The Lesson from Chernobyl and Fukushima: We don't want nuclear power plants in Poland (and anywhere in the world)

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On April 26, 2011, a few dozen people attended a rally against nuclear energy in the city of Poznan, Western Poland. The main slogan was "Chernobyl, Fukushima, Klempicz - nuclear power plants are not and will never be safe." The rally attracted the attention of passers-by and the local media. It was initiated by the Anarchist Federation from Poznan, but local groups as the samba band Rhythm of Resistance and Food Not Bombs joined.

It was stressed that nuclear power plants operating in developed capitalist countries are not safe either, and the tragedy in Fukushima proves that. A leaflet with a long list of power plant breakdowns was distributed. Participants expressed their disagreement with the construction of a nuclear plant in Poland.

Today, the actual support for nuclear energy in Poland is much smaller than in the second half of the 1980s (after the Chernobyl disaster). In the early 90s, after a series of massive and sometimes violent social protests against the nuclear energy industry in several Polish cities, and after loosing a referendum in the city of Gdansk, the authorities had to gave up the plans of building reactors in Zarnowiec, Klempicz and Darłów. Despite that, in 2008 the head of the Polish government  announced the relaunch of the nuclear energy program. Officially, the first nuclear power plant is to be opened in Poland in 2020. Despite the tragedy in Fuskushima the Polish government refuses to run a new referendum on the topic.

On April 26, 2011, protests were held in a few other Polish cities as well: Gdansk, Czestochowa, Warsaw, Krakow, Szczecin and Lodz. The Anarchist Federation is going to continue the anti-nuclear-energy campaign in the next months.