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Well we may need to use nuclear power in the future because there is a good supply of the elements needed.
BUT, we need a lot of power to get them,
where can they SAFETLY be stored AND it will cause cancer and infertility to the employee's of the power plants!
Ever thought what might happen if something goes wrong, there is a high chance that there will be a nuclear explosion, which will kill loads of people!
Originally posted by speight89
Well we may need to use nuclear power in the future because there is a good supply of the elements needed.
BUT, we need a lot of power to get them, where can they SAFETLY be stored AND it will cause cancer and infertility to the employee's of the power plants!
Ever thought what might happen if something goes wrong, there is a high chance that there will be a nuclear explosion, which will kill loads of people!
Originally posted by Toxic Fox
The problem with nuclear power is not safety, or waste, or terrorism.
You know what the problem with nuclear power is?
MASSIVE IGNORANCE.
Technical and scientific ignorance.
Yes, that's right. I've heard so much insanity that it boggles my mind. Some of the best stuff:
1. If a nuclear power plant explodes it will be like a hydrogen bomb!
Uhh, no. It is not possible for a nuclear power plant to explode anything like a nuclear weapon would.
2. If there ever was a meltdown the area around the reactor would be uninhabitable for thousands or millions of years!
No again. Chernobyl was the worst nuclear accident ever, and within 20 years people are moving back into the 15KM denied zone and planting crops.
3. If a nuclear plant in America melted down it would be like Chernobyl!
A few key differences:
1. North American plats have a massive containment structure - soviet plants did not.
2. American PWR/BWR power plants operate in a different way than the Soviet RBMK1000/RBMK1500 "Chernobyl" reactors do.
3. The safety standards are much higher in American plants. An RBMK1000-type reactor would NEVER be allowed in the US. Even the Canadian CAN-DU reactor design, which isn't a bad design, is forbidden in the US.
4. We can never get rid of the waste!
Sure we can. The highest level waste sludge is mixed into glass and lead to stabilize it. It's sealed in drums and buried within an extremely stable geological area like a salt mine well away or underneath any water table. Once it is sealed that stuff will, for all intents and purposes, stay there forever.
5. What if someone digs up the waste 10,000 years from now?
That already has been thought of. There are plans to bury platinum placards with warnings in numerous languages near the waste, and other plans along those lines.
6. What if there is an accident involving moving material?
Nuclear materials such as high-level waste are moved in heavily armored traincars that are made to easily withstand the forces involved in a serious derailment.
When you think about it, nuclear power really is the safest, cleanest, and most reliable energy out there. The demon behind nuclear energy is the fearmongering, half-truths, unjustified fear, and simple ignorance.
As far as underground designs - it might just not be feasible. I don't think anyone here has any idea how tough a reactor containment building really is, or what layers of security are involved with people working in/around a facility like this. (I have seen pictures of paramillitary plant gaurd squads armed with assault rifles.)
Re: Sterility and Cancer to Workers
The radiation exposure of plant workers and ambient radiation levels in a facility are carefully monitored. I have never heard of nuclear plant workers having even a remotely higher incidence of cancer.
The ambient radiation levels are so low that it would be safe to live in a house built right next to the reactor containment building. You can take a geiger counter and measure nothing but the faint click-click of background radiation. That's right! You're being exposed to radiation from space right now as we speak!
[edit on 11-12-2005 by Toxic Fox]
[edit on 11-12-2005 by Toxic Fox]