Leo Brincat queries government on Sarkozy-Berlusconi nuke deal
James Debono
The Maltese government has made no reaction to an agreement between France and Italy which paves the way for the development of four nuclear power stations in neighbouring Italy.
“The Maltese Government is following all developments in the energy sector taking place within the Euro-Mediterranean Region,” a spokesperson for the Prime Minister told MaltaToday when asked for the government’s reaction to the agreement.
France’s EDF and ENEL of Italy on Tuesday set out an agreement aimed at building four nuclear plants in Italy – the first since a national referendum halted the country’s nuclear industry in 1987 in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.
On 15 January, Sicily’s governor Raffaele Lombardo declared that he would back the construction of a nuclear plant “if citizens want it.”
The issue has also been raised in the Maltese parliament by the Opposition’s spokesperson for the environment Leo Brincat.
Brincat asked the government whether it intends to ask the Italian authorities for more information and assurances related to Maltese security and health.
Malta can ask for trans-boundary consultation in a forthcoming Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for nuclear plants in neighbouring countries. Latvia was consulted by Lithuania in studies conducted on the development of the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant, currently under construction.
Alternattiva Demokratika had expressed its serious concern in May 2008, as soon as Italian energy minister Claudio Scajola announced that the building of nuclear plants in Italy cannot be delayed any longer.
AD had pointed out that problems regarding disposal and storage of nuclear waste have not been solved; and also that Italy is prone to high seismic activity and subject to frequent earthquakes, with all the consequent dangers that could result from damage to nuclear plants.
Italy’s decision to opt for nuclear energy comes in the wake of French decision to build nuclear plants in Libya.
Decades after the US nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the Russian nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986 scared many people away from nuclear power, nuclear energy is making a comeback amid repeated warnings from scientists that the gravest danger facing the planet is global warming rather than a nuclear meltdown.
But just last year, some 30,000 litres a solution containing 12% enriched uranium overflowed from a reservoir in the Tricastin nuclear facility in France, reportedly contaminating nearby rivers and exposing farmers to the threat of radiation disease.
Apart from safety risks and the increased likelihood of a terrorist attack, critics of nuclear energy also argue that the earth’s uranium supply will only last for 40 years: making nuclear energy at best a short-term solution.
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