Mindzle

Nuclear energy promises to be the most viable source of energy in view of the depleting natural resources. However the consequences of generating nuclear energy are far reaching and grave. With the ever increasing need for technology, domestic and industrial power supply, defence requirements and scientific research demands, the lure of nuclear energy bypasses the outcry of the environment and planet.

Transboundary dumping of hazardous waste refers to the export of such waste to the third world countries, especially Sub-Saharan nations by the first world mainly U.S. and Europe. Besides dumping into the sea is a common way of disposal of nuclear waste. For years the coast of Farallon Islands near the Californian Coast remained the biggest dumping site in America, containing 47,500 barrels of low level radioactive waste disposed from the various US nuclear reactors and US Navy and University of California’s nuclear laboratories. Ships containing hazardous waste barrels released them into the sea and the barrels that did not sink were holed for immediate sinking, leading to nuclear pollution. The marine life was and continues to be put to danger when such waste enters the marine food chain and ultimately the human chain.

The Sub- Saharan countries like Guinea Bissau which is among the 20 most poor countries of the world, agree to the import of hazardous waste from the first world nations due to financial requirements. At one point Guinea Bissau was offered 600 billion dollars for acting as the dumping ground. The sum was twice its foreign debt and four times it’s GNP at the time. Such financial lures are the main reason for transboundary dumping. Also the lack of technological know-how in such countries make them easy targets for nuclear waste trading in the name of fertilizers, road building material and re-cycleable chemicals. The lack of stringent regulations regarding proper disposal and environmental issues in these countries attract first world countries where laws are more rigidly binding. Also the prevalence of deep-rooted corruption exacerbates the problem. ‘Under the table’ deals with government officials of these countries make them soft targets for waste disposal.

The lack of economic, social and infrastructural development in the third world countries forces them to convert their own land into ‘cradle of death’. The lack of technological knowledge leads to improper disposal of deathly waste in grossly insufficient incinerators which in some cases are almost absent. In Nigeria for example empty containers of nuclear waste are used for storing water for domestic purposes. Is this not worse than murder, condemning your ignorant fellow nationalities to decades of darkness? Is it not inhuman to knowingly put the innocent future generation to a lifelong sentence of poor health and handicap? Is this not the most excruciating pain being inflicted on Mother Nature? And yet money rules!

Russia is planning to make itself the world’s biggest nuclear dumping ground with the promise of extracting nuclear material from the waste and reselling it. Has it forgotten the Chernobyle disaster, has it forgotten its incapability in handling nuclear hazards? We talk of the Brundland report, we discuss sustainable development in every UN meeting. But then I guess all the propaganda is to give us the false hope that ‘everything’s OKAY’. Well it’s high time we realized that things are beyond okay and its time we put our foot down.

Conservation is the only option. The need for nuclear energy cannot be denied, but we need technological advancements in nuclear waste disposal techniques. We belong to nature and the nature belongs to us. Realisation of sustainable development is the only way out for harmonious co-existence, or shall we say existence because without a healthy environment the question of our survival is redundant.