A broad movement against the construction of nuclear power plants, we experienced in the 1970s and 1980s in the Basque Country. I do not know whether it is due to social mobilization or the crisis we suffered in the 80s, or both, but it is true that there are currently no nuclear power plants in the Basque Country; nearby yes, we have the one in Garoña or Le Blayais de Aquitaine and the one in Golfech near Toulouse, as well as the nuclear origin of the number of people who use electricity today. There are no nuclear power stations in the Basque Country, but we are in the field of nuclear energy.
The 1970s and 1980s also saw the worst known nuclear power accidents. For the last two decades, nuclear energy has not been an extraordinary news item in the media, and if it has been, it has been to highlight the advances that technology has had, or it has been because of the possibilities that it wants to be given to become a real substitute for fossil energies. The supporters of nuclear energies have done an excellent job, quietly and step by step, as a result of which the life of the Garoña plant has been prolonged. The fact that in France too the expiry date of so many old nuclear power plants has been postponed, that in Germany they have acted in the same line; in almost all parts of the world they are prolonging the life of nuclear power plants built in the 1970s.
But Japan has awakened all the ghosts. Plants that are designed to withstand large earthquakes have successfully withstood the impact of the earthquake. They would have suffered the tsunami, I am sure, if it had happened just as it was. The fact that the earthquake and tsunami occurred in succession would have been a statistically despicable possibility, but it has happened, and now it will be harder for them to bear the consequences of what happened. And also, although the released radioactivity initially made its way to the Pacific, it can return at any time due to the erasures, causing even worse effects through radioactive rain, contaminating the areas that are safe so far (if anything is safe).
And what has happened is nothing compared to what is going to happen. In fact, the Government of Japan and most of the organizations organized around the world’s nuclear energy are lying. From the beginning they know that the plants that look at the Pacific Ocean –not this one, but all of them– are unstoppable bombs; from the beginning they know that by regulating the pressure of the reactor boxes they are emitting radioactivity to the atmosphere; from the beginning they know that this seawater used for cooling is returned to the sea polluted; from the beginning they know that thousands of people will die in the coming decades due to the radiation they have suffered; from the beginning they know that if they survive, millions will have to leave their island because very vast areas of land in Japan for thousands of years will become canposants; from the beginning they know that they will be left with no more than 127 million people.
The people of the Spanish Nuclear Council are lying when they say that the Japanese government is maintaining the situation and that things cannot be extrapolated to Spain. Perhaps the only hypothesis that comes close to the truth comes from the French government, when it has indicated that on a scale of 7 we are in 6 and not in 4.
It is said that Fukushima brought wealth to its inhabitants, as the former fishing zone became a modern and rich city. I don’t know if there were ever people there who questioned nuclear energy, but it is true that the younger generations have not known anything else.
They acquired wealth, but nature has taken away their land and their life. And now in the short term, Japan only needs to get electricity from oil. What was missing!