Energy
00:05
The global demand for energy continues to grow. 2010 has been a year of big decisions. How should we generate power in the future? Which way should we go?
00:17
OT Obama
We guarantee around 8 billion dollars for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the U.S. for 30 years.
00:29
Without nuclear power we won’t go anywhere, so we’re told.
00:36
OT Berlusconi (Marcus)
We need a new plan, and it always comes down to the famous question: do we use nuclear power or not?
00:47
In Germany the answer is a clear ‘yes’ and the phasing out of nuclear energy has been pushed back by 12 years.
00:54
OT Merkel
“We do the people no favours if we pretend to no longer need nuclear power plants and for ideological reasons switch them off. That's not our approach.”
01:05
The German approach is part of a worldwide trend. Currently there are 60 new reactors under construction.
According to conservative estimates more than three times as many will be added again in the next 20 years.
01:19
Open Spot
Insert: Areva Commercial
(The second spot gets no insert, because the brand itself comes into the picture)
01:22
Today’s nuclear power is supposedly environmentally friendly. In promotional videos we are told that reactors produce no greenhouse gases. It is a form of clean energy.
01:31
Open
Producing Safer, Cleaner Energy. A proud innovation of ...
01:39
Open
Insert: Vienna UNO City
01:42
So is nuclear power really is as indispensable as its advocates claim?
At the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna the annual general meeting is taking place. 151 nations are represented here. These nuclear guardians are not only responsible for the global monitoring of nuclear facilities, but also for their development and use for power.
02:05
Hans-Holger Rogner is Head of the Planning Department. He believes that nuclear power is not required to fill the gap.
02:14
Hans-Holger Rogner OT, Head of the Department of Planning and Economic Studies at the IAEA
“Precisely because renewable energy is not always available, we do need a reliable substructure, and nuclear power can provide this. But future generations should have the same options. We should allow them to decide whether or not they want this.”
02:27
Open
Insert: Special train Hamburg-Berlin
02:29
Since the German government backed the development of more nuclear power stations, intense opposition has been stirring in Berlin. On this protest train running between Hamburg and Berlin everyone is in agreement: nuclear reactors should be shut down immediately!
02:47
Included in this is Janka Weber, an anti-nuclear activist since the 70s.
02:51
Open
02:53
OT Janka Weber, nuclear power opponent
“If we take into account how little sustainability there is in political decisions, it is even more important that people get up and take things into their own hands.”
03:06
Open
03:08
OT activist
German
Before it was, “I’m against it, I go and demonstrate” and now it is ‘it really burns!’ It burns.
03:17
Berlin is holding the biggest anti-nuclear demonstration for the last 30 years. The people feel incapacitated by the latest energy policies.
03:23
Open
03:26
There are more than 100 000 opponents of nuclear power here; as many as in the heyday of the anti-nuclear movement of the 70s.
3'37
Insert: 1978
3'38
At that time the protest was against radiation waste, which will burden mankind for hundreds of thousands of years. Greenpeace drew the world’s attention to radioactive barrels being thrown overboard at sea. Only in 1994 was that kind of waste disposal prohibited.
03:57
Insert Berlin Government District
Open
04:01
The government in Berlin made an unpopular decision in lengthening the terms of its nuclear programme. It is clear that the majority of Germans do not want nuclear energy. Hermann Scheer is in opposition and Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy. He claims that public interest was sold to the nuclear lobby.
04:19
OT Hermann Scheer, SPD member of parliament
“Nuclear energy is free from liability obligations practically everywhere, even though it poses the largest technical risk, leaves a hundred thousand year disposal problem. The considerable cost besides that is that it is extremely fragile and cannot be made safe.”
04:39
Open
Insert
4'41 exploration mine Gorleben
04:42
What should be done with the radioactive waste that the reactors continuously produce? To date, there is no solution. Worldwide, research is being carried out to find an answer.
04:53
Open
04 ': 59
The salt mines in Gorleben in northern Germany – here the shining waste could be buried forever. In October the investigation will continue after a 10-year hiatus.
05:14
OT Arthur Junker, German Federal Office for Radiation Protection
“We are looking at this rock salt because we believe it is suitable for the dumping of radioactive waste. “
05:25
The decontaminated fuel rods would be stored deep under the earth. The radiation would not be able to reach the outside. Geologists must certify that the salt will still be dry in a million years time, so that as long as it is contaminated with radioactive waste, it will not pose a threat.
A security guarantee for 1 million years? It is a difficult prospect to conceive.
05:51
OT Arthur Junker, German Federal Office for Radiation Protection
“We need a wide data base in order to create models, so that we can make a prediction on the next 1 million years.”
06'04
Insert: Asse nuclear waste storage
06:04
100 km away from Gorleben, lies the Asse salt mine, nicknamed Atomklo. Here low-and intermediate-level waste is stored. The predictions have already proven to be false after only 40 years. The mine is full of water. Uranium and plutonium must be resettled at enormous cost.
06:28
Nuclear power opponent Janka Weber lives in the vicinity of the mine. She is appalled that we should trust experts, when the current technology obviously does not have a grip on the subject.
06:44
OT Janka Weber, nuclear power opponent
German
“Humanity is not yet equipped to deal with this responsibly. The most important thing is to immediately switch it off! Handle it as responsibly as possible by switching it off and then doing proper research into dealing with the rubbish.”
Insert
Gorleben 1984
07:07
The potential repository in Gorleben has divided Germany for over 30 years. The state was not expecting so much resistance. The site is on the border and only sparsely populated.
Waste transportation from the French reprocessing plant at La Hague to Gorleben in Germany became a large-scale police operation.
07:33
To date, the spent fuel is delivered in Castor, which should provide a shield to the outward radiation. Then they are kept in temporary storage facilities above ground in Gorleben. When they will find their final destination, so far no one knows.
07:52
In this video model it looks all very simple: the waste is isolated and deposited for a million years in salt mines under the ground. But will generations after us know what is stored here? How does one mark a radioactive repository for eternity?
08:11
OT Arthur Junker, German Federal Office for Radiation Protection
“The idea is to build a striking monument over the site. However we also need to build with material that doesn’t crumble after 100 or 200 years. It must have the longevity to survive several millenniums, and it is such monuments and such materials that we are currently discussing.”
08:44
Open
08:57
These protestors do not accept a 1 million year guarantee from the experts. Not after Chernobyl, or the serious incidents in German nuclear power plants, such as the flooding in the Asse nuclear waste dump.
09:13
OT protester
“It is great that the technology exists, but you can’t use it because we can’t handle it. No spot on earth can be secure for over a million years.”
09:24
The SPD and the Green party had already decided to phase out nuclear power and are particularly incensed.
09:31
OT Sigmar Gabriel, SPD party leader
“Here it is so emotional because we have created something in recent years to replace nuclear power. We have today 16% renewable energy, we have created 300,000 jobs in the renewable energy sector, and it is all on hold because the henchmen from the nuclear power companies make the money.”
09:50
But is this a totally fair accusation? Is nuclear power really that easy to replace?
10:00
Insert: Morocco
Open
10:04
In Morocco, the sun is stronger than anywhere in Europe. Could this area along the Algerian border provide the solution to Europe's increasing hunger for energy?
10:21
In this remote area is the largest solar power plant in the world. Solar power travels from here in North Africa to households all over Europe. Yet it is still in the testing phase. The plant is the pride of the country and heavily guarded.
10:38
Open
10:43
The pilot project Ain Beni Mathar is one of the most advanced solar thermal power plants in the world. Using solar energy water vapour is heated, which drives turbines enough to power a medium sized city of 200,000 inhabitants. In 10 years Morocco has already produced as much solar power here as the output of two nuclear power plants. But for now there is no proper distribution system, and solar power plants require large amounts of investment.
11:16
The project manager explains that Morocco currently has to import power from Spain. That would be redundant, if its own resources were being used. In the future, solar power should flow straight to Europe from North Africa.
11:31
And so this is the plan: All North African countries are expanding their solar power. In addition, a distribution system will be developed, with power cables that run under the Mediterranean and reach Spain, Italy and Greece.
11:46
How realistic is such a big project? It would mostly be Morocco that would benefit from solar power at first, due to the growing appetite for energy there. However, there would be enough left for Europe, says the officer in charge.
12:04
OT Said Mouline, Department of Renewable Energies, Rabat
(ENGLISH)
We have only sold the sun to our tourists. Now we can sell the sun for energy production. 15 percent of Europe's energy needs in 2050 could come from the desert of North Africa. This is indeed a possibility.
12:20
Open
12:25
Many investors from Europe, including many German companies, are involved in this future power from the desert. Under the name Desertec they want to invest 400 billion euros over the next few decades, so that the sun can also be used in places where it only rarely appears.
Insert: Berlin
12:42
Back in the German capital, nuclear energy still determines the political agenda. During the next few days politician Hermann Scheer will put his new book on the market. Its title: “The energetic imperative.”
12:59
OT Hermann Scheer, SPD member of parliament
“There is plenty of natural energy potential everywhere, because using energy from our natural surroundings is not currently encouraged. There is already surface energy from the ecosphere that permeates the globe, which isn’t currently harvested.”
13:14
Open
13:16
Wind power– more and more countries in Europe are doing it. For years, wind farms have been reinforced and expanded, both off the coast and on land. Not without conflict and debate, because wherever energy is produced, people are affected.
Insert Sweden 13:33
13:35
Swedish Lapland - the few people who live here love the loneliness and the vastness of the landscape.
For many, this is the last and most beautiful wilderness in Europe. But here too, time cannot be stopped.
14:09
For the last few months the wheels of progress have rolled in the direction of a vast wind farm. What is planned here goes beyond all previous dimensions in the alternative energy sector.
14:27
Where trees now stand, a forest of wind turbines is to be built. 1,100 such plants will generate as much energy as four nuclear power plants. In ten years there should be more wind turbines than people here, covering an area roughly the size of Vienna.
Not everyone likes this dramatic intervention in nature.
But the wind farm project will also create several hundred jobs. Sweden so far produces most of its electricity through nuclear reactors and hydroelectric power plants.
15:02
Insert: Stockolm
Open
15:05
In the Swedish capital, most are convinced that Sweden is almost entirely set on long-term green energy plans.
Wolfgang Kropp, the initiator of the wind farms, supports this position.
15:24
OT Wolfgang Kropp, Svevind (German)
" From the existing energy sources, I think wind is the cheapest and has the largest potential, so the wind will prevail. We don’t have many other options. The hydropower potential in Sweden is more or less exhausted. "
15:41
Graphics
It is a vision of what the reality might be in a few decades: a wind energy highway between Great Britain, Denmark and northern Sweden.
15:53
Energy expert Marian Radetzki lives in Stockholm. He is a prominent critic of the mega-project in the far north, a subject of great debate in the Swedish general public.
16:05
Original version OT Marian Radetzki, an economist and energy expert, University of Lulea
(ENGLISH)
Wind power is very expensive and requires large subsidies. And this will cost the Swedish taxpayers a vast amount of money. "
Insert: Lubmin, Germany
16:20
Open
16:25
Energy creates high operating costs. The highest being where old nuclear power plants must be disposed of. Here in Lubmin, high in the north of East Germany, was once the largest nuclear power plant in the GDR.
16:40
Open
16:43
The operation of five reactors of Russian design was not desired after the German reunification. In 1994 the dismantling began.16 years later it is still in progress.
It will be another 60 years before the disassembling of the reactors can be started.
17:01
Open
17:09
The Russian reactors are to be dismantled because in Germany their company is considered unsafe.
17:17
OT Jürgen Ramthun, Managing Energiewerke North
“There has been a long-held plea for retrofitting individual blocks and of course therefore pleading to do a joint operation. But in hindsight, its history.”
17:33
The disposal of old nuclear power plants is costly and complicated. The cost of scrapping a reactor block is about 600 million Euros, and it is the taxpayer carrying the costs.
17:47
Open
17:57
The German government regularly consults with energy experts over environmental issues. Christian Hey is one of the leading experts. He has not offered his support for the nuclear lobby.
18:12
OT Christian Hey, Secretary General of Council of Environmental Advisors
“We need no nuclear energy beyond 2040, as long as the lengthened term runs until then. (pause) We have predicted that the growth of the renewable energy sector is so strong that in the course of the next decade all nuclear power stations can easily be substituted with renewable energy.”
Insert Morocco
18:33
Open
18:36
The magic words ‘renewable energy’ currently signify one thing: large power plants. For the goal of 100 percent sustainability to be achieved soon, massive investment is needed. Entire regions will have to change.
18:52
OT Said Mouline, authority for the development of renewable energies
ENGLISH
I see this as a new partnership between the North and South. A new partnership, made possible by renewable energy.
19:01
In the Moroccan capital, Rabat, the transformation is already visible. Morocco is set on solar power. New houses usually get a photovoltaic system on the roof.
19:11
Not to use the natural energy would be a waste of resources. If only one percent of the Sahara was fitted with solar panels, this could theoretically meet the energy needs of the entire world.
But to achieve this massive development is needed. The economic crisis delayed investment. Nevertheless, in 10 years energy should flow from the desert to Europe.
Insert: Sweden
19:39
Comment: Alex
Wind energy is not without its pitfalls. Maintenance is not easy. In the winter it is not only dark but also icy cold. The wind is not without dangers. When the wind blows with full force the rotors can rotate at up to 230 km per hour. Birds are also threatened by the equipment, including endangered species.
20:16
Open
20:19
How do the locals judge the proposed wind farm, which will sit on their doorstep? Bio-farmers Ann-Helen and Tord are pragmatic about the industrialised south of Sweden sourcing their energy from here.
20:36
OT Ann-Helen Harnesk, organic farmer (slow) (Claudia)
"There are only a few people who might be disturbed by the wind farms. And besides, so much of our landscape has already been destroyed. (pause). It is not like before. For many decades, natural resources have been exploited here, by the reduction of ores or deforestation. "
21:05
Many more of these corridors will eat into the forest until the wind farm is completed. Six hundred kilometres of roads have to be created, and a cement plant built. The individual parts of the vast arrangement are transported by truck from Germany to northern Sweden.
The project has dimensions that can easily grow over one’s head, explains a manager at Svevind, the Swedish-German wind power company.
21:36
OT Mikael Kyrk, Svevind (Viktor)
"There have been obstacles and will continue to be problems. But we have the people here informed very early on of the risks and the possibilities of this project. Many also anticipate a chance to get a job. Eighty to ninety percent of the population are positive about it. "
21:54
Swedish-German couple the Offermanns live in this idyllic cottage. They insist that in their circle, the majority assess the project critically. Although there was a compensation fund, the negotiations over it have ground to a halt.
22:18
OT Eva Margaret Offermann (German)
"We have loved the nature and the silence, but everything has changed completely. 400 wind power plants being created here all around us, 200 meters high. We are the ones who are most affected ... "
22:35
The sight of reindeer here has become rare. They flee deeper and deeper into the forests in search of pasture. The wind power plants reduce their territory quite dramatically. Also affected are the Sami, the last indigenous people of Europe. They live on reindeer breeding. They don’t want to accept that after iron ore and waterpower now the business of wind power also only brings benefit to others.
23:02
OT Ruth Anders, Sami (Viktor)
We have nothing against wind power per se, but Europe's largest wind farm is just built on our territory. Our economic survival is in danger; after all, the reindeer herds are our only source of income. "
23:25
The energy demand in Europe has its price. The Sami population is still waiting for a binding offer on its financial compensation.
23:43
Insert Berlin
Germany is in the midst of a warm autumn. The population does not want more nuclear power – they are determined that there are viable alternatives. Whether nature can triumph over nuclear remains to be seen.