AW: [ RadSafe ] Swedish Centre Party makes nuclear u-turn

[Franz Schönhofer]

Regarding the Swedish situation mentioned: A few days ago there was in
the internet edition of "Dagens Nyheter", a well reputated Swedish
newspaper, a poll regarding the question, "Shall we manage in Sweden
without nuclear power?" ("Kan Sverige klara sig utan kärnkraft?) The
result was

  Yes: 18%
  No:  81%
No opinion: 1%

Total number of participants: 14 418.

I think that this result is remarkable. First of all it shows without
doubt what people really are thinking and not what kind of "opinions"
some self announced "experts" distribute about public opinion in mass
media. Secondly the extremely low percentage of "no opinion" shows that
people are really considering this question sincerely and have an
opinion.
 
Best regards,

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319

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> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> Auftrag von Sandy Perle
> Gesendet: Sonntag, 06. Februar 2005 17:11
> An: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Swedish Centre Party makes nuclear u-turn
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------
> 
> Swedish Centre Party makes nuclear u-turn
> 
> STOCKHOLM, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Sweden's opposition Centre Party has
> changed its long-standing opposition to nuclear power, a Swedish
> business daily reported on Thursday.
> 
> The newspaper Dagens Industri (DI) quoted party leader Maud Olofsson
> as saying all but one of Sweden's existing nuclear power plants,
> which generate half of the electricity consumed in the chilly Nordic
> country, should be allowed to keep running.
> 
> "The remaining reactors should be allowed to serve for as long as
> they last," she said.
> 
> After Olofsson's change of heart all four alliance parties now see
> eye-to-eye on nuclear power. According to recent opinion polls the
> alliance has pulled marginally ahead of the SDP and its left and
> green support parties.
> 
> As recently as October 2004 the Centre Party agreed with the long-
> ruling centre-left Social Democrats (SDP) in backing the closure of
> the 600 megawatt Barseback-2 nuclear reactor by May 2005. Barseback-1
> was shut in 1999.
> 
> In Sweden's multi-party democracy, dominated for decades by the SDP,
> such deals on specific issues are occasionally struck across the left-
> right political divide.
> 
> A government-appointed expert proposed in October that the next of
> the then remaining 10 reactors ought to be decommissioned by 2015.
> Prime Minister Goran Persson has said nuclear energy, which he sees
> as old fashioned, should be replaced by natural gas and wind power.
> 
> Olofsson's party is a member of a four-party centre-right alliance
> intent on breaking the SDP's stranglehold on government power. DI
> quoted a political analyst as saying the Centre's nuclear power u-
> turn was likely to boost the alliance's chances in the next general
> election in September 2006.
> 
> Energy-intensive Swedish companies in the forestry and metal
> industries -- and many traditionally SDP-friendly trade unions in
> these sectors -- oppose the government's plans to phase out nuclear
> power.
> 
> Sweden's Nordic neighbour Finland has decided to build a new nuclear
> reactor, the country's fifth.
> ---------------
>