Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
nuclear plants. Unfortunately, calculations indicate that for nuclear
power to be a signifi cant part of a mitigation plan for greenhouse gases,
it would require that the world build 14 new nuclear plants and replace
7.4 retired ones every year for the next fi fty years to have a signifi cant
effect.
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That's 21.4 new plants every year—1,070 over the fi fty-year
span. It seems doubtful that even the most enthusiastic supporters of
nuclear power believe this is possible. Nuclear power plants are a slow-
growing (maybe) technology that cannot address global climate change
rapidly enough to make a difference.
NASA scientist James Hansen said a few years ago that we had a
ten-year window before global warming reaches its tipping point and
major ecological and societal damage becomes unavoidable.
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Recall
that even if a nuclear energy project were given federal government
approval today and no lawsuits were fi led to stop construction, it
would take about ten years for the plant to begin delivering electricity.
The idea that nuclear power plants are going to stop or even delay
climate change is as unfounded as the claim by the nuclear industry
that it is cost-effective.
Accidents and Explosions at Nuclear Power Plants
Everyone has heard of the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, Penn-
sylvania, in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986, but
there have been many more less publicized nuclear power plant acci-
dents. Some occurred because of human negligence, and others because
of equipment malfunctions; neither cause can be totally prevented.
Neither humans nor the things they build are infallible.
Thousands of mishaps have taken place in reactors around the
world—30,000 in the United States alone.
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Adding to the concern raised
by these events are falsifi ed safety reports at operating reactors. In 2002,
General Electric International, which built and maintains many reactors
in Japan, admitted that it had falsifi ed safety records at thirty-seven
locations.
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Equipment failures are illustrated by the cracks that have occurred in
some Japanese reactors and in the nozzles of reactors in the United States.
Between September 2000 and April 2001, there were at least eight forced
shutdowns in reactors in the United States due to equipment failures
caused by aging. It is not comforting that many of America's reactors
have been granted twenty-year extensions because new plants have not
been built and the government is concerned about a national shortage
