Europe must drop nuclear energy after a radiation leak from Japan''s earthquake-damaged atomic reactor proved there are no safety guarantees, European green groups said on Saturday. Opposition politicians and environmental groups in France, Italy and Germany said Europe had no chance of protecting its people from nuclear accidents if technologically advanced Japan could not secure its atomic reactors from natural disasters.
Opinion polls show that many Europeans mistrust nuclear energy, with government efforts to try to market it as a clean alternative to fossil fuels hampered by memories of the 1986 Chernobyl explosion which sent radioactive clouds across Europe. "What happened in Japan shows that safe nuclear power does not exist even when you have the most advanced technology," said Felice Belisario from the opposition Italy of Values party.
"The risks, above all in countries with high seismic zones like Italy, are too big." Italy, which is prone to earthquakes, is the only Group of Eight industrialised nation that does not produce nuclear power, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wants atomic plants to generate a quarter of the country''s electricity in the future.