Did You Know...

• That all of the 14 western OECD countries (except France) that started nuclear power programs have finished construction or canceled all their remaining reactors and have no serious plans for new reactors? But at the same time, all the largest ones are trying to export nuclear technology to Eastern Europe
  
• That the largest nuclear production industry in the world, Electricite de France, has accumulated a debt of over 30 billion US dollars, making it the most endebted company in the world
  
• That the largest corporate debt default in history involved a US utility in Washington State which subsequently lead to the shutdown of its completed nuclear plant even before startup
  
• That the Italy closed three running reactors after a national referendum on nuclear, Austria did not start up the 100% Zwentendorf reactor after a referendum to close it passed, and the 100% complete Shoreham reactor in the US was not brought to full power after it was discovered that operating costs alone were greater than alternative solutions
  
• That there are 434 nuclear reactors operating worldwide and 34 more under construction.
• That the biggest nuclear "financial meltdown" still awaits us: decommissioning of NPP's. Estimates range from 10 to 100% of construction costs (up to US$3 bil. each) for decommissioning
  
• That after Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the International Atomic Energy Agency assessed the probability of major accidents to be on an average of one serious "core melt" accident somewhere in the world, every 2.5 years
  
• That in Germany the police guarding radwaste during transport can only stay on the train for 50 km at which point they have have recieved the full dose permited by law.
  
• That the builder of the nuclear plants in the world, Westinghouse, built 54 commercial reactors in the US, which were on average 432% over budget and 5.3 years delayed The last one was Watts Bar I, 23 years late and 1100% over budget at an incredible US$7 billion
  
• That up to 1983, European countries alone disposed of some 60,000 cubic meters of low and intermediate level wastes in the Atlantic ocean
  
• That nuclear energy was once heralded as an energy resource "too cheap to meter." But now it is the most expensive commercial source of electricity in the US today at 9 cents/kWhr, more expensive than commercial wind (5 to 7 cents/kWhr)?
  
• Studies by conservation experts show that since 1980, energy efficiency gains have saved five times as much energy as nuclear plants have produced in the United States.
  
• That after 40 years of nuclear power, there has never been a secure method for dealing with high level wastes and the average reactor produces 25 tons of high level waste yearly
  
• That Germany and Swizterland have negotiated with China to dump highly radioactive wastes in their country
  
• That the British government had to pass legislation requiring a proportion of the national generating capacity should be reserved for nuclear power, in order to prevent the collapse of this sector?
  
• That Electricite de France (EdF) now sells eletricity at a loss to entice both domestic and industrial consumers to purchase it rather than the far cheaper primary fuels such as natural gas By EdF's own estimates they have 7 more reactors than they need, yet they keep on building them.
  
• That State-of-the-art wind power, once considered a far-off dream, is now capable of producing electricity at half the cost of nukes.
• That Dr. John Gofman, a one-time AEC expert on radiation and health, estimates the cancer toll in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at 500,000 over the next century, dwarfing the combined body count from both Hiroshima and Hagasaki.
  
• That US President Richard Nixon had promised 1,000 reactors by the year 2000 in the US; however, every reactor ordered since October 1973 has been canned and no new reactors are in the U.S. pipeline.
  
• By 1974, the US had 236 reactors operating, under construction, or on the drawing board, but the industry reached its online peak in the late 1980s with fewer than 120 operating reactors.