With most experts saying that we have already reached the peak of world production in crude oil and with the peak of coal right around the corner, many tout the desirability of increasing our use of nuclear energy. But before we jump on this bandwagon let me posit a few questions. What is the most dangerous waste we find around us? Would it be toxic chemicals? Would it be biological in nature such as the mythical Andromeda Strain? Look up at the light bulb that illuminates the room you are in and imagine following the wire to the source of its energy. Imagine that energy source being produced by a nuclear power plant. There you have your answer. Here you will find the most dangerous shit made by man on earth. We use it to light that light bulb above your head. We also use it to threaten each other with mutual annihilation.
Nuclear energy plants or nuclear reactors are based on the same principle as the atom bomb. The only difference is that it uses a controlled fission chain reaction for peaceful use.
But what is the safety record of the nuclear industry to date?
List of civilian nuclear accidents involving fissile material.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In listing civilian nuclear accidents, the following criteria were followed:
1. There must be well-attested and substantial health damage, property damage or contamination.
2. The damage must be related directly to radioactive material, not merely (for example) at a nuclear power plant.
3. To qualify as "civilian", the nuclear operation/material must be principally for non-military purposes.
4. The event should involve fissile material or a reactor.
During the Number of Accidents
1950s: 4
1960s 4
1970s 2
1980s 6
1990s 3
2000s 4
April 26, 1986: The world's worst nuclear accident occurred after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It released radiation over much of Europe. Thirty-one people died in the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Hundreds of thousands of residents were moved from the area and a similar number are believed to have suffered from the effects of radiation exposure.
http://www.atomicarchive.com/...
March 28, 1979: The accident at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was the most serious in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, even though it let to no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community. In the months following the accident, although questions were raised about possible adverse effects from radiation on human, animal, and plant life in the TMI area, none could be directly correlated to the accident. http://www.nrc.gov/...
Sixty years of operation and only 23 civilian nuclear accidents! WOW – what a safe way of lighting that bulb above our heads! This track record does not bode well for keeping this waste isolated from people and the environment for millions of years!
Jonathan Schell, Author of The Seventh Decade – The New Shape of Nuclear Power states it clearly:
“To be sure, the worldwide buildup of the machinery of nuclear power and nuclear war has exacted a significant medical and environmental price. The fallout from nuclear tests has caused a worldwide increase in deaths from cancer. Nuclear wastes from both nuclear weapon production and nuclear plants, some of which will remain radioactive for as long as a million years, are heaping up around the world, and no one is certain what to do with them over the long run.”
Nuclear waste
All nuclear waste is radioactive. Radioactivity diminishes over time, so in principle the waste needs to be isolated for a period of time until it no longer poses a hazard. This can mean hours to years for some common medical or industrial radioactive wastes, or thousands of years for high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons reprocessing. The main approaches to managing radioactive waste to date have been segregation and storage for short-lived wastes, near-surface disposal for low and some intermediate level wastes, and deep burial or transmutation for the long-lived, high-level wastes.
Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in “spent” fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other creatures for hundreds of thousands of years. Other radioisotopes remain hazardous for millions of years. Thus, these wastes must be shielded for centuries and isolated from the living environment for millennia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Types of waste
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines six general categories of nuclear waste. These are:
1. Spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors.
2. High-level waste from spent nuclear fuel reprocessing.
3. Transuranic waste from defense programs. This consists of man-made elements heavier than uranium such as plutonium.
4. Uranium mill tailings from mining and milling of uranium ore.
5. Low-level waste.
6. Naturally occurring and accelerator-produced radioactive materials.
http://www.ehow.com/...
Currently in the United States, spent nuclear fuel is stored on-site at reactor facilities in steel-lined concrete basins filled with water. In 2002 Congress approved Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a long-term site to store nuclear waste. In 2009 the Obama administration terminated funding for Yucca Mountain citing environmental concerns.
To date there is no satisfactory solution to the problem of disposal of nuclear waste.
As the volume of waste increases around the world so do the security risks. Nuclear waste in the wrong hands can be reprocessed into weapons to make a true nuclear bomb or just be packaged with conventional explosives to create a so-called “dirty bomb”.
The primary health risk attributed to nuclear waste is cancer. It has also been linked to genetic defects in children.
President Obama announced on February 23, 2011 his desire for an expansion of nuclear power. A recent poll commissioned by the nuclear industry shows that 71 percent of people in the United States support including nuclear power in the country's energy portfolio.
I, for one, am not one of the 71 percent. How about you?