Everyone has opinions, but it’s important that they be based on facts. Learn about three of the most misunderstood topics related to nuclear energy: radiation, waste, and nuclear accidents.
Radiation is really bad, right?
Releases of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants could hurt people and the environment if not taken care of properly. That’s why utility companies are
required to carefully monitor nuclear power plants.
All of us are exposed to non-harmful radiation each and every day, however, and most of it comes from natural sources such as the sun. There is natural radiation in rocks and soil, the sun, and radon, a radioactive gas caused by the decay of naturally occurring uranium and thorium in the earth. We also use radiation every time we use a microwave or a toaster, watch television, use a cell phone, have the dentist x-ray our teeth, and ride on an airplane. Exposure to low-level radiation is a fact of life.
While some natural radiation, such as ultraviolet rays from the sun, can become harmful if you’re exposed to it too long, it’s primarily only when radiation has enough energy in it to change atoms in living tissues that it becomes harmful. This type of radiation, known as “ionizing radiation,” is the kind used in chest x-rays, many manufacturing processes, and in nuclear power plants to generate electricity. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the average American’s exposure to radiation comes from the nuclear power industry.
Links to learn more…..
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0403.shtml
Nuclear power creates a lot of dangerous waste, right?
Like most industries, nuclear power plants produce waste. One of the main concerns about nuclear power plants is not the amount of waste created, which is quite small compared with other industries, but rather with the radioactivity of some of the waste. Please see the section “What is Nuclear Waste?” to learn more about different types of waste and how it is handled.
For long-term storage of used nuclear fuel, the government’s plan is to dispose of the used fuel in deep tunnels constructed at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (a deserted area about 100 miles from Las Vegas).
Some of the world’s top scientists have studied Yucca Mountain for more than 40 years to ensure that storage there would be safe to humans, animals, plants, and the overall envrironment. Scientists plan to put the waste in miles of tunnels drilled into rock 1,000 feet below the mountain’s surface. The scientists’ studies show that deep down in Yucca Mountain’s dry rock, nuclear waste packaged in special protective packaging and covered with shields will be protected for more than 80,000 years! (To give an idea of how long that is, the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids about 5,000 years ago.) The radioactivity in the waste would be long gone in only a fraction of that time.
For perspective on the amount of nuclear waste that would be permanently stored at Yucca Mountain, the total spent fuel from all U.S. commercial nuclear power plants since the first facility began operating in 1957 would collectively occupy a facility the size of one football field to a height of 15 feet. *
To learn more about Yucca Mountain, visit the Yucca Mountain Youth Zone
The accident at Three Mile Island proves nuclear plants are unsafe, right?
No discussion of U.S. nuclear plant safety would be complete without talking about a 1979 accident at Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island (TMI) plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In that accident, some instruments didn’t work as they were supposed to and incorrectly showed the reactor was filling up with water, when it was actually losing coolant.
Most experts say the equipment malfunction was made worse by human error. Operators made a relatively minor incident more serious by cutting off backup systems.
The accident at TMI was a serious commercial reactor accident, but it’s important to understand that the plant’s safety systems protected public health and safety. The protective barriers designed into the facility protected TMI personnel and the public. There were no injuries during the accident, and no property around TMI was contaminated. Over the longer term, recent studies of the population near the TMI plant show no change in the normal incidence of cancer.
Today, Unit 2 at TMI is permanently shut down and cleaned up. Unit 1 at TMI still safely operates and has done so without incident for nearly 40 years.
*“Nuclear Energy: Poised for Expansion,” Harold McFarlane, Idaho National Laboratory, May 2006.
