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What Is Nuclear Power?

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What Is Nuclear Power? An Eye on the Debt First report on the IMF loan program As of April 2017 “Without guarantees” A study on nuclear energy and the Dabaa project First Edition in Arabic 2019 Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights 14 al Saray al Korbra St., Garden City, Al Qahirah, Egypt. Telephone & fax: +(202) 27960197 - 27960158 www.eipr.org - [email protected] All printing and publication rights reserved. This report may be redistributed with attribution for non-profit pur- poses under Creative Commons license. www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0 This study was prepared by Ragia Elgerzawy, officer of Environmental Justice in the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Muhammad Younis, the research- er in Environmental Justice, helped in collecting the material. Ismail Al-Bahar reviewed and adjusted the English version. Maye kabil, the Director of the Eco- nomic and social justice program made the final revision. Index Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter One : What is Nuclear Power? .................................................................................................. 10 1- Summary of the chapter ............................................................................................................................. 10 2- Generating electricity from nuclear power .......................................................................................... 10 3- Nuclear Fuel: Uranium .................................................................................................................................... 14 4- Nuclear Waste ...................................................................................................................................................... 15 5- Decommissioning of Nuclear Plants ...................................................................................................... 18 Chapter Two: Nuclear Power is expensive ............................................................................................. 19 1- Summary of the chapter ............................................................................................................................... 19 2- Comparing Costs Internationally ............................................................................................................ 19 3-Comparing Costs in Egypt .......................................................................................................................... 21 4- Nuclear companies Losses in the market .......................................................................................... 22 5- Hidden Costs ...................................................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter Three: Dangerous Impacts on Health and Environment ................................................. 25 1- Summary of the Chapter .............................................................................................................................. 25 2- Radiation from nuclear power plants ................................................................................................ 25 3- Impacts of Radiation on Health .............................................................................................................. 27 4- Impacts of Nuclear Plants on water and environment ............................................................ 31 5- Impacts of Dabaa plant on Environment .......................................................................................... 32 Chapter Four: The Unsolvable Issue of Nuclear Waste ...................................................................... 33 1- Summary of the Chapter ............................................................................................................................ 34 2- Piles of Risk ........................................................................................................................................................ 34 3- Dumping in Our bodies .............................................................................................................................. 37 4- Reprocessing is not a solution .................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter Five : Nuclear Accidents ............................................................................................................ 39 1- Summary of the chapter .............................................................................................................................. 39 2- Possibilities of nuclear accidents ............................................................................................................ 39 3-The Five worst known accidents in History: Kyshtym, Windscale-Sellafield Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi .............................................................................. 42 Chapter Six : The Decline of Nuclear Power ...................................................................................... 51 1- Summary of the Chapter .............................................................................................................................. 51 2- The downward trend of nuclear power ................................................................................................ 51 3- Nuclear Power Future ................................................................................................................................... 54 Chapter Seven : Better Alternatives Exist ........................................................................................... 55 1- Summary of the Chapter .............................................................................................................................. 55 2- Renewable Energy sources are better alternatives ....................................................................... 55 3- Future of Renewable Energy .................................................................................................................. 57 4- Egypt’s Renewable Energy Potential .................................................................................................. 58 Annex I: Legislative and regulatory framework of Dabaa Project ........................................... 59 1- History of Dabaa Nuclear Project ............................................................................................................ 59 2- The Russian Agreement .............................................................................................................................. 59 3- Evaluating the regulatory and legislative framework ................................................................ 61 Annex II: Community Dialogue ................................................................................................................ 64 1. Concerns over economic and strategic causes .............................................................................. 64 2. Concerns over the decision-making process and the lack of participation and transparency .......................................................................................................................................................... 65 3. Concerns over lack of expertise and competencies .................................................................... 66 4. Concerns over weak regulatory framework .................................................................................... 66 5. Concerns over risk of nuclear accidents ............................................................................................... 66 ”Without guarantees“ Introduction The consequences of using nuclear energy affect the whole society and the future generations. In- ternational recommendations rightly stress on community participation, knowledge spreading and transparency in all matters related to nuclear energy. However, we think that the process of public participation concerning El Dabaa Nuclear Plant in Egypt was not satisfactorily done. This could be, at least partly, attributed to the complexity of the issues of energy in general and nuclear energy in particular. This study seeks to provide simplified information on various aspects of nuclear power for the sake of facilitating and enriching the public dialogue and participation in the issues of nuclear energy in Egypt. The study adopts a position that considers nuclear power an expensive, dangerous, risky and un- sustainable source of electricity and that better alternatives exist, especially renewable energy. Re- newable resources would guarantee energy security and accessibility while protecting health and environment. This study is based on findings from international and local resources and data. The study consists of an introduction, an executive summary, seven chapters, and two annexes. Each chapter can be read independently, and each chapter begins with a summary of its content. Chapter One contains a simplified explanation of generating electricity from nuclear energy. Chap- ter Two deals with the economics of nuclear power generation. Chapter Three deals with the effects of nuclear reactors on health and environment.
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