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Eight Big Questions about Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Power? 8 Questions Need to Be Answered, THE HUFFINGTON POST,  by Brendan Smith 29 June 2010, Here are eight questions that we should answer before, not after, we head down the nuclear path:
1. Are nuclear hazards any different from other hazards we accept every day?…..The scale, deadliness, and unstoppability of radiation after leakage or an accident at a mine or power plant make nuclear energy unique. Dare we create an energy system where one mistake could turn an entire American region into another Chernobyl?
2. Do we want to switch to nuclear power when there is ZERO room for error?…..If we build the thousands of nuclear plants required to meet growing energy needs, even the smallest mistake puts millions of lives at risk.
3. Can nuclear power production be kept safe from natural disasters? Regardless of our best laid plans, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other irrepressible natural forces will inevitably strike some nuclear power sites.…..
4. Can nuclear power sites be terrorist-proof?…..Do we want to give terrorist elements — or even a “lone wolf” — thousands of new sources of radioactive material and the ability to kill thousands of people with one successful attack?
5. How are we going to store the waste?… Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently admitted that he has no firm plans for the radioactive wastes created by the proposed new reactors, or by the 104 currently licensed.
6. Can extraction be made safe?…………Is the human and environmental cost of uranium extraction being properly included on the cost side of nuclear power?
7. How are we going to transport the waste?….During the decades long debate over storing the nation’s radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, transportation experts estimated that waste disposal from existing nuclear plants would require 1 truck, every 4 hours, 24-hours a day, 365 days a year for 38 years. They estimated that over the same period there would be 130 truck and 440 rail accidents.
8. Are nuclear power plants worth the cost?…Time magazine concluded: “It turns out that new plants would be not just extremely expensive but spectacularly expensive.”

Brendan Smith: Nuclear Power? 8 Questions Need to Be Answered

June 30, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | antinuclear, cancer, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactors, uranium