Vienna is gearing up to fight the proposed decision that classifies nuclear energy and natural gas as “green” energy sources. The Commission argues that natural gas and nuclear power are key components in helping lower-income countries transition to cleaner power like solar and offshore wind energy.
Speaking to AFP, Austria’s environment Minister Leonore Gewessler warned the EU, saying: “Neither of these two forms of energy is sustainable and therefore has no place in the taxonomy regulation.
“If the Commission continues to work with this proposal and implements it then it is clear that we will take legal action.”
“The question of waste disposal (from nuclear energy) has not been solved for decades.
“It’s as if we give our children a backpack and say ‘you will solve it one day.’”
But Professor Wade Allison, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Oxford and author of the book “Radiation and Reason” has slammed these comments, comparing nuclear sceptics to anti-vaxxers.
He told Express.co.uk: “These are political and not based on science. Nuclear waste is small in quantity with a clean accident record.
“Like many other waste products it can be recycled, the residue of which becomes harmless in a few hundred years.
“The only problem is the image perpetuated by uninformed comment.
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“Austria of course has no nuclear power stations. It is an embarrassment to the International Atomic Energy Agency is in Vienna.”
Prof Allison said the arguments are made by “people who are frightened like anti-vaxxers,” adding: “Their arguments] are born of fear, not of science.
“Fear is very useful for animals, it saves their lives as they run away.
“But humans brought fire into their homes, cooked food and achieved a much higher standard of living 600k years ago.
“We have got to continue that tradition of overcoming the fear of things, studying them, and taming them. We could do it and we’ve done it before.
“People worry about nuclear waste, nobody has died from nuclear waste in a single accident since WWII. We can’t say that about any other technology.”