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Nuclear Reactor Safety
Name: John
Status: Other
Age: 60s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
You might be interested to know that I searched for safe nuclear
reactors' in Britannica and got no hits. 'Unsafe nuclear reactors'
however got plenty of hits -- all from the antis. That's why nuclear
engineering is declining. We simply are not proactive.
Why aren't nuclear reactors safe?
Replies:
Nothing is free from risk. Nuclear accidents WILL occur, no matter how many
safeguards are in place. Bridges will collapse, people will die in auto
accidents, and babies will die from food poisoning. So what can be
considered safe?
But don't worry, as reducing carbon dioxide emissions becomes more
politically necessary as a method to reduce greenhouse warming, I assure you
that nuclear power will gain prominence. There just aren't many other ways
to generate electricity that produce no carbon dioxide.
Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Director
PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois
Assuming that a nuclear power reactor is run according to safe engineering
practices - which is often not the case as witnessed by Three Mile Island
and other reactor "accidents", the technological problem of what to do with
the highly radioactive "wastes" from the spent nuclear rods, whose
radioactivity lasts for centuries, remains unanswered. Right now we just
bury them, but that can only be a temporary solution to buy time to answer
the "waste" problem. Until that problem is solved nuclear power will remain
suspect as a major source of electrical or steam power.
Vince Calder
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Update: June 2012
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