GREENPEACE: NO NUKE?

Following reports in the NYTimes and elsewhere that Greenpeace favored new nuclear energy, this might signal a significant position reversal:

Greenpeace asks Romania not to build nuclear plants
25 October 2006 (Reuters)

- Environment group Greenpeace urged Romanian authorities on Wednesday not to build two new nuclear reactors for the Cernavoda plant because of greater risks in case of a terror attack.
- Bucking a trend in Europe, Romania plans to inaugurate its second reactor early in 2007 and has set a deadline for binding bids to build and operate a third and a fourth reactor for end-2006.
- "A major nuclear accident due to technical causes or following a terror attack will be devastating ... such as an accident at the Belene and Kozloduy plants in Bulgaria," Anamaria Bogdan, a spokeswsoman for Greenpeace in Romania, said…
- "Nuclear energy is one of the worst options to solve Romania's energy (needs)," Jan Haverkamp, an expert with Greenpeace was also quoted…
- Works at Cernavoda plant, designed to have five reactors, began 30 years ago under the former communist regime. Construction stopped in 1990 when a survey revealed some of the equipment was in poor condition and the welding was faulty.
- The plant's first reactor went on stream in 1996 and accounts for more than 10 percent of the country's power generation.