50 years ago we had a warm debate among ourselves about the need for nuclear power plants to generate electricity. However, it was clear to most Basques that the four planned nuclear power plants should not be built in Hego Euskal Herria. In order to cope with these gigantic projects, the Basque people were mobilized and ETA joined this objective. On the contrary, the Basque elite wanted to build these power plants, otherwise “we would be forced to eat cabbages and live with candles,” as Xabier Arzalluz told us. Since then we are going to do five decades and fortunately the forecast of the head of the jelkide has not yet been fulfilled.

Those enthusiastic years of support for nuclear were blurred, especially after the Three Mile Island accident in EE.UU. Moreover, the nuclear force would weaken towards the radioactive explosions at Chernobyl in 1986; and finally, the end of this risky method of generating light that Fukushima 2011 would give.

Since then, steps have been taken to close nuclear plants in countries such as Germany, Sweden, Spain or the USA (California), but not in the French State, where President Macron recently planned to build new nuclear plants, although most of the plants in this country have serious problems: the oxidation of the facilities, the heating and the impact of water from the rivers to cool reactors, which adversely affects the flora and fauna.

Today we are in an energy crisis in which all the EU countries have brought the issue of nuclear power plants to the table to ensure the level of electricity consumption. The European Commission has also recognised that nuclear energy for the energy transition is clean, giving in to the French state; moreover, consumption needs have been aggravated by the Russian gas policy, which has seriously increased electricity production costs.

In this situation, political positions with nuclear power stations are moving, particularly among ecologists. In fact, so far most ecologists were against these plants, but they are divided in Germany, Sweden and the USA.
However, the problem of reactive waste remains to be solved and it will not be easy to find an appropriate solution. For example, in the US they accumulate around plants and in Europe the authorities try to find solutions. In Switzerland, along the German border, a warehouse of this waste is being built in an 800 m underground clay hole where reactive waste will be deposited in steel tanks. Finland is also carrying out underground projects. Thus, it is estimated that for 100,000 years the waste will be controlled, leaving the reactive rays isolated underground.

Finally, nor is it a joke problem, among the countries that today build nuclear power plants are mainly Russia and China. For example, Russia is building 30 plants around the world and funding the project is provided by Russia, and supplies it with uranium, as well as maintenance in Russian hands, and the amount invested will be returned by electricity bills to the Russian authors of the plant.

However, the elitist movement in favour of the nuclear power plant is starting and to stop this flood, society will have to respond, otherwise they will put us in the neighborhood.