Bratislava, November 26 (TASR-SLOVAKIA) - Using the well-known cartoon figure Homer Simpson, the Greenpeace organisation on Monday protested against European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) in Bratislava.
According to environmentalists, the meeting is only a promotional platform during which representatives of the nuclear energy industry and representatives of countries exploiting atomic power plants can continue to uncritically reaffirm their current opinions on the advantages of nuclear energy.
"Greenpeace has decided to use this character, as Homer Simpson is known as an employee (security technician) of a US nuclear power plant," Greenpeace spokesman Juraj Rizman told SLOVAKIA. He added that, according to Greenpeace, it's a suitable parody of the ENEF meeting. In his opinion, the goal of the forum is not only to promote nuclear energy within the EU but also outside it.
The environmentalists say that unilateral support of nuclear energy doesn't represent a solution of the real problems of EU-member countries. "This unilateral dependence from the nuclear energy sector only deepens the dependence on imports of energy-related raw materials from abroad," says Rizman. Thus, in his opinion, the development of renewable resources is being blocked, as the money for the energy sector is limited. "We would prefer it if the investments went into renewable resources, into pro-active programmes of conservation and increased energy effectiveness," he said.
According to Rizman, nuclear energy cannot be declared as an ecological source of energy, because its production creates radioactive waste, the storing of which isn't sufficiently and securely solved today. There are more than 60,000 tonnes of spent nuclear waste from reactors in Europe. The need to resolve the storage question has also been pointed out by the Permanent Committee of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (of which Slovakia currently holds the rotating presidency).