United Nations head, Ban Ki-moon, issues warning on nuclear energy plants

UN Chief Issues Nuclear Warning on Chernobyl Visit
by Anya Tsukanova
Agence France Presse
April 20, 2011

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — The head of the UN warned on a landmark visit to Chernobyl on Wednesday that the Ukrainian tragedy and the recent accident in Japan prompted "painful questions" about the future of atomic power.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon visited the site of the Chernobyl disaster a day after world donors pledged 550 million euros ($800 million) towards a permanent shelter to secure the ruined reactor, which exploded on April 26, 1986.

Speaking in Kiev afterwards, he warned that the recent quake damage to Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant showed that accidents like Chernobyl were likely to occur again in the future.

"The unfortunate truth is we are likely to see more such disasters. The world has witnessed an unnerving history of nuclear accidents," he said at a conference, calling for a global debate on the safety of nuclear energy.

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:(

"To many, nuclear energy looks to be a relatively clean and logical choice in an era of increasing resources' scarcity. Yet the record requires us to ask painful questions: have we correctly calculated its risks and costs?" he said.


There appears to be a powerful lobby, in the US anyway, that doesn't want the public to even understand what the risks and costs are.

I picked it up hours ago to post and forgot!!

:)