Prosegue l'allontanamento della cassandra Carlo Rubbia dalla Comunità Scientifica sul tema del nucleare. Dopo essere stato smentito dai geologi e dagli economisti dell'OCSE a proposito delle risorse di combustibile nucleare, oggi Carlo Rubbia e quelli come lui vengono abbandonati dalla gran massa dai Fisici Europei, dopo che già quelli Italiani lo avevano fatto.
La portata della presa di posizione della European Physical Society è immensa. Non solamente la EPS rappresenta 100.000 scienziati, articolati nelle quaranta Società di Fisica che ne fanno parte, ma rappresenta anche un ente di quelli "così grandi" che per muoverli ad una posizione così chiara e netta la forza del movimento che l'ha originata deve essere grandissima. La EPS con un'autorevolezza senza pari sul piano scientifico segue la posizione dell'altrettanto autorevole sul piano economico OCSE: il nucleare è necessario.
La posizione della Società Europea di Fisica viene espressa in un position paper a questo indirizzo le cui parole sono macigni, che esprimono la totale inconsistenza delle posizioni espresse da persone come i Verdi alla Pecoraro Scanio e come i Balzani e viceversa rafforzano le schiere di coloro i quali non intendono unirsi al coro delle menzogne sul nucleare. In venticinque pagine dense di informazioni sono moltissime le cose che risaltano immediatamente all'occhio del lettore, farò alcune citazioni commentate.Chiunque pensi che le rinnovabili possano sostituire il nucleare nel prossimo futuro pensa il falso, tali fonti non sono alternative al nucleare devono essere perseguite insieme con esso.
"Replacing nuclear power plants by coal burning plants is not an option since it would significantly increase the world’s total CO2 emission. Renewable sources will not grow fast enough to replace nuclear power in the near future. In order to meet the growing demand for electricity, the recent EU goal of CO2 reduction, and to avoid potentially disastrous climate changes, the choice is not nuclear or renewable sources, but nuclear and renewable sources."
Chiunque pensi che le centrali nucleari producano leucemie o siano più pericolose delle altre centrali elettriche pensa il falso.
"This science-based analysis shows that the risk from electricity generation by nuclear power plants is far less than other risks of daily life [...] Another widely spread assertion is that cases of leukaemia occur more frequently near nuclear installations. However, studies have shown that “the local clustering of leukaemia occurs quite independently of nuclear installations"
Chiunque pensi che le risorse di combustibile nucleare non siano sufficienti per mantenere ed espandere la produzione nucleare pensa il falso, ce n'è per secoli con le tecnologie attuali e per millenni con quelle future.
"Taking into account the conventional (about 10million tonnes) and unconventional (about 22 million tonnes) resources, which are likely to be exploited if there is a demand, uranium ore reserves will last for several hundred years even if uraniumis used in a once-through cycle. If a closed fuel cycle is used, the supply of uranium suffices for thousands of years [...] Open- and closed-cycle nuclear reactors both generate energy by neutron-induced fission with heavy nuclei as fuel, but treat the waste produced in different ways. The open-cycle system is attractive from the point of view of security. Closed-cycle systems recover useable fuel from the waste and hence have a substantially smaller demand for uranium ore."
Le scorie di basso e medio livello non sono un problema, si tratta di costruire depositi per le scorie di alto livello, tenendo conto che è possibile riprocessarle rendendole molto meno durevoli e che sarà possibile probabilmente in futuro incenerirle, rendendole durevoli meno di un millennio.
The storage of this low and medium-activity waste in suitable repositories is not of major concern and is currently practiced by several countries. [...] However, the handling of spent fuel in the long-run is a major concern. In the short-run, the handling of spent fuel has been practiced safely since the earliest days of nuclear reactors. [...] Afterwards, the spent fuel is either reprocessed so that uranium and plutonium are chemically removed and reused as reactor fuel, or, in the once-through cycle, packaged (mainly by vitrification) for future long-term storage in deep underground repositories. [...] Possible sites for such repositories have been identified in several countries and their long-term geological safety has been investigated in detail (cf. handling of spent fuel of the Finnish reactor under construction at Olkiluoto [35]).This kind of storage solves the waste problem, at least temporarily, and in some cases does not preclude retrieving this material for future reprocessing [35], [36]. [...] Removing 99.9% of the plutonium and uranium reduces the storage time to about 16,000 years and future advanced recycling technologies, which also remove the minor actinides (MA) would reduce the safe storage time of the remaining fission products to a little more than 300 years [34]. [...] In principle, such a hybrid system could transmute radioactive wastes into short-lived fission products and simultaneously produce energy.
In conclusione: "No one source will be able to fill the need of future generations for energy. The nuclear option, incorporating recent major advances in technology and safety, should serve as one of the main components of future energy supply. There is a clear need for long-term research, development and demonstration programmes as well as basic research into both nuclear fission and fusion and methods of waste incineration, transmutation and storage. Ways must be found to inform the general public on how to assess relative risks rationally. Everybody participating in the decision making process needs to be well informed about energy issues. It is an important task of European science and research to ensure this.