Atomic waste to south Italy
By Soulfish - 19.11.2003 17:56
(Translated by Diet Simon)
The Italian government and its military have decided secretly to build an atomic waste storage dump in the autonomous Basilicata region of southern Italy. This spells doom for the local population of some 600,000. There were protest blockades immediately after the information got out. People in the area, where agriculture is an economic mainstay, would be happy to receive help from abroad?
(Translated by Diet Simon)
The Italian government and its military have decided secretly to build an atomic waste storage dump in the autonomous Basilicata region of southern Italy. This spells doom for the local population of some 600,000. There were protest blockades immediately after the information got out. People in the area, where agriculture is an economic mainstay, would be happy to receive help from abroad?
Write as many protest mails as possible, bring in the press or blockade the Italian embassy; unless this decision is blocked as soon as possible, it will be the end of this region, which suffered severe damage in a disastrous earthquake in 1980!
FINAL ATOMIC WASTE DUMP IN SCANZANO JONICO (BASILICATA)
With a decree, the Italian government on 13 November 2003 condemned Scanzano Jonico, and thereby the entire Ionic coast of Basilicata to be the cemetery for 80,000 m3 of Italian atomic waste. There were no negotiations with the Basilicata region and municipal administrations, and there was no scientific basis.
Not only is the decree, which amounts to a death sentence for an entire region, a ?military secret?, i.e. is momentarily inaccessible to the public, but because of its legal form as a military decree will go into force the moment it is published in the Gazzetta Ufficale. The military decree, which confirms the Scanzano Jonico location chosen by the SOGIN spa (Society for the Administration of Nuclear Facilities), not only violates the principles of democracy but also the international and national criteria for final storage selection, which SOGIN spa itself published in March 2003 (www.regione.piemonte.it/ambiente/simin/dwd/descr_dep.pdf).
General Carlo Jean, President of SOGIN spa, has admitted that he neither inspected nor investigated the location in Scanzano Jonico himself. He cites investigations by a company called SORIM spa, owner of the property, which in 1999 was licensed to mine cooking salt there.
It is known that there have been decades of investigation worldwide into final storage of nuclear waste. But on which studies is this allegedly ?technical decision? that has been taken here based?
With this decision the Italian government endangers the future of an entire region and plunges it into an economic, social and ecological catastrophe. Sixty percent of the livelihoods of the 600,000 people living in the Basilicata region comes from farming and tourism on the Ionian coast.
Aided by development funds from the region, the Italian state and the European Union, especially for farming and tourism (20,000 tourist beds on the Ionic coast!), the Basilicata only in recent years worked its way into economic balance and independence. It is the only region of the Mezzogiorno, which in 2006 will leave the socalled ?target zone? (depressed zones of Europe).
The plot of land the government claims as the ?safest final storage location in Europe? lies 200m from the Ionic Sea, 500m from important tourism facilities, 2.5 km from Scanzano with its 7,000 inhabitants, 6 km from Policoro with 15,000 inhabitants and 10 km from Montalbano Jonico and Bernalda-Metaponto with more than 10,000 inhabitants.
The Basilicata?s 40 km coast ranks as one of the cleanest in Europe; large parts of it are under nature protection, such as the ?Bosco Pantano?, one of the oldest and most significant pine forests of Italy ? just 10 km from the planned final atomic dump.
Die Lucanian population rejects being stamped Italy?s atomic waste cemetery with a dictatorial, undemocratic decision. Since the judgement has fallen, thousands of people have been demonstrating around the clock in the most peaceful manner on Basilicata streets to prevent what they have worked hard to achieve being taken away from them.
The entire transport system of the south has been paralysed. The protest actions of the people will not wane until the Italian government rescinds its death sentence on an entire region and seeks a national solution in a democratic way.
The Italian government must be put under European and international pressure to make it respect the principles of democracy and to stop it condemning a national and European resource as rubbish bin of the nation. We appeal to the press at home and abroad, to national and international human rights organisations, to all who believe in the principles of democracy to help the Basilicata Region in its information work.
Arch. Ulrike Wyrwoll
Via Guicciardini 12 - 75012 Bernalda (MT)
Tel. +39.0835.542520 Mobil +39.328.4775409
E-mail:
info@land-systems.com
http://www.minambiente.it/Sito/contatti/messaggi.asp for protests against the environment ministry, on whose advice the decree was made.
jean@sogin.it for protests against General Carlo Jean, President of the SOGIN and responsible for the choice of the location of the permanent atomic was storage in the Basilicata
http://www.italia.gov.it/servlet/ContentServer?channel=HTTP&pagename=e-Italia/CallJsp&jspName=Scrivi for protests against the Italian government
spi.ufficiostampa@difesa.it Press opffice of the defence ministry
www.gdmland.it to follow the whole thing in the press!!
www.noalnucleareinbasilicata.com Here you find all e-mail adresses of the Italian press, postcards to send, signature lists, etc.
FINAL ATOMIC WASTE DUMP IN SCANZANO JONICO (BASILICATA)
With a decree, the Italian government on 13 November 2003 condemned Scanzano Jonico, and thereby the entire Ionic coast of Basilicata to be the cemetery for 80,000 m3 of Italian atomic waste. There were no negotiations with the Basilicata region and municipal administrations, and there was no scientific basis.
Not only is the decree, which amounts to a death sentence for an entire region, a ?military secret?, i.e. is momentarily inaccessible to the public, but because of its legal form as a military decree will go into force the moment it is published in the Gazzetta Ufficale. The military decree, which confirms the Scanzano Jonico location chosen by the SOGIN spa (Society for the Administration of Nuclear Facilities), not only violates the principles of democracy but also the international and national criteria for final storage selection, which SOGIN spa itself published in March 2003 (www.regione.piemonte.it/ambiente/simin/dwd/descr_dep.pdf).
General Carlo Jean, President of SOGIN spa, has admitted that he neither inspected nor investigated the location in Scanzano Jonico himself. He cites investigations by a company called SORIM spa, owner of the property, which in 1999 was licensed to mine cooking salt there.
It is known that there have been decades of investigation worldwide into final storage of nuclear waste. But on which studies is this allegedly ?technical decision? that has been taken here based?
With this decision the Italian government endangers the future of an entire region and plunges it into an economic, social and ecological catastrophe. Sixty percent of the livelihoods of the 600,000 people living in the Basilicata region comes from farming and tourism on the Ionian coast.
Aided by development funds from the region, the Italian state and the European Union, especially for farming and tourism (20,000 tourist beds on the Ionic coast!), the Basilicata only in recent years worked its way into economic balance and independence. It is the only region of the Mezzogiorno, which in 2006 will leave the socalled ?target zone? (depressed zones of Europe).
The plot of land the government claims as the ?safest final storage location in Europe? lies 200m from the Ionic Sea, 500m from important tourism facilities, 2.5 km from Scanzano with its 7,000 inhabitants, 6 km from Policoro with 15,000 inhabitants and 10 km from Montalbano Jonico and Bernalda-Metaponto with more than 10,000 inhabitants.
The Basilicata?s 40 km coast ranks as one of the cleanest in Europe; large parts of it are under nature protection, such as the ?Bosco Pantano?, one of the oldest and most significant pine forests of Italy ? just 10 km from the planned final atomic dump.
Die Lucanian population rejects being stamped Italy?s atomic waste cemetery with a dictatorial, undemocratic decision. Since the judgement has fallen, thousands of people have been demonstrating around the clock in the most peaceful manner on Basilicata streets to prevent what they have worked hard to achieve being taken away from them.
The entire transport system of the south has been paralysed. The protest actions of the people will not wane until the Italian government rescinds its death sentence on an entire region and seeks a national solution in a democratic way.
The Italian government must be put under European and international pressure to make it respect the principles of democracy and to stop it condemning a national and European resource as rubbish bin of the nation. We appeal to the press at home and abroad, to national and international human rights organisations, to all who believe in the principles of democracy to help the Basilicata Region in its information work.
Arch. Ulrike Wyrwoll
Via Guicciardini 12 - 75012 Bernalda (MT)
Tel. +39.0835.542520 Mobil +39.328.4775409
E-mail:
info@land-systems.com http://www.minambiente.it/Sito/contatti/messaggi.asp for protests against the environment ministry, on whose advice the decree was made. jean@sogin.it for protests against General Carlo Jean, President of the SOGIN and responsible for the choice of the location of the permanent atomic was storage in the Basilicata http://www.italia.gov.it/servlet/ContentServer?channel=HTTP&pagename=e-Italia/CallJsp&jspName=Scrivi for protests against the Italian government spi.ufficiostampa@difesa.it Press opffice of the defence ministry www.gdmland.it to follow the whole thing in the press!!
www.noalnucleareinbasilicata.com Here you find all e-mail adresses of the Italian press, postcards to send, signature lists, etc.
Indymedia ist eine Veröffentlichungsplattform, auf der jede und jeder selbstverfasste Berichte publizieren kann. Eine Überprüfung der Inhalte und eine redaktionelle Bearbeitung der Beiträge finden nicht statt. Bei Anregungen und Fragen zu diesem Artikel wenden sie sich bitte direkt an die Verfasserin oder den Verfasser.
(Moderationskriterien von Indymedia Deutschland)
(Moderationskriterien von Indymedia Deutschland)
Ergänzungen