nuclear-news

Dispelling the myths of the pro nuclear astroturfers

The top ten common myths of the nuclear cheerleaders, daryanenergyblog,  “……Myth I – The Fukushima accident is a “Triumph” of nuclear technology, it proves it works safely – Reality: It raises some important questions about aspects of nuclear safety

Myth II – Only 56 people were killed by the Chernobyl accident – Reality: The death toll from Chernobyl was many times higher, in the thousands or possibly tens of thousands

Myth III – Radiation isn’t that dangerous at all, it’s over exaggerated by the media, why the impact of Chernobyl was no worse than a few dozen chest x-rays each, and TMI was no worse than you’d get eating a banana – Reality:  The effects of radiation from artifical sources is potentially quite serious

Myth IV – Nuclear power is cheaper than any of the alternatives – Reality: Its actually more expensive than most of the alternatives!

Myth V – But we can’t rely on renewables, because of their intermittent nature – Reality: Nuclear power has its own issues with intermittency

Myth VI – there’s plenty of fissile material in the world – Reality: While no immediate supply problems are anticipated,  ultimately the world’s stockpiles of fissile material are limited in scale

Myth VII – We can’t build Renewables fast enough only nuclear power plants can be built quickly enough to prevent climate change – Reality: The current build rate of nuclear power stations is a small fraction of the annual build rate of renewables, even the maximum ever build rate of NPP’s in the 70′s is still exceeded by the currrent build rate of renewable systems

Myth VIII – Yes, you’ve highlighted several problems but you see once we get these new fast reactors working all these problems will be solved – Reality:Fast-reactors are a failed series of white elephants that are unlikely to ever work

Myth IX – All these problems will be solved when we develop Fusion, which will happen in the near future – Reality: While we’re making progress, its far to early to say when Nuclear Fusion will become commercially viable….if ever!

Myth X – Disposal of nuclear waste is easily solved, indeed we’ve already sorted it out – Reality: While there are options available, the nuclear industry is not pursing them, this is leading to a gradually worsening problem which needs to be tackled soon

Stop press, Bonus feature! Myth XI  – We need to use MOX and reprocessing to stop Terrorists getting their hands on Plutonium in the future – Reality: This statement merely shows how out of touch the nuclear industry is….with reality!     http://daryanenergyblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/the-top-ten-common-myths-of-the-nuclear-cheerleaders/

September 12, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, spinbuster