|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Nukes |
|
Nuclear Power: Dirty, Deadly & Expensive |
Current rating: 0 |
by Geoff Ower
Email: geoff (nospam) nrcwatch.org (verified) |
29 Sep 2004
Modified: 09:47:08 PM |
|
An overview of why the nuclear power is not clean, safe or cheap. |
In June 2002, the Department of Energy awarded $17 million dollars of corporate welfare to Dominion Corp, Exelon Corp, and Entergy Corp. The money was provided to encourage the revival of the nuclear industry, which has financially failed to stay afloat on its own. Without the continual aid provided by the federal government the nuclear industry would never have existed in the first place.
The nuclear industry is working together in consortiums (teams of companies) to build a new line of nuclear reactors starting at three different sites: Clinton, Illinois; Grand Gulf, Mississippi; and North Anna, Virginia. Due to skyrocketing construction costs, no new nuclear reactors have been ordered since 1973. Some reactors cost up to 400% more to build than their original estimates and the American taxpayers footed the bill.
In addition to being extremely expensive, nuclear reactors are the most dangerous method of electrical generation. New reactors will not only threaten our public health and safety, but also have far reaching environmental consequences. Contrary to the perception vigorously promoted by a well-funded public relations campaign, nuclear power is not in any way cheap, safe or clean.
"Atoms for Peace"
Nuclear power as a source of electricity emerged out of a culture shrouded in militarism and secrecy. It all began with the intensive scientific research that went into the Manhattan Project. The project’s first success was the detonation of the atomic bomb "Trinity" in July 1945. This was quickly followed by the atrocious bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed by the explosions and their radioactive aftermath.
After dropping the bomb, the United States was faced with three major dilemmas: the guilt from dropping the bomb on Japanese civilians, the growing threat of an arms race with the Russian government, and the possibility of nuclear weapons proliferation.
In his "Atoms for Peace" speech to the United Nations, President Eisenhower addressed all of these concerns by proposing that the atom be harnessed for "peaceful" purposes. He pushed nuclear power as a humanitarian technology that could be used to provide developing countries with cheap and abundant supplies of electricity that would raise their standards of living. Almost six decades later, none of these promises about nuclear power have been met.
Radiation, Public Health & the Environment
The term "radiation" encompasses many forms of energy, including sunlight, heat, ultra-violet waves, and microwaves. The type of radiation given off by both nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons is called "ionizing radiation." Ionizing radiation is invisible and cannot be detected by any of the human senses. Special detection equipment must be used to measure levels of radiation. Ionizing radiation consists of high-energy subatomic particles and energy in the form of waves that are emitted from unstable atoms, like uranium and plutonium. These high-energy particles and waves are like microscopic bullets that cause molecular damage as they tear through cells. If certain areas of a cell’s DNA are damaged by radiation, it could eventually start reproducing erratically and develop into cancer.
The three main types of radiation are alpha, beta and gamma. Alpha particles are large enough that a thin sheet of paper can stop them, but if alpha-emitting materials are inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through broken skin they can cause internal damage. Beta radiation can penetrate through the skin and damage internal cells. Gamma radiation can penetrate thick concrete and metal, and easily passes completely through the body, causing damage as it goes through.
After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, studies were conducted by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission to determine the impact of radiation on humans. These studies were used to set acceptable exposure limits to radiation for workers internationally. The studies were flawed for a variety of reasons.1 In reality, no exposure to radiation is safe because there is always the chance that the radiation will damage DNA and cause cancer.
The nuclear industry and its supporters frequently argue that exposure to radiation is "natural", because we are exposed to natural levels of background radiation every day. However, they overlook that each release of radioactivity from the nuclear industry’s operations adds to the background levels of radiation and increases your chances of developing cancer.
Radioactive Emissions from the Fuel Cycle
Much of the information from this next section is taken from Dr. Helen Caldicott’s book, "Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do," which goes into a much deeper analysis of the uranium fuel cycle than can be presented in a short article. Dr. Caldicott is the founding President of Physicians for Social Responsibility and is the author of numerous books exploring nuclear and environmental issues.
The uranium fuel used in reactors doesn’t just grow on trees. To create the uranium fuel rods a long process of dangerous and environmentally harmful steps must be followed. At each of these steps workers are exposed to radiation and radioactive emissions are produced.
Mining
The cycle starts with mining, which in the United States occurs mostly in the Colorado Plateau and the Wyoming Basin. The mining is funded with taxpayer dollars through the Department of Energy. Uranium mining, like coal mining, is extremely dangerous. Miners are exposed to radon and radium – two highly carcinogenic radioactive materials, which are released during the mining process.
Although safety regulations for uranium mining have been improved, twenty to fifty percent of American, German and Canadian miners working under the conditions of the past have already died or will die from cancer. According to Dr. Caldicott, "Of the 1,500 Navajo men recruited in the 1940s through the 1960s from a simple farming life to mine uranium at Cove and Red Valley, Arizona, 1,112 miners or their families have filed for government compensation related to lung cancer and other radiation-induced diseases."2 Each case is eligible for only $100,000 if successful.
Uranium mining is an environmental justice issue because Native Americans specifically have been targeted for the job, along with other lower class workers. These workers are being exploited for the benefit of electricity consumers and corporate profit.
Milling
After it is mined, uranium is crushed and chemically treated to form "yellow cake." The milling procedure is also funded with taxpayer dollars. The unused waste from this process is dumped in huge, unprotected piles left out in the open. In the Southwest, over one hundred million tons of this waste has accumulated. These piles contain thorium and radium. Thorium continuously emits gamma rays and has a half-life of 80,000 years.
In Colorado, waste from milling has been recycled into concrete, which was used to build homes, schools and even hospitals. Pediatricians noticed an increased level of congenital birth defects and realized the parents of these children were living in homes built with the contaminated concrete. High levels of radiation were subsequently detected within these buildings.
Enrichment
The enrichment process is very expensive (the taxpayers again foot the bill) and requires a vast amount of electricity. The two most commonly found isotopes of uranium are 235 and 238. Uranium 238 is unfissionable and more common. The fissionable isotope desired for both nuclear reactors and weapons is uranium 235. In the enrichment process, the levels of uranium 235 have to be brought up to 2-3% of the final uranium compound (90% for nuclear weapons) that will be used to make the fuel rods. To get the ideal concentration, uranium 238 is removed as a waste byproduct and is dumped on the ground outside the enrichment plant.
This purified uranium 238 waste is commonly referred to as "depleted uranium (DU)", and because of its high density, it has been used to make armor and armor piercing munitions for the military. At least 300 tons of these depleted uranium shells were used in the 1991 Gulf War, and estimates go as high as 1,200 tons in the 2003 war. Since then, the mortality rates have increased for Iraqi children under five. Upon impact the depleted uranium shells cut through metal like butter and vaporize into a very fine radioactive dust that becomes lodged in the lungs when inhaled. Ingesting or inhaling uranium 238 can cause kidney disease, lung cancer, bone cancer and leukemia.
In 2002, the Paducah uranium enrichment plant in Kentucky and the Piketon uranium enrichment plant in Ohio emitted 91% of the nation’s reported CFC-114 emissions, a potent greenhouse gas and an ozone depleter. As a greenhouse gas, CFC-114 is 9,800 times more potent than C02. Contrary to what they claim, the nuclear industry is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
Fuel Fabrication
After the enrichment process, the uranium oxide end product is formed into cylindrical pellets and is loaded into 12 to 14 foot fuel rods. During this process workers are exposed to gamma and alpha radiation.
Nuclear Reactors
A 1000-megawatt nuclear reactor requires roughly one hundred tons of fuel rods that must be periodically replaced with new ones. Upon arrival the rods are loaded into the reactor core where they are covered in water. The fuel rods contain enough enriched uranium 235 for it to create a self-sustaining fission reaction. Fission occurs when the uranium 235 atom is split in half giving off two neutrons and fission byproducts (e.g., strontium and cesium). This reaction creates a large amount of heat, which is used to boil water to create steam. The steam turns a turbine and generates electricity. Control rods are raised and lowered into the reactor to absorb neutrons and control the rate of fission reactions. Nuclear power is the most expensive and one of the most complex methods of boiling water to generate electricity.
Nuclear reactors, even when operating properly, are permitted to routinely release radioactive emissions into both the air and water. While these emissions are invisible, they – unlike many other types of pollution – have been proven to be carcinogenic. Because of these emissions and other emissions in the fuel cycle, nuclear power has never been and never will be "clean".
Reactors are inherently dangerous because they must constantly be cooled with water. If a mechanical failure and/or human error interrupt the cooling systems, the fuel rods will eventually overheat and begin to melt down. When the zirconium casings of the fuel rods are destroyed, explosive hydrogen gas is produced, and high levels of radioactivity are released into the environment. It is questionable whether or not containment buildings could survive either an explosive hydrogen gas ignition, or exposure to molten uranium at temperatures between 4,000-5,000° F. Meltdowns that have happened in the past resulted in significant releases of radioactivity at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and enormous releases at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) calculated that there was a 45% chance of another major nuclear accident between 1985 and 2005.
The NRC is responsible for regulating the nuclear industry, but instead the NRC has become a lapdog to the nuclear industry. For example, the NRC has recently proposed weakening fire code regulations in nuclear power plants after they found that most of the nuclear industry was not in compliance with the code. In a nutshell, the codes require fire barriers to be in place to protect the electrical wiring from being damaged in a fire. In 1975, workers at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama were checking for air leaks in the "cable spreading room" with a lighted candle. The candle started a fire, which rapidly spread and damaged many of the cables needed to operate both of the reactors. A meltdown was narrowly averted, and the incident caused $100 million dollars of damage to the facility. Threatening to weaken fire codes in nuclear power plants is a clear case of the NRC putting corporate profit before public safety and is just one of many examples of the NRC’s embarrassing negligence.
In the 1950s, insurance companies were smart enough to realize that a severe accident at a nuclear reactor could cause billions of dollars in damages. In reaction to this, the insurance companies refused to insure nuclear reactors, which discouraged utilities interested in building reactors. In their eagerness to promote nuclear power, Congress passed the Price Anderson Act, which today limits the liability of corporations to $300 million dollars per reactor. A 1982 report by Sandia National Laboratory estimated that damages in a worst-case accident could cost as much as $314 billion ($560 billion when adjusted for inflation).3 This multibillion-dollar bailout for the nuclear industry means that the financial burden of an accident would be placed on the public.
Waste
Used or "spent" fuel rods are up to a million times more radioactive when they are removed from a nuclear reactor than when they were put in; having been transformed into a highly toxic amalgam of man-made radioactive elements. The rods are so hazardous that a few minutes of unshielded exposure would mean an almost certain death. When spent fuel rods are removed from a reactor they must be stored onsite for a minimum of 5 years in "spent fuel pools," which were designed only to temporarily store waste while a permanent solution is found. No good solution has been found to handle radioactive waste, because it must be isolated from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years before it will decay into stable, non-lethal elements.
The Department of Energy, charged with the responsibility of dealing with high-level nuclear waste, proposes dumping 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste (spent fuel rods) in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The site was selected based on politics instead of sound science in what amounts to a deadly game of hot potato. The Yucca Mountain site is geologically unsuitable to store radioactive waste, because it is surrounded by and located on top of 32 known earthquake faults and is in a region that at one time had active volcanoes. It also happens to be located on Western Shoshone Territory, which is yet another instance of environmental racism.
If a national high-level waste repository is constructed, thousands of deadly shipments of nuclear waste will have to be transported through our neighborhoods by boat, truck and train. Many shipments would pass through Illinois. The idea of shipping nuclear waste on barges through the Great Lakes has also been foolishly explored. Even the DOE admits that there will be accidents. The casks used to ship the waste have never been properly tested and will not be designed to be as safe as they could be, because it would be uneconomical. If the casks failed in an accident, the resulting radioactive contamination could be catastrophic.
Recently, the corporate media and the Department of Homeland Security have increased public apprehension over the threat of a dirty bomb being detonated in a densely populated area. (A dirty bomb is a conventional explosive device attached to radioactive materials.) By shipping nuclear waste through densely populated areas, the Federal Government would virtually be delivering the most difficult- to-obtain component of a dirty bomb to terrorists. With regular shipments of nuclear waste, the government will have the justification to not only increase funding to the military and police, but also will undoubtedly attempt to strip away more of our constitutionally protected rights under the guise of national security.
What You Can Do!
Attend the Symposium on Nuclear Power & Children’s Health. From October 15-16, there will be a symposium in Chicago on nuclear power hosted by the Nuclear Policy Research Institute. Featured speakers will include Dr. Helen Caldicott and Dr. Patch Adams. To become more educated on this important issue that could have a profound impact on our lives, I strongly encourage you to attend. For more information and registration, visit: http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/conferences.cfm
Attend the upcoming talks in central Illinois on The Age of Nuclear Terrorism. Dr. Caldicott will be speaking at Illinois Wesleyan University at 4:30 PM and at Illinois State University at 7:00 PM on October 7th. The events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit: http://www.mediarelations.ilstu.edu/news_releases/0405/sept/caldicott.asp
Become more educated on the issue. In this article I’ve given an overview of important information relating to nuclear power, however, I’ve barely scratched the surface. A good introductory book is Dr. Helen Caldicott’s book, Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do. Also, check out the recommended reading list at: http://clinton.nonewnukes.org/reading
Sources
1. Greene, Gayle. The Women Who New Too Much: Alice Stewart and the Secret’s of Radiation. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1999.
2. Caldicott, Helen. Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1994.
3. Boyd, Michelle. "Price-Anderson Act: The Billion Dollar Bailout for Nuclear
Power Mishaps." Public Citizen. August 2003 <http://www.citizen.org/documents/priceandersonbackgrounder.pdf>
|
This work licensed under a
Creative Commons license |
Comments
|
Home-Scale Biomass Turbines for Peace |
by PermaCulture
urbana (nospam) permaculture.project (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
03 Oct 2004
|
I could generate enough heat and electricity to run my whole house by collecting the sticks, leaves, and brush I rake up around the yard and burning them in a well-designed biomass turbine. And so could you.
Nuclear power isn't just deadly dangerous and expensive, it's a waste of energy, and as such, it's completely f***ing stupid. |
|
