Many people wonder if nuclear power is a safe alternative even as they confess that alternative forms of fuel are necessary to meet the increasing demand for power. For several years, nuclear power was the up and coming way to provide inexpensive energy to populations around the world. Popularity for nuclear power received crushing blows with disasters like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.
Today the world holds around 436 nuclear power plants in about 30 countries that provide around 15% of the world’s electricity. The reliability of the nuclear plants as well as their efficiency are increasing, making nuclear power one of the least expensive forms of power. The energy from just one small pellet of the enriched uranium that is used in the plants can produce the same amount of electricity as one ton of coal.
Nuclear power might be a great way to provide energy, but the dangers of the nuclear power outweigh the benefits for residents located near a plant (or a planned plant) and for many people concerned about the effects of nuclear waste on the environment.
The Downsides of Nuclear Power
Waste products - nuclear power plants produce energy from fission. That process splits the neutrons (tiny particles making up an element) of the uranium atom and leaves the plant with lots of energy and a man-made product of plutonium that is now highly radioactive.
Nuclear power plants have to find a way to store the waste plutonium so that it has time to lose its radioactivity. The average nuclear power plant produces 20 metric tons of radioactive waste. Heat and radiation from the waste corrodes any containers making transporting and storing the waste dangerous to the environment. Even the parts and equipment that come into contact with the waste become radioactive (although this is a much lower level of radioactivity). It takes tens of thousands of years for the radioactive levels to reduce to acceptable levels.
Past disasters cost more than money - Chernobyl (1986) was one of the worst disasters in the history of nuclear power. The accident cause radiation levels to rise as far away as Scotland. The cost of containing the accident was more than all the energy cost savings of all the nuclear power plants in the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1990. Three Mile Island (1979) was the worst disaster in the United States. Radiation contamination to surrounding areas increased cases of cancer and plant mutation.
The effects of the disasters are still being uncovered. With radioactive materials that remain lethal for thousands of years, experts may never know the true devastation caused by the accidents.
From waste to weapon - the plutonium created during the fission process can be used to create nuclear weapons. It would only take 18 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium to create a bomb that would cause the same damage as the one dropped on Nagasaki in World War II.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors the world’s nuclear facilities to safeguard against the waste being used in weapons. Its power is limited. Some countries do not allow for regular inspections.
Measurements can have uncertainties making it impossible for the IAEA to detect all possible diversions of the nuclear waste. In one year, there is enough plutonium created around the world to create 34,000 nuclear weapons.
Environmental impact - the risk of accidents from nuclear power plants is only one of the issues that concern environmentalists. Each of the steps taken to create nuclear energy has an environmental impact. The simple mining of the uranium contaminates the groundwater and land. The plants, animals and humans in the region are affected by the process. The entire ecosystem can be damaged or destroyed. The radioactivity of the waste plutonium has many experts concerned. It has been predicted that just half a kilogram (or about one pound) of the plutonium - if evenly distributed around the world - could be enough to cause cancer in the entire Earth’s population because of its high radioactivity.
Nuclear power is still a young energy source. There is much more that needs to be studied before the benefits of nuclear energy outweigh the dangers.
|
|
I couldn’t disagree more.
Nuclear power is the only cost effective alternative to dirty coal. There have been remarkably few casualties from nuclear accidents compared to coal power stations and mining accidents.
And the problem of nuclear waste is nothing compared to the CO2 pollution of coal powered stations. It will be dangerous if we continue to spread this nonsense about nuclear power when we need to embrace it to have any chance of solving anthropogenic global warming.