, I couldn't care less about what Spain is doing with their energy, since my environmental concerns are global, not local. But a major incident in Almaraz (that can happen anytime now) could wipe off thousands of people in Portugal in a matter of hours.
Of course we protested. But as always, money talks louder and some masking procedures were put in place: a complaint addressed to the european comission, a visit from the portuguese environmental agency... Everything was obviously inconsequent, and after about one year everything is fine on the money side. Meaning no one talks about it again, apart from several environmentalists and the environmentalist party (PAN, with one member among 229 others, on the portuguese parliament).
We need more fuel!
Money is a great speaker. Everyone wants to hear what he has to say. He spoke tremendously well in Spain last year, so much so that they're now thinking about starting mining uranium. Also close to Portugal, in order to "reduce risks". The regular mining work alone would contaminate the Douro river (that crosses Porto) with unsafe values, according to a study commissioned by WWF to two Spanish scientists.
Photo: Joana Gonçalves. Source
The same would happen with the radioactive dust , since the wind flows from the east to the west. It would have an extreme impact in Portugal's environment... Although none in Spain's.
This monday there was a train ride from Salamanca to Porto in a protest, to press portuguese government to really do something this time. There is also a lot of pressure from spanish population. I hope this time decency and care for people prevail over that invisible force that is money.
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Albeit we should focus on global travesties on ecological issues, highlighting local ones showcases heavily why the global ones are a big concern. This incident, though a potentially deadly one that is serious to the locals, should be reflected to all others that bears resemblance to it globally. And this post nails it on the head when making that point.
And although I may not have the time to focus on ecological issues, I make sure to study up on it and correct people on ecological topics. That's the least I can do that will make it worthwhile for our dying planet. And every little ounce of struggle can make the planet just a little better for ourselves and our futures ahead of us.
I like your ideas, man. We live in a planet as a whole, but we only have voice in our own country, sometimes defined exclusively by economical matters, disregarding cultural identities? (this is also happening in Spain right now)
It just makes no sense. We need global thinking, through local acting, motivated by individual awareness.
And the March of History continues if we must continue to struggle. This social order got itself in some way, and it can also be ousted out in another way. If we wish for ideals to be actualized, we must practice towards it.
We must devise theory, plans and organizations that is based upon our current reality help steer history against this trend. And we must continue to attempt superseding this trend, even if we fail at first. We must learn from our failures, update theory to a more actualized reality and continue to struggle then.
Truly our health and environment ought to be more valued than money .We keep chasing money and end up engaging in detrimental things affecting our health,When we come down with certain diseases we end up spending so much to treat and take good care of ourselves.
It's high time we start preventing these diseases than curing them
Of course, but even if it doesn't affect us directly... It's a matter of respect for nature, which has an incalculable value!
Great post.. and VERY important topic.. I think it absolute insanity for us to be using nuclear energy... I mean look at what happened with Japan! Ouch! Luckily we seem to be moving more to Solar these days.. and amazingly CHina and India are leading the way...
Yeah, and the thing in Japan was widely muted and covered... I guess it was much worse than what we know. Moving to solar is only possible with investments in batteries, which is an excuse for not researching or developing them! That is sad :(
China and India are really leading the way, I guess also because of necessity, since their cities are becoming really really really polluted! Anyway, they're doing something!
OR is it because they are not tied to USA agendas! ;-)
India and China can do WHATEVER they want without USA manipulation..
battery development is SUPER slow.. agreed! I hope soon we see some graphene or other tech starting to become mainstream..
Well you make a very good point! USA retreating from the Paris agreement eases a lot of pressure from many other countries.
Fortunately I guess the ecological concerns are already kickstarted. The same applies with new batteries, but regarding research and development, I believe its never too much.
I bet graphene will develop later than solid state batteries. We'll see...