25 years ago on April 26th, 1986 a catastrophic event took place that shook the globe. It was on that very day that a nuclear power station at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, exploded in the world's worst nuclear accident. A plume of radiation was sent across much of Europe. But for several days, no one even knew about it because Soviet officials delayed reporting the accident. More than 30 people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the explosion but many others died at a later time due to radiation caused illnesses such as cancer. No one really knows the exact number of deaths that were caused by the explosion. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated in the Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus after the incident.
At first there was lot's of panic and lot's of talk about what went wrong as people in the world felt quite helpless as to what to do. But eventually time went on and Chernobyl became a radioactive monument to the worst case scenario in nuclear power. People naively thought that the lessons had been learned about the dangers of nuclear power. But the leaders of the world's countries did not heed the lessons and once again they thought that man could control it all. So they started building more nuclear power plants again. Even in earthquake prone countries and even on fault lines. 25 years later and once again history repeats itself with the Fukushima plant in Japan. And once again the severity of the situation was hidden from the public. Only later did Japanese officials admit that Fukushima was at the same level of an atomic catastrophe as was Chernobyl.
But even before Fukushima, several countries in Europe were starting to realize that nuclear power was just too big of a gamble for the world to bet on. Germany is currently the leader of the anti-nuclear movement and has staged recent protests within it's borders at many of it's nuclear power plants. Tens of thousands of people have marched at these protests. At the same time leaders in the United States kept insisting that nuclear power is safe and had plans of opening up to 30- 40 new nuclear power plants in the near future. This was in addition to the current 100 plants already in operation there.
But Monday on the eve of Chernobyl's nuclear accident's 25th anniversary, people in both Germany and France had decided that enough was enough! Thousands of people from both countries have staged protests calling for an end to nuclear power. Some of the marches were held on several river bridges between France and Germany over the Rhine. There were also further protests at many of the German nuclear plants. Banners were carried with anti-nuclear slogans and people chanted: "Chernobyl, Fukushima, never again!" In a symbolic "die in", protesters threw flowers onto the Rhine and lay down on the pavement of the bridge as a siren wailed in the background. They were also calling for the closure of France's oldest nuclear power station at Fessenheim.
One of the organizers of a demonstration, Erhard Renz, was quoted as saying "After Fukushima it's now clear enough that the danger of nuclear power is real. We can not allow the business needs of the very few to destroy our world - like what happened 25 years ago," he told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. And recently Russia's President, Dmitry Medvede, was quoted as saying "I think that our modern states must see the main lesson of what happened at Chernobyl and the most recent Japanese tragedy as the necessity to tell people the truth”.
The anti-nuclear movement is beginning to gain momentum around the world as protesters in India plan to march on the site of a planned six-reactor nuclear power plant. In Germany, where the movement began, the issue has become political and has helped the German Green party to win in regional elections, therefore causing further damage to the standing of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The movement is also spreading rapidly on several of the social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter where many petitions are being signed against nuclear power.
With so many other alternative methods of clean power available and being refined, it is time for the nuclear power industry to be shut down and forever silenced. The time is now before even one more catastrophic nuclear accident threatens to destroy our world, the only home that we have.
1-Ban Nuclear Energy: SIGN THIS PETITION
2-We Share Heaven-Inspect&Stop Nuclear Power Plants SIGN THIS PETITION
At first there was lot's of panic and lot's of talk about what went wrong as people in the world felt quite helpless as to what to do. But eventually time went on and Chernobyl became a radioactive monument to the worst case scenario in nuclear power. People naively thought that the lessons had been learned about the dangers of nuclear power. But the leaders of the world's countries did not heed the lessons and once again they thought that man could control it all. So they started building more nuclear power plants again. Even in earthquake prone countries and even on fault lines. 25 years later and once again history repeats itself with the Fukushima plant in Japan. And once again the severity of the situation was hidden from the public. Only later did Japanese officials admit that Fukushima was at the same level of an atomic catastrophe as was Chernobyl.
But Monday on the eve of Chernobyl's nuclear accident's 25th anniversary, people in both Germany and France had decided that enough was enough! Thousands of people from both countries have staged protests calling for an end to nuclear power. Some of the marches were held on several river bridges between France and Germany over the Rhine. There were also further protests at many of the German nuclear plants. Banners were carried with anti-nuclear slogans and people chanted: "Chernobyl, Fukushima, never again!" In a symbolic "die in", protesters threw flowers onto the Rhine and lay down on the pavement of the bridge as a siren wailed in the background. They were also calling for the closure of France's oldest nuclear power station at Fessenheim.
One of the organizers of a demonstration, Erhard Renz, was quoted as saying "After Fukushima it's now clear enough that the danger of nuclear power is real. We can not allow the business needs of the very few to destroy our world - like what happened 25 years ago," he told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. And recently Russia's President, Dmitry Medvede, was quoted as saying "I think that our modern states must see the main lesson of what happened at Chernobyl and the most recent Japanese tragedy as the necessity to tell people the truth”.
The anti-nuclear movement is beginning to gain momentum around the world as protesters in India plan to march on the site of a planned six-reactor nuclear power plant. In Germany, where the movement began, the issue has become political and has helped the German Green party to win in regional elections, therefore causing further damage to the standing of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The movement is also spreading rapidly on several of the social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter where many petitions are being signed against nuclear power.
With so many other alternative methods of clean power available and being refined, it is time for the nuclear power industry to be shut down and forever silenced. The time is now before even one more catastrophic nuclear accident threatens to destroy our world, the only home that we have.
1-Ban Nuclear Energy: SIGN THIS PETITION
2-We Share Heaven-Inspect&Stop Nuclear Power Plants SIGN THIS PETITION
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