What to do with radioactive waste has long been the Achilles heel of nuclear energy. Plans for storing all waste in Nevada seemed good by all the states, except Nevada. Not wanting to be the nations nuclear waste dump, the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository site has been cancelled. Now the waste sits mainly at the plants in “temporary” storage. The steel canisters buried in thick concrete, inert gas and water are estimated to protect for a hundred years. With the radioactivity dangerous for 400,000 to a millions years, you get a good idea of just how “clean” nuclear energy is, let alone subsidize it.
Despite Three Mile Island, Daiichi Power Plant in Japan and Chernobyl, the industry still poo-poos the danger. At Chernobyl, after the initial explosion, the 185 tons of melting nuclear waste was still melting down. When it reached the water a thermonuclear explosion would have occurred. It was estimated it would have wiped out half of Europe and made Europe, Ukraine and parts of Russia uninhabitable for 500,000 years. This was prevented when three workers volunteered to dive in the radioactive water and open the valves to drain the pool and prevent a second explosion, knowing it would mean death by radioactive poisoning. They succeeded in draining the pool, but died of radiation sickness within a few weeks. Their bodies remained radioactive and were buried in lead coffins.
If a similar “incident,” as the nuclear industry insists they be called, happens in Clinton, do you think Rep. Bill Mitchell, the Clinton School Board, DeWitt County Board of any of the 700 workers or any other advocates of keeping the plant open will step forward?
Nuclear issues have to do with the whole planet.