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Industrial sources of environmental toxins endangering 200 million people worldwide
26.10.2016
CH-Zurich – 26 October 2016 – The Environmental Toxin Report 2016 from the environmental organisations Green Cross Switzerland and Pure Earth, New York, provides information about the world’s ten most dangerous sources of environmental toxins and quantifies the magnitude of the adverse effects on health caused by toxic substances worldwide in DALYs.
05-08.08.2016
Adäquate Therapie senkt radioaktive Strahlungsbelastung (PDF .pdf)
Une thérapie adéquate diminue le taux de radioactivité (PDF .pdf)
Swiss nuclear power plant operators purchased uranium from the Soviet Union during the Cold War
06.07.2016
“Since Switzerland purchased uranium from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s, it is possible that uranium from these Green Cross project areas might have been used in Swiss nuclear power plants,” says Nathalie Gysi, Executive Director of Green Cross Switzerland. According to a report of the International Atom Energy Agency (IAEA), 30 percent of the uranium was mined in Central Asia at the time of the Soviet Union. The Russian company Techsnabexport (TENEX) offers mining of uranium ore, conversion, enrichment and the production of nuclear fuel and is an important uranium enrichment service provider for nuclear reactors of western design. Between 1975 and 1989 Swiss power companies had contracts with TENEX for uranium enrichment services. The uranium from Central Asia was processed by the Soviet military-industrial complex together with uranium from other regions. In addition to Switzerland, the uranium from the Soviet Union was also sold to Germany, Finland, France, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the USA at that time. Because a substantial part of the uranium mined in the Soviet Union at that time came from Central Asia, it cannot be excluded that uranium from Central Asia was also sold to and used by these eight nations.
17.05.2016
Green Cross Schweiz steigerte Spendeneinnahmen auf CHF 13 Millionen in PDF (.pdf)
Green Cross Suisse: le revenu des dons atteint CHF 13 millions in PDF (.pdf)
The costs of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster amount to USD 700 billion
22-25.04.2016
The Chernobyl cost report shows the findings of an extensive review of existing literature to obtain a more precise estimate of the financial value of all the negative effects of the Chernobyl reactor accident. This advances the understanding of society’s awareness of the effective costs of nuclear energy, reflecting not only the construction, operation and shutdown of a plant, but also the broader costs of nuclear disasters.
Nuclear power plants are neither safe, nor clean or cost-effective
30.01.2016
Prof. Dr. R. Richard Ernst, Professor Emeritus ETH Zurich and Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 1991, under whose patronage the Green Cross information event is held, urgently warns in his opening remarks: “Better to shut down all nuclear power plants today than waiting for tomorrow!”
Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister of Japan, explains that until the Fukushima disaster happened he believed that nuclear energy was an advanced technology and that it just needed to be handled carefully. Nevertheless, a serious nuclear accident did occur in Fukushima and more than 200,000 people had to be evacuated. If the magnitude of the accident had been just a bit greater, Japan would have plunged into chaos for twenty to thirty years. “The accident has fundamentally changed my views. I consider nuclear power to be the most dangerous form of generating energy and the risk is too great to continue using this technology”, Kan says. According to him, the nuclear lobby’s claim that nuclear power was cheaper than oil, for example, or natural gas is obviously false. If we add the compensation paid in the event of an accident or the cost of permanent disposal, it is more expensive than oil or natural gas. If the magnitude of the accident had been just a little greater, people within 250 km would have had to be evacuated long-term. It would have affected the Tokyo region and thus 50 million people. Such colossal damage normally only occurs after a devastating wartime defeat. “This knowledge should lead to the discontinuation of nuclear power, because it is neither cost-effective, nor clean or safe”, emphasises Nato Kan at the Green Cross information event.