We knew that the word tsunami came from Japan, just like the bad news today. We also knew the image of the snowy Fukuyama volcano from an early age. On the contrary, the cruel images that come to our eyes during these weeks are associated with a new name: The Fukushima. And the place of the first use of nuclear weapons, specifically Hiroshima, comes to mind. The Democratic President Truman ordered a nuclear attack on the city. And we can’t forget, much less the Japanese, that the first intention of nuclear fission was to kill people in a massive way. A little later they invented “atoms for peace,” but they got frustrated when the Soviets announced their mastery of nuclear fission technology.

Assisted by Chernobyl. It was 25 years ago (April 26) that the worst nuclear accident ever occurred at this Ukrainian nuclear power plant. How can we forget the 6,000 workers who spent their lives there, who threw sand, cement and other materials over the deadly radioactive leak, until the spills of iodine and cesium are stopped? No one denies that human error was profound, but for Western analysts this could only happen in the bureaucratic socialist system. And did Windscale (1957), Harrisburg (1979) or Tokai Mura (2000) also happen because of the mistakes of Gorbachev’s friends? The serious events in Chernobyl had a direct impact on the political decline of the Soviet Union, in my view.

It's about Garoña. It may seem like a coincidence, but a Fukushima reactor is the same as the one in Garoña, manufactured by General Electric and put into operation in the same year, 1971. The first one was ruined, as well as the others that followed. We have many unanswered questions, but the blow received, in a country with a second or third place in the world economy and technology, we will have an unforgettable subject. The radioactive contamination of Fukushima is far from us, but we know that the debate and energy policy from now on have an incentive to overcome it in Fukushima. Black out has happened, following the earthquake and tsunami, very unexpected and real. What did not fit in the calculations of the proponents of nuclear energy has happened. Therefore, when the plant next to the Basque Country turns 40, we insist: Close the Garoña now!