Jankowissch, then Austrian Foreign Minister, addressing the First Special Session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna in September 1986 four months after the Chernobyl nuclear accident had contaminated Austria and the rest of Europe with radioactive fallout. Greenpeace opposes all aspects of the nuclear power industry.
Nuclear power is unsafe, is economically unsound and is unnecessary.
The whole nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining and enrichment to the use of nuclear reactors and reprocessing of reactor fuel, creates radioactive wastes and routinely releases radioactive gas and water into the environment. Nuclear power technology is also inherently linked to nuclear weapons technology and thus fuels global nuclear proliferation. Greenpeace actively works to promote alternatives to nuclear power such as renewable electricity production and energy efficiency and conservation. The nuclear industry is now facing eventual extinction from the global energy marketplace due to environmental and economic concerns. There were 421 commercial nuclear plants in operation at the beginning of 1996, ten fewer than there were at the industry's peak in December 1988.