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Global Climate Change Reveals Fatal Flaws of the Nuclear Energy Paradigm

“Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization?” — The Final Chapter, The Millennium Report 13 Sept 14“……While Fukushima is the poster child for everything that can go wrong — very wrong — with nuclear power generation, there have been several instances since March of 2011 which have highlighted the inherent weaknesses found in the global Nuclear Energy Paradigm.

Photos often tell the story much better than all the words in the world. The media carried startling photographs of Nebraska’s Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station during the floods of June, 2011. The plant was completely surrounded by floodwaters and under threat of losing its power supply. Even though it had been in cold shutdown since April, it was still vulnerable to problems not too dissimilar to the Fukushima Daiichi plant…….

Because of the ongoing intensification of Global Climate Change, this scenario can repeat itself virtually anywhere around the globe. Wherever there is a nuclear power plant, it can be overwhelmed by floodwaters if the rains and subsequent flooding are severe enough. When the plants are located on the coastline, as many are, to provide easy, inexpensive access to ample water supply, the threats greatly increase due to hurricanes and typhoons.

The real question remains, therefore, as to what type of contingency plans the various nations of the world have in place to address the worst case scenarios. The Perfect Storm that occurred at Fukushima can easily be duplicated in the form of a catastrophic weather event that temporally paralyzes a nuclear power plant, especially one that is in the way of raging floodwaters or a category 5 hurricane or typhoon.

September 26, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general