Chernobyl anniversary becomes weapon in nuclear lobbying war

The Commission has tried to keep itself out of the controversy about the effects of Chernobyl by publishing on 21 April a press release highlighting the financial support the EU has provided to Chernobyl-related projects. 

In  a press statement for the presentation of their commissioned TORCH ("the other report on Chernobyl") report, the Greens in the European Parliament accused the IAEA of "downplaying" the "consequences of the worst nuclear catastrophe". Green Mep Rebecca Harms said: "The IAEA must be stripped of its competence for assessing the impact of Chernobyl; this must be left up to independent evaluation. The agreement between WHO and IAEA to hush-up Chernobyl must be ended".

Greenpeace stated in the press release for its report: "It is appalling that the IAEA is whitewashing the impacts of the most serious nuclear accident in human history. Denying the real implications is not only insulting to the thousands of victims, but it also leads to dangerous recommendations and the relocation of people in contaminated areas. The IAEA cannot remain as the world’s nuclear watchdog if it cannot at least admit that nuclear power is responsible for the impact on those whose life it scarred forever”.  

The renewable energy sector fears that a "nuclear renaissance" will undermine future financial support for its energy sources and used the Chernobyl anniversary to demand continued attention from politicians for their sector. In a press statement on 24 April 2006, EWEA, the European Wind Energy Assocation, referred to a recent report of the UK's House of Commons which raised serious questions about the renewed interest in nuclear by the Blair government (see EurActiv 18 April 2006). EWEA also pointed to the fact that wind power received only "0.03% of all IEA government energy research expenditures since 1974, while nuclear power received 60%, or $175 billion in the same period".