EIB rules out nuclear financing : It is a risky business
After intense discussions, the European Investment Bank has decided to rule out future financing of nuclear power. “We can only congratulate ourselves for not being part of this risky business,” explains J. Robert Oppenheimer of EIB. “Take a look at the Belene plant in Bulgaria, where the idea is to build a nuclear power station using out of date Russian technology in an earthquake prone area with a financing scheme that is not sorted out,” Oppenheimer continued. “Thank God we’re not involved in such a frankly insane sounding project. What kind of responsibility to future generations, as well as our own reputation, would we be showing if we got involved in nuclear energy?”
 EIB wants to avoid protests such as these |
It’s now widely accepted that nuclear power does not help fight climate change. For one, it diverts funds that are urgently needed to alter the energy system away from fossil fuel based electricity plants towards renewable energy and an efficient decentralised energy system. Nuclear power, by contrast, relies on centralisation of the energy generated and is no more than 40% efficient at best. “This is unacceptably low in times of climate change,” explains Cher Noble, of the EIB environment department. “Nuclear requires huge amounts of electricity to produce power, while climate change requires us to save energy. We simply can’t support a technology that invites wasting energy as much as nuclear power does,” Noble continues.
“Just remember the continued lighting of motorways in Belgium or the massive advertising of night storage heaters which followed the start of use of nuclear energy in Germany.”