2007:
Annus Mirabilis And
The Smiling Garden Of Eden
By
Pablo Ouziel
31 December,
2007
Countercurrents.org
In
1905 Albert Einstein, presented the Annus Mirabilis ("Wonderful
Year") Papers, in which he explained the mass–energy equivalence
formula, E = mc2, which lead to the development of nuclear energy. In
1955, a few days before his death, Einstein together with Bertrand Russell
issued the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, highlighting the dangers posed
by nuclear weapons, and calling for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions
to international conflict. One of the paragraphs in the manifesto read;
“We shall try to say no single word which should appeal to one
group rather than to another. All, equally, are in peril, and, if the
peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert
it.”
The year
2007 has been a “Wonderful year” in the quest for nuclear
supremacy. While as ‘global citizens’ we have been distracted
by the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, the possible failed state of
Pakistan, and the push for disarmament by North Korea, our political
and economic leaders have been making aggressive moves towards reinstating
the forgotten supremacy of Nuclear Energy.
Following
the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl and the end of the nuclear arms race
of the Cold War, it looked like the use of nuclear energy would fade
away and be replaced with alternative sources of energy, both for military
and civilian purposes. However, it seems apparent now, that the opposite
is taking place and as wars continue to spread, together with terrorism
and failed states, the global race is on for nuclear domination. As
President Bush said on the 20th of December; " [Nuclear plants]
are the best solution to making sure we have economic growth and at
the same time be good stewards of the environment."
On December
19th the Washington Post told us; “Nuclear power is on the verge
of a renaissance in the United States.” The fact is that there
is a global renaissance thirsty for nuclear proliferation, and this
time Washington is not its sole promoter. The main problem is that as
‘global citizens’ we don’t understand the true implications
of this choice. In 1953 Edward Teller "the father of the hydrogen
bomb" and an early member of the Manhattan Project, charged with
developing the first atomic bombs, addressed the issue in a letter to
Sterling Cole, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. Referring
to the use of nuclear energy for civilian purposes he said; “it
is clear that no legislation will be able to stop future accidents and
avoid completely occasional loss of life… Power production can,
however, be conducted in such a manner as to produce militarily useful
materials.”
Little does
this “occasional loss of life” matter at the beginning of
the 21st century. We learned a few days ago at the French National Assembly's
economic affairs committee, that Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of
Areva, the world's largest nuclear power group, is saying that "between
now and 2030 we believe there could be 100 to 300 (nuclear reactors
built around the world)."
During this aggressive uranium rush, Umberto Quadrino, chief executive
of Edison, Italy’s second-largest utility, is calling for a substantial
increase in Europe’s nuclear power capacity; “a nuclear
programme at a European level has to be taken into consideration.”
A move which deems irrelevant the research released on December the
8th by physicians and health researchers from the University of Mainz
in Germany, which clearly states " that the risk for children under
five years of contracting leukaemia grows with proximity of their homes
to nuclear power plants."
As all countries
seek to invest in nuclear energy, no importance is given to the dangers
of promoting investment in nuclear development in such a volatile world;
“The open secret of the nuclear age is that the line between civilian
and military programs is extraordinarily thin… Indeed, the most
difficult part of building a bomb is… the process that is also
crucial to civilian nuclear power — producing the fuel.”
New York Times December 5th.
So as civilians
allow this path to be pursued and all governments want to be active
participants of this dangerous club, a new United States legislation
was agreed last week which directs the Secretary of Energy to provide
$20.5 billion for nuclear energy, $18.5 billion for nuclear reactors
and $2 billion for uranium enrichment. Coincidently, there is also a
plan backed by the UK government's chief scientist to build a £1bn
fuel processing plant at Sellafield capable of turning the UK's 60,000
tonnes of high-level nuclear waste into reactor fuel.
Meantime
in China, there are plans to increase the country’s nuclear power
capacity to 40,000 MW by 2020 and an agreement has already been reached
for the construction of six third-generation reactors. Russia, on the
other hand has announced that in 2008 a nuclear-energy university will
be established in Moscow, based at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute,
and coordinated in unison with the Russian Education Ministry.
As the year
comes to a close, while observing these rapid moves towards a more nuclear
world, I am drawn to the prediction made in 1909 by the British chemist
Frederick Soddy, who believed atomic power would “make the entire
world one smiling Garden of Eden”. Sadly, I am confident that
honest analysis will reveal that 2007 was the “Wonderful Year”
in which doctrines of arbitrary authority, with their innate contempt
for freedom, and belief in the necessity of violence and the morality
of war were promoted side by side with a thriving nuclear complex. In
this real life scenario, it seems to me that collective common sense
holds the key to a non-terrorized society, which today stands far away
from this mythological “Smiling Garden of Eden”.
Pablo Ouziel
is a sociologist and a freelance writer based in Spain.
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