To make you feel better about nuclear power.
When you look at the track record of nuclear power, in the U.S., how many industries can state that there has never been one death in their operating history. No individual has ever been killed in a commercial nuclear power production plant, due to radiation related death, since their inception in 1956. (one man was killed by a steam pipe break in a turbine building) I know of no industry with such a safety record. Nuclear plants are designed and built from the ground up to mitigate effects, even from catastrohic failure.
As mentioned earlier, Chernobyl, had no containment and used carbon blocks as a moderator. We haven't used such primitive designs in the U.S. since World War II.
Thousands have been killed by dam failures (St. Francis, Teton...)
Coal fired power plants release (much) more radiation to the environment from radon gas, than do nuclear power plants. Cancer and emphysema rates are higher within the vicinity of a fossil fuel plants versus nuclear.
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons, C02, benzopyrenes and flyash particulates foul the environment. Even with scrubbers, emissions are not zero and the waste products from scrubbers, plus hundreds of ton of flyash per year have to be disposed of into the environment.
Nuclear has zero particulate release, zero carbon dioxide and, depending on plant design, approximately 10 times less radiation releases, that coal-fired plants. In many plants it is difficult to measure radiation release as it is below normal background radiation, which interferes with readings.
Alternative energy sources hold promise, but as also mentioned earlier, have their drawbacks.
Windpower is land intensive, ugly, noisy and prone to failure. Solar, on a large scale, is expensive and also land intensive. Production of photovoltaic cells release heavy metals into the environment. Plus you have to live in an area where wind and sun are prevalent enough to make these sources viable.
Geothermal steam is only available in few select areas of the country.
Hydroelectric dams have catastrophic potential for failure and can wreak havoc on aquatiac life and other ecologic ramifications.
There is no one perfect power. Nuclear energy is a source that is environmentally clean, has waste products that can be recycled and used for fuel, is very efficient and can be used in virtually all areas of the country.
GE's new Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) rely on natural convection for cooling, should all power be lost to plant. New ceramic uranium fuel rods have higher melting points so they will not be damaged if cooling water is blocked.
As one engineering at GE states, the ABWR is "Walk away safe." He indicated you can have total plant failure with zero cooling water. You can go home and have lunch while you figure out what to do. The ceramic fuel rods will not melt down but quietly wait until cooling is restored.
The single worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history (Three Mile
Island)resulted in no deaths, no injury and no visible damage to the plant (the only damage was to the core inside the reactor vessel). How many industries can state that their single largest disaster in operting history produced no death, no injury and no property damage.
Look in an almanac at deaths in the U.S. in the last forty years and compare nuclear power. Looking at theses figures might leasd one to believe that fertilizer plants, dams and the automobiles are too dangerous for our society to tolerate.
Yet people are afraid of something that has caused zero deaths and injury, and many beieve, has probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives by eliminating pollution to the air and water from radiation, particulates and chemicals that would have been introduced by using fossil fuels to generate the same equivalent amount of electricity.
Barry
Barry Woods
Asst. Chair, Department of Electrical Engineering
Wright State University
Dayton, OH
When you look at the track record of nuclear power, in the U.S., how many industries can state that there has never been one death in their operating history. No individual has ever been killed in a commercial nuclear power production plant, due to radiation related death, since their inception in 1956. (one man was killed by a steam pipe break in a turbine building) I know of no industry with such a safety record. Nuclear plants are designed and built from the ground up to mitigate effects, even from catastrohic failure.
As mentioned earlier, Chernobyl, had no containment and used carbon blocks as a moderator. We haven't used such primitive designs in the U.S. since World War II.
Thousands have been killed by dam failures (St. Francis, Teton...)
Coal fired power plants release (much) more radiation to the environment from radon gas, than do nuclear power plants. Cancer and emphysema rates are higher within the vicinity of a fossil fuel plants versus nuclear.
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons, C02, benzopyrenes and flyash particulates foul the environment. Even with scrubbers, emissions are not zero and the waste products from scrubbers, plus hundreds of ton of flyash per year have to be disposed of into the environment.
Nuclear has zero particulate release, zero carbon dioxide and, depending on plant design, approximately 10 times less radiation releases, that coal-fired plants. In many plants it is difficult to measure radiation release as it is below normal background radiation, which interferes with readings.
Alternative energy sources hold promise, but as also mentioned earlier, have their drawbacks.
Windpower is land intensive, ugly, noisy and prone to failure. Solar, on a large scale, is expensive and also land intensive. Production of photovoltaic cells release heavy metals into the environment. Plus you have to live in an area where wind and sun are prevalent enough to make these sources viable.
Geothermal steam is only available in few select areas of the country.
Hydroelectric dams have catastrophic potential for failure and can wreak havoc on aquatiac life and other ecologic ramifications.
There is no one perfect power. Nuclear energy is a source that is environmentally clean, has waste products that can be recycled and used for fuel, is very efficient and can be used in virtually all areas of the country.
GE's new Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) rely on natural convection for cooling, should all power be lost to plant. New ceramic uranium fuel rods have higher melting points so they will not be damaged if cooling water is blocked.
As one engineering at GE states, the ABWR is "Walk away safe." He indicated you can have total plant failure with zero cooling water. You can go home and have lunch while you figure out what to do. The ceramic fuel rods will not melt down but quietly wait until cooling is restored.
The single worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history (Three Mile
Island)resulted in no deaths, no injury and no visible damage to the plant (the only damage was to the core inside the reactor vessel). How many industries can state that their single largest disaster in operting history produced no death, no injury and no property damage.
Look in an almanac at deaths in the U.S. in the last forty years and compare nuclear power. Looking at theses figures might leasd one to believe that fertilizer plants, dams and the automobiles are too dangerous for our society to tolerate.
Yet people are afraid of something that has caused zero deaths and injury, and many beieve, has probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives by eliminating pollution to the air and water from radiation, particulates and chemicals that would have been introduced by using fossil fuels to generate the same equivalent amount of electricity.
Barry
Barry Woods
Asst. Chair, Department of Electrical Engineering
Wright State University
Dayton, OH
