At a time when governments are considering building more nuclear power plants, it is the time to consider safer alternatives.
It is not quite true that nuclear power plants don’t release greenhouse gases. Additionally, all the sweet talk about how nuclear energy is a clean energy ignores the very ugly side of that industry.
Nuclear energy plants require a tremendous amount of resources to construct and maintain, and they produce dangerous spent nuclear fuel that remains tremendously hazardous for at least tens of thousands of years. Currently nuclear power plants around the world are producing waste that is being stockpiled. Almost all of it sits stagnate near the power plants where it was created, unable to be shipped to another location for permanent storage because of ongoing conflicted negotiations on where it would be appropriate to safely store the stuff.
The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada was supposed to open in 1989, but various groups successfully have stopped it from opening. Issues arose not only on how to transfer nuclear waste from all over the continent through towns and cities, but on how it would be stored at the mountain.
“The transportation of this waste would require over 96,000 truck shipments over four decades. Almost every major east-west interstate highway and mainline railroad in the country would experience high-level waste shipments as waste is moved from reactors and other sties in 39 states.”
– Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who has spoken out against both nuclear energy and the opening of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.
Where do you store something safely for tens of thousands of years with an assurance that it will not be disturbed by geological disturbances, flooding, or other natural disasters (including meteor strikes), and in areas where future generations of humanity will know how to safely deal with it? Why are we allowing more of this waste to be created when we don’t know what to do with what has already been made? Why are we binding every future generation with the burden of dealing with this nuclear waste?
“A severe nuclear accident has the potential to do catastrophic harm to people and the environment. A combination of human and mechanical error could result in an accident killing several thousand people, injuring several hundred thousand others, contaminating large areas of land, and costing billions of dollars.”
– The Union of Concerned Scientists, 2007, UCSUSA.org
At a time when people are feeling threatened by ongoing wars and the unfortunate choices of various warring groups, it should be taken into consideration that nuclear waste can be used to poison communities; spent nuclear fuel can be used to make bombs; plutonium that has been separated from waste materials can be stolen and used to make bombs; and countries that produce enriched uranium for nuclear fuel can also create weapons-grade uranium. Plants that reprocess spent nuclear fuel also produce radioactive waste.
Nuclear waste recycling plants in Japan and Britain have reported hundreds of kilograms of missing plutonium. This plutonium has gone unaccounted for, and it is not publicly known if other plants in other countries have experienced similar losses.
It takes about six kilograms of plutonium to create the kind of bomb that the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. That bomb turned the city into a hellish nightmare and killed about 40,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more people died from that same bomb over the following several months. The nuclear bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 killed about 90,000 people instantly, and tens of thousands more people over the following months. There are now tens of thousands of nuclear bombs in storage and at least a few thousand on continual alert. Countries that are known to have nuclear bombs include Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States. These countries have enough nuclear bombs to obliterate the life of Earth. As of this writing the U.S. has been the only country that has ever used nuclear bombs.
However, plutonium can be found in many of the munitions presently being used by the U.S. military. Tank armor and missiles contain so-called depleted uranium, uranium-238, which makes munitions super hard and able to penetrate secured buildings and bunkers. Areas where these bombs have been exploded will remain toxic for many years, contributing to cancers, birth deformities, and miscarriages among the people exposed to the residues that now cover parts of Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, and Kosovo. An estimated 300 tons of depleted uranium munitions were used in the Gulf War, and more have been used in the present military operations in Iraq.
While the government continues producing depleted uranium bombs that are used in various parts of the world, the production of the munitions and fuel for military uses is poisoning U.S. citizens at home.
Since the 1960s, the privately owned Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. in Erwin, Tennessee produced fuel for the nuclear submarines of the U.S. Navy. The company also converts weapons-grade uranium into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. In July 2007 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revealed that employees at the 65-acre complex mishandled highly enriched uranium, and that on March 6, 2006 nine gallons of uranium spilled from a transfer line of the commercial nuclear fuel department. That spill could have caused a devastating nuclear reaction.
The 570-square-mile Hanford Nuclear Reservation next to the Columbia River in Washington State where the plutonium used in the Nagasaki bomb as well as other nuclear warheads now sits poisoned with a tremendous amount of nuclear waste, industrial chemicals, heavy metals, and asbestos. Closed since 1990, the site was originally called Hanford Engineer Works and was part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret government program started in the 1940s to develop an atom bomb. Some of the most hazardous substances on the planet were processed there. Now nine nuclear reactors sit shuttered and the site has turned into a multi-billion-dollar project for the government to manage the toxic leftovers. Hundreds of billions of gallons of contaminated groundwater pose a continuing threat and the underground “tank farms” hold more than 50 million gallons of radioactive waste. Workers who have been employed in managing the site show signs of radiation poisoning and others show signs of exposure to asbestos and the heavy metal beryllium, which is used in bomb manufacturing and causes incurable lung disease. Since the 1940s residents of nearby farm communities have experienced a rash of cancers. Many believe the illnesses are related to exposure to the toxins that blew from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and spread as far as Montana and southern Canada. Pathways people could have been exposed to the toxins include through food, water, and air. Fields where fruits and vegetables grow were tainted with the iodine-131 as was grazing land where cattle feed. Iodine-131 is produced when uranium rods are dissolved in nitric acid. It collects in the thyroid gland and causes cells there to grow abnormally. When citizens groups successfully used the Freedom of Information Act in the 1980s to gain access to 19,000 pages of classified records it was revealed that the Hanford Nuclear Reservation had been dumping radioactive material into the Columbia River for decades.
Numerous toxic sites dot the American landscape, such as the hundreds of uranium mines dug from the 1940s through the 1980s on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The mines destroyed vast parts of the reservations, leaving hazardous dust and poisoned groundwater. Each of these sites carries its own set of what seem to be permanent problems with poisoned land. Wind, drought, and rain have worn down dirt used to cover many of the sites. Other sites are on hillsides where rainwater and rock slides spread the hazards to lowlands and into streambeds. The residents of nearby communities experience health problems directly related to the hazardous substances, and they live with the looming high risk of lung, bone, liver, breast, and other cancers. Some Navajo unknowingly increased their exposure to the uranium by building their homes using cement made of uranium ore, radioactive sand, and processing mill waste left over from the abandoned uranium mines. Many Navajo children played on and around the abandoned mines. Many Navajos drank and cultivated their crops with water tainted with uranium, arsenic, and heavy metals left over form the mines and processing mills. And some still do. These are the risks more and more people will face as more nuclear power plants are constructed around the world.
As I was writing this, the George W. Bush administration was pushing for the construction of more nuclear power plants while at the same time pressuring other countries to refrain from developing nuclear energy plants. John McCain was campaigning with the foolish claim that he was going to improve America’s energy independence by building up to 100 new nuclear power plants.
The U.S. should do away with its nuclear programs within U.S. borders and encourage other countries to agree to do the same. Countries that are involved in building additional nuclear power plants include China, Russia, and India. France has 60 nuclear power plants. Russia is building nuclear power plants that float on water and that can be sold to other countries.
Even if the U.S. approves construction of more nuclear power plants, how is the country going to deal with all of the nuclear power plants that need to be closed because they are outdated? One nuclear power plant costs about tens of billions of dollars to build. To replace all of the current nuclear power plants around the world while building more nuclear power plants to increase the amount of electricity produced by nuclear power plants would mean spending in the hundreds of trillions of dollars.
“The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) must address the vulnerability of spent fuel storage at all U.S. nuclear power plants now. Spent fuel pools contain more highly radioactive fuel than the reactor cores. And the spent fuel pools at all U.S. nuclear plants are located outside the reactor containment structure. When the spent fuel pools fill up, spent fuel is stored in concrete casks outside the plant. Thus, spent fuel is a softer target that could yield graver consequences than an aircraft crashing through the reactor containment structure.
The spent fuel pool is a 45-feet deep concrete pit that stores highly radioactive fuel assemblies after their removal from the reactor core. Water storage is required because spent fuel assemblies continue to emit considerable amounts of both heat and radiation for many years. The fuel pool water is continuously cooled to remove the heat produced by the spent fuel assemblies. Without cooling, the fuel pool water will heat up and boil. If the water boils or drains away, the spent fuel assemblies will overheat and either melt or catch on fire. NRC studies have estimated that many thousands of people living within 50 miles could die from the radiation released when spent fuel assemblies melt or catch on fire.”
– Union of Concerned Scientists, 2007, UCSUSA.org
Safety issues require that nuclear plants have 24-hour security and the latest technology. If an accident occurs the region must be evacuated within minutes. Like the reactors, evacuation plans are not failsafe. If towns and cities can’t be evacuated in days to prepare for a hurricane, how do the authorities expect to evacuate them in minutes in the case of a nuclear accident? Depending on the seriousness of the accident the residents may not be able to return home for days, weeks, months, years, or ever. What price are people willing to pay for this costly and unsafe form of electricity?
A 2007 study by the University of Mainz for German’s Federal Office of Radiation Protection concluded that children living near nuclear power plants have a much higher rate of leukemia and other forms of cancer.
More than half of Americans live within 75 miles of a nuclear power plant.
The world’s worst nuclear power plant disaster happened on April 26, 1986. That was when the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine exploded and burned in what is known as a “nuclear meltdown” turning the concrete of the reactor floor into lava. Radiation spewed from the plant and spread across the former Soviet Union and large areas of Europe. Communities and some of the continent’s most fertile farmland in an area the size of Italy were contaminated. Trees in the immediate vicinity turned brown. Rivers and lakes throughout the region were contaminated and the life in and around them was deemed unfit for human consumption. Many forms of wildlife, horses, and farm animals died, miscarried, or stopped producing. Over three hundred thousand people had to be evacuated and resettled outside of the area. Many people were told that they would only have to evacuate for a few days, thus the surrounding community remains as it was abandoned with belongings in the homes, businesses, and schools. In an attempt to cover the reactor, tons of sand was dropped from helicopters. Many fire and rescue workers died from radiation poisoning. Because Soviet authorities did not permit doctors to list “radiation” as a cause of death on death certificates it is not known how many people died immediately from the disaster. It is estimated by the U.N. and Greenpeace that anywhere from ten thousand to one hundred thousand people will have experienced cancer relating to the exposure to the radiation. Over twenty years later the governments of Europe are still working on ways to encapsulate the reactor to lessen ongoing release of radiation. The hastily erected covering that was put over the reactor is currently falling apart and may collapse, which could cause a release of more radioactive material.
Many nuclear power plants have been built in earthquake zones, hurricane zones, and in locations that are otherwise unstable, such as on the edges of large rivers – which tend to occasionally broadly change course during large storms, which can undermine and demolish any type of structure. If even one of these nuclear power plants is seriously damaged it can lead to an entire region being unsafe for humans and wildlife for many years. As I write this paragraph in the summer of 2007 the largest nuclear power plant in the world has been closed after it was damaged in a magnitude 6.8 earthquake that hit the coast of Japan where the power plant sits. Many other nuclear power plants have been found to be faulty at some level and operate under dangerously weak security. Many are potential Chernobyls.’ Considering that the waste each of these plants produces, and the subsequent storage problems, and that the waste remains hazardous for at least tens of thousands of years, and that history reveals that all land undergoes dramatic changes in tens of thousands of years, it should be clear that no land is stable enough to store nuclear waste.
Nuclear power plants operate under secrecy that no other industry is allowed. When nuclear accidents happen the public isn’t always permitted to know. Many hazardous situations that have happened at nuclear power plants have remained out of the news because Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports aren’t made available to the public. As of July 2007, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported that 41 of the 104 current U.S. nuclear power plants have been shut down for more than a year after safety was compromised. Many of the plants are so outdated that they will soon be closed.
If you live on the same planet as nuclear power plants, you should be concerned about how the plants operate, what is done with the nuclear waste produced by the plants, and on working to get the plants closed. And on making sure that no more nuclear plants are constructed.
“The amount of electricity that could be generated simply by making existing non-nuclear power plants more efficient is staggering. On average, coal plants operate at 30% efficiency worldwide, but newer plants operate at 46%. If the world average could be raised to 42%, it would save the same amount of carbon as building 800 nuclear power plants.
Nevertheless, the U.S. government spends more on nuclear power than it does on renewables and efficiency. Taxpayer subsidies to the nuclear industry amounted to $9 billion in 2006, according to Doug Koplow, a researcher based in Cambridge, Mass., whose Earth Track consultancy monitors energy spending. Renewable power sources, including hydropower but not ethanol, got $6 billion, and $2 billion went toward conservation.”
– Los Angeles Times, editorial July 23, 2007
“The most hazardous toxic waste comes from petro-chemicals and nuclear power. Hemp can safely, cleanly, and completely replace them both.”
– Hemp: A True Gift from God(ess), by Dr. Heather Anne Harder, SeattleHempFest.com/Facts; 2006
“Uranium, plutonium, and mercury are the most dangerous minerals known. Once uranium is mined and powdered it is, from that point forward due to its extended half-life, forever toxic to the environment (such as rivers, estuaries, surrounding farms, etc.) and carcinogenic to all higher life forms. The destination of all mined uranium is either as fuel for nuclear power plants (this makes the uranium even more toxic than before) and/or nuclear weapons – including depleted uranium nuclear weapons currently being used in Iraq (in blatant violation of the Geneva Convention).
Canadians should consider the karmic implications of Canadian uranium being used by the United States military. Both nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki used uranium mined in Canada.
Uranium mining has no positive benefits for the environment, families, or you. Nuclear power and nuclear weapons are not sustainable. It is up to us to stop the mining of this dangerous, toxic, deadly substance.”
— David Wolfe, founder of The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation,
www.ftpf.org,
The process involved in creating nuclear energy creates radioactive isotopes, including cesium-137, strontium-90s, and plutonium-239. The first two remain radioactive for at least decades. Scientists estimate that Plotunium-239 remains dangerous for more than 24,000 years. Some nuclear energy facilities reprocess nuclear waste into fuel. The reprocessing creates the plutonium used in weaponry. Some of the waste from the facilities, including fuel rod casings, can’t be recycled and needs to be permanently stored away. All of the nuclear waste can cause fatalities from direct exposure, and a variety of cancers and life-threatening illnesses from limited exposure.
Some countries have been dumping nuclear waste in the wilds of Russia.
France has mass quantities of spent nuclear fuel that has been vitrified into black glass that will remain radioactive for thousands of years and that are buried in the Cherbourg peninsula of Normandy. The company used to treat the waste and fuel also recycles waste from nuclear plants in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
What can heat the water that works the turbines of electric generators? The most toxic is nuclear energy. The second most toxic is coal. The third most toxic is petroleum. Then there is ethanol made from crops. The safest is perhaps solar energy, but that requires a region with lots of sun. All regions of the U.S. grow hemp and landscape clippings, which can be used to make ethanol, which can fuel electric generators.
Industrial hemp farming needs to be legalized in the U.S. to allow humanity to become less dependant on fossil fuels and other unsafe forms of energy.