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The Cons of Nuclear Reactors

The Cons of Nuclear Reactors. By Michelle Trojanowsky. Threats Posed by Nuclear Reactors. Terrorism The Production of Radioactive Materials Nuclear Proliferation Nuclear Accidents High Costs. Terrorism. Cooling pools 10 to 30 times more radioactive material than in reactor core

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The Cons of Nuclear Reactors

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  1. The Cons of Nuclear Reactors By Michelle Trojanowsky

  2. Threats Posed by Nuclear Reactors • Terrorism • The Production of Radioactive Materials • Nuclear Proliferation • Nuclear Accidents • High Costs

  3. Terrorism • Cooling pools • 10 to 30 times more radioactive material than in reactor core • Transportation • More than 80,000 tons of highly radioactive waste waiting for transportation • Traveling through 39 states on public roads and railway lines for next 25 years

  4. Production of Radioactive Materials • Unregulated Isotopes: • Krypton, Xenon, Argon • Inhaled • emit gamma radiation • Cause genetic disease • Tritium • Gas that combines w/ O, forms radioactive water • mutagenic

  5. Four of the most dangerous elements made in nuclear power plants: 1. Iodine 131 • Thyroid cancer 2. Strontium 90 • Breast cancer, bone cancer, leukemia 3. Cesium 137 • Sarcoma (muscle cancer) 4. Plutonium 239 • One-millionth gram is carcinogenic • More than 200 kg made annually in EACH power plant • Liver cancer, bone cancer, blood malignancies, lung cancer, congenital deformities, testicular cancer, genetic diseases • Lasts for 500,000 years • Fuel for nuclear weapons

  6. Storage? • Waste remains toxic for thousands of years • Cannot detoxify waste • No long-term repository in US after 20 years of trying • Blocked by politics

  7. Nuclear Proliferation • Plutonium • Fuel for nuclear weapons • Only 5 kg to make a bomb • Each reactor makes over 200 kg every year • Any country with a nuclear power plant = 40 bombs per year

  8. Nuclear Accidents • Numerous accidents in US alone • Nearly 200 documented since 1986 • 3 Mile Island • Chernobyl

  9. Example Accidents • August 21, 1945 – Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA • Accidental criticality. 1 Death • October 8–12, 1957 – Sellafield, Cumbria, UK – Windscale Fire. • Reactor core fire • December 30, 1958 – Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA • Accidental criticality. 1 Death • October 1988 – Rocky Flats in Colorado • safety violations • April 6, 1993 - Tomsk-7 Siberian Chemical Enterprise - Tomsk, Russia • Explosive mechanical failure in a reaction vessel • June, 1999 - Shika Nuclear Power Plant- Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan • Control rod malfunction • September 30, 1999 – Reprocessing Facility in Tokaimura Japan • Accidental Criticality. 2 Deaths • April 10, 2003 - Paks Nuclear Reactor -Paks, Hungary • Fuel damaged • April 19, 2005 – Thorp Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Plant- Sellafield, UK • Nuclear material leak • November 2005 — Excelon’s Braidwood Station- - Braidwood, Illinois • Nuclear material leak • March 6, 2006 —Nuclear Fuel Services Erwin Plant- Erwin, Tennessee • Nuclear material leak • August, 2007 Clinton, Michigan- Theft of nuclear sources

  10. Three Mile Island • March 28, 1979 • Partial core meltdown • Most significant accident in history of American commercial nuclear power generating industry • Resulted in release of significant amount of radioactivity to environment • 25,000 people lived within 5 miles of the site

  11. Chernobyl • Highly radioactive fallout sent over western Russia, Europe and eastern North America • 30-40 times more fallout than Hiroshima • 336,000 people evacuated • 60% of radioactive fallout landed in Belarus • More than 2000 children had thyroids removed for thyroid cancer • Could have resulted in additional 200,000 deaths between 1990 and 2004

  12. High Costs • Nuclear power plants cost just as much as coal plants • Difference between cost estimates and final costs for 75 reactors: • original estimate = $45billion • final cost = $145billion • Watts Bar reactor • Industry cannot cover own costs • Uranium enrichment subsidized • Industry pays only 2% of liability costs • Decommissioning all existing US nuclear reactors = $33 billion • Storage of radioactive waste

  13. Summary • Terrorism and nuclear accidents would result in catastrophic releases of lethal radioactive material on American soil • Political barriers to construction of nuclear facilities- localized effects of accidents/terrorism • Absence of long-term storage facilities to hold dangerous waste products • High costs make nuclear power economically inefficient • Waste from nuclear reactors facilitates nuclear proliferation, threatening global security

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