[Get Involved] Do Europeans want a new nuclear power plant in an earthquake zone? Tell the European Commission NO!

Local children say "No Belene" in Zimnicea, Romania, during the anti-BeleNE Nuclear Power Plant action organised by Bankwatch group Terra Milleniul III and Greenpeace.

Dear Active Bankwatchers,

In early December, the European Commission will issue an official opinion on the Bulgarian government’s plan to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) near the town of Belene in northern Bulgaria – an area that lies on a seismic fault line. The Commission appears poised to give its approval to this nightmare project, one of Bankwatch’s priority campaigns.

Thus we need you to contact the president of the European Commission and the Energy Commissioner today.

A sample letter follows below, but first some background info.

The Belene project was planned in the early 1980s and from the start it was controversial because the nuclear plant would be situated in an earthquake zone. During the last large earthquake in 1977, over 120 people died only 14 kilometres from the Belene site. In 1984, Soviet scientists actually warned against building a nuclear plant at this location and in the 1990s the plan was scrapped.

The Bulgarian government has, however, revived this hare-brained scheme and is now looking to the European Commission to provide financial support for it. The nuclear reactors planned in Belene are of a type that have never been built anywhere else and would be the first new Russian reactors to be constructed within the EU.

The first step in this process is an official assessment of the project by the European Commission. If the Commission gives a green light, Belene is then eligible for loans from Euratom and the European Investment Bank, institutions that are funded by taxpayers from across Europe.

Unfortunately, that’s what is about to happen: the Commission is poised to give its approval to this nightmare NPP.

We therefore ask you to send an email to the Commission today. Tell them that building an NPP close to a seismic fault is a recipe for disaster. Tell them that European citizens do not want to see their money going to a project that increases the likelihood of a nuclear catastrophe in Europe. Tell them to start listening to the citizens they represent. Let the Commission know that our opinion on Belene and other NPPs is: NO!

More background info is available on the Bankwatch website

The email addresses of Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs follow:

sg-web-president@ec.europa.eu
andris.piebalgs@ec.europa.eu

We urge you to write to them either using the template letter below, or in your own words (of course you should be courteous and polite; there is nothing to be gained from an aggressive and abusive letter).

Thanks for your continued support and all the best,

The Bankwatch team

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SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Mr Barroso and Mr Piebalgs,

I am writing to you out of concern about the European Commission’s impending decision on the Belene nuclear power project.

The plan to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) near the town of Belene in northern Bulgaria goes back to the early 1980s. Even then, Soviet scientists warned that this site is seismically active and thus not suitable for a nuclear power station.

During the last large earthquake in the region in 1977 over 120 people died just 14 kilometres from the planned NPP site. In the early 1990s, Belene was scrapped and the first democratically elected government in Bulgaria determined the project to be “technically unsafe and economically unviable”. This was shortly after the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences issued a 421-page study that came to a negative assessment of the project and specifically warned against the seismic risks present in this location.

More recently, many private banks have also come to a negative assessment of the Belene project. Last year banks from Italy, the U.S., Switzerland, and Germany all turned down financial applications for the Belene project. Several of the banks cited public concern about the earthquake risks as a decisive factor in their decision.

I am therefore all the more surprised to hear that the European Commission is poised to deliver a positive opinion on the proposed Belene NPP. A positive assessment from the Commission would enable Bulgaria to apply for loans for Belene from public institutions such as Euratom and the European Investment Bank.

If the Commission wants to secure the health and safety of European citizens, it should not issue a positive opinion on a project which Soviet scientists, former Bulgarian governments and numerous commercial banks have all assessed as negative. European taxpayers’ money must not be used for a project that will put millions of people at risk.

My personal plea to you and the other Commissioners is: Use common sense. Don’t play Russian roulette. Don’t approve the construction of nuclear reactors in an earthquake zone!

I would be pleased to receive a direct reply to this email.

Sincerely,