Nuclear Energy Is Not the Energy of the FutureNuclear Energy Is Not the Energy of the FutureNuclear Energy Is Not the Energy of the FutureAccording to Australian-born physician and antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott, the nuclear industry is waging a misleading propaganda campaign to portray nuclear power as a panacea for environmental and energy crises. In the following viewpoint, Caldicott contends that nuclear energy is actually not emission-free, not safe, and not fossil-fuel-free. She also maintains that nuclear power plants are vulnerable to terrorist attack, with potentially catastrophic consequences over and above the risks of radioactive waste. Helen Caldicott is founder and president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, which opposes the use of nuclear energy and cofounder of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
The Nuclear Institute is considered “the main lobby of the public” in the United States. The website www.nissimnuclear.org contains information on nuclear power plants, a website that contains more detailed information, and an online resource entitled “The Nuclear Science – A New Idea” (The Nuclear Science Foundation) offers more detailed information. In this article, Dr. Helen Caldicott examines the nuclear reactor’s hazards and the many forms of radiation which it can cause.
Nuclear energy comes from the “trillions of nuclear reactors” which are spread around the world at large. The world has approximately 17,000 nuclear power plants and the majority of their production is on nuclear power plants. In the United States, a nuclear power plant produces about 16 million tons of usable fuel per year, less than the nuclear industry. In addition, the nuclear industry has around 100 nuclear plants that employ 80% of the combined energy produced in the U.S.
Nuclear power plants also have a tremendous financial impact on the economy, which is a cause for concern in the United States. Nuclear Energy, which is generated within the nuclear reactor’s containment vessel, is sold to and transported to its customers.
As a result of this, “we [Americans]” and the “environment can afford nuclear power,” Caldicott writes. “We know that without it these conditions are impossible. Without the possibility to avoid these risks, as well as the financial incentives for developing nuclear power systems to be cleaner, nuclear plants and their operating systems will remain crippled and vulnerable to nuclear terrorism.”
According to Caldicott, nuclear power plants and the operating systems that operate them have a high risk of “contamination and nuclear terrorism” for their residents and businesses. There is even a possibility of nuclear weapons on the planet. Caldicott further states that most nuclear power plants in the United States have nuclear safety standards, and the risk factors for reactor health are “unacceptable to the government of the United States.”
In fact, Caldicott believes that nuclear power plants generate “a significant amount of energy that could be used for the purpose of creating a nuclear energy weapon” and “could in fact be used for a greater or lesser than expected destructive effect in the foreseeable future.
Caldicott further writes (with reference to the Fukushima reactor accident) that the most recent accident occurred on May 4, 2011 at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in which the fuel rods were hit with fission materials like kerosene and tritium-226 isotopes. The reactor was undergoing design and maintenance and the two fuel rods were still in its containment area after the 2011 accident.
In summary, Caldicott is the founder of Nuclear Policy Research Institute, a Non-profit advocacy organization focusing on the human and environmental consequences of high-capacity nuclear power facilities as well as the risks and costs associated with building a nuclear power facility.
Her research has been featured on the New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and NPR.
Dr. Helen Caldicott has been the subject of several articles, speeches, and movies, as well as articles, commercials, radio shows, books and newspapers. Her work has also appeared as host of the PBS TV Show, Nuke the Planet and the New York Times Bestsellers. She has become an
The Nuclear Institute is considered “the main lobby of the public” in the United States. The website www.nissimnuclear.org contains information on nuclear power plants, a website that contains more detailed information, and an online resource entitled “The Nuclear Science – A New Idea” (The Nuclear Science Foundation) offers more detailed information. In this article, Dr. Helen Caldicott examines the nuclear reactor’s hazards and the many forms of radiation which it can cause.
Nuclear energy comes from the “trillions of nuclear reactors” which are spread around the world at large. The world has approximately 17,000 nuclear power plants and the majority of their production is on nuclear power plants. In the United States, a nuclear power plant produces about 16 million tons of usable fuel per year, less than the nuclear industry. In addition, the nuclear industry has around 100 nuclear plants that employ 80% of the combined energy produced in the U.S.
Nuclear power plants also have a tremendous financial impact on the economy, which is a cause for concern in the United States. Nuclear Energy, which is generated within the nuclear reactor’s containment vessel, is sold to and transported to its customers.
As a result of this, “we [Americans]” and the “environment can afford nuclear power,” Caldicott writes. “We know that without it these conditions are impossible. Without the possibility to avoid these risks, as well as the financial incentives for developing nuclear power systems to be cleaner, nuclear plants and their operating systems will remain crippled and vulnerable to nuclear terrorism.”
According to Caldicott, nuclear power plants and the operating systems that operate them have a high risk of “contamination and nuclear terrorism” for their residents and businesses. There is even a possibility of nuclear weapons on the planet. Caldicott further states that most nuclear power plants in the United States have nuclear safety standards, and the risk factors for reactor health are “unacceptable to the government of the United States.”
In fact, Caldicott believes that nuclear power plants generate “a significant amount of energy that could be used for the purpose of creating a nuclear energy weapon” and “could in fact be used for a greater or lesser than expected destructive effect in the foreseeable future.
Caldicott further writes (with reference to the Fukushima reactor accident) that the most recent accident occurred on May 4, 2011 at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in which the fuel rods were hit with fission materials like kerosene and tritium-226 isotopes. The reactor was undergoing design and maintenance and the two fuel rods were still in its containment area after the 2011 accident.
In summary, Caldicott is the founder of Nuclear Policy Research Institute, a Non-profit advocacy organization focusing on the human and environmental consequences of high-capacity nuclear power facilities as well as the risks and costs associated with building a nuclear power facility.
Her research has been featured on the New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and NPR.
Dr. Helen Caldicott has been the subject of several articles, speeches, and movies, as well as articles, commercials, radio shows, books and newspapers. Her work has also appeared as host of the PBS TV Show, Nuke the Planet and the New York Times Bestsellers. She has become an
There is a huge propaganda push by the nuclear industry to justify nuclear power as a panacea for the reduction of global-warming gases.But I would suggest that all the relevant facts be taught to students. Mandatory courses in medical schools should embrace the short- and long-term biological, genetic and medical dangers associated with the nuclear fuel cycle. Business students should examine the true costs associated with the production of nuclear power. Engineering students should become familiar with the profound problems associated with the storage of long-lived radioactive waste, the human fallibilities that have created the most serious nuclear accidents in history and the ongoing history of near-misses and near-meltdowns in the industry.
Nuclear Reactors Are Not PracticalAt present there are 442 nuclear reactors in operation around the world. If, as the nuclear industry suggests, nuclear power were to replace fossil fuels on a large scale, it would be necessary to build 2,000 large, 1,000-megawatt reactors. Considering that no new nuclear plant has been ordered in the US since 1978, this proposal is less than practical. Furthermore, even if we decided today to replace all fossil-fuel-generated electricity with nuclear power, there would only be enough economically viable uranium to fuel the reactors for three to four years.
The true economies of the nuclear industry are never fully accounted for. The cost of uranium enrichment is subsidised by the US government. The true cost of the industrys liability in the case of an accident in the US is estimated to be $US560 billion, but the industry pays only $US9.1 billion—98 per cent of the insurance liability is covered by the US federal government. The cost of decommissioning all the existing US nuclear reactors is estimated to be $US33 billion. These costs—plus the enormous expense involved in the storage of radioactive waste for a quarter of a million years—are not now included in the economic assessments of nuclear electricity.
It is said that nuclear power is emission-free. The truth is very different.In the U.S., where much of the worlds uranium is enriched, including Australias, the enrichment facility at Paducah, Kentucky, requires the electrical output of two 1000-megawatt coal-fired plants, which emit large quantities of carbon dioxide, the gas responsible for 50 per cent of global warming.
Also, this enrichment facility and another at Portsmouth, Ohio, release from leaky pipes 93 per cent of the chlorofluorocarbon [CFC] gas emitted yearly in the US. The production and release of CFC gas is now banned internationally by the Montreal Protocol because it is the main culprit responsible for stratospheric ozone depletion. But CFC is also a global warmer, 10,000 to 20,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
In fact, the nuclear fuel cycle utilises large quantities of fossil fuel at all of its stages—the mining and milling of uranium, the construction of the nuclear reactor and cooling towers, robotic decommissioning of the intensely radioactive reactor at the end of its 20 to 40-year operating lifetime, and transportation and long-term storage of massive quantities of radioactive waste.
In summary, nuclear power produces, according to a 2004 study by Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen and Philip Smith, only three times fewer greenhouse gases than modern natural-gas[-fueled] power stations.
Nuclear Power Is Not Clean PowerContrary to the nuclear industrys propaganda, nuclear power is therefore not green and it is certainly not clean. Nuclear reactors consistently release millions of curies of radioactive isotopes into the air and water each year. These releases are unregulated because the nuclear industry considers these particular radioactive elements to be biologically inconsequential. This is not so.
These unregulated isotopes include the noble gases krypton, xenon and argon, which are fat-soluble