There are 450 nuclear power plants in the world. There have been 4 meltdowns in history, one each at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island and two so far at Fukushima, as partial meltdowns count as meltdowns. That is a ~1% failure rate. To power the entire world, we will need 50-200,000 new nuclear reactors. At the 1% failure rate, we should be seeing 10-40 meltdowns per year.
It’s true that new reactors are safer than the four that failed so far, but let’s still take this as a warning. It’s not possible to power the world safely at all through the use of nuclear power. Further, the three designs that failed are obviously not safe. Why are plants with the three failed designs not being shut down, if not in the rest of the world, at least here in the US?
After Chernobyl, a large area in the Ukraine-Belarus is said be uninhabitable, or at least humans should be not living there at the moment, whether they are or not. This area will apparently retain high levels of radiation for an incredibly long period of time. The upshot is that Chernobyl appears to have rendered a large part of Ukraine-Belarus permanently uninhabitable.
I suspect that the area around Fukushima may be rendered uninhabitable for a long period of time too. In fact, the city may need to be evacuated. Nuclear power is the only source of power that apparently renders large tracts of the Earth permanently uninhabitable for humans. I find that unacceptable.
Robert, you should link this article to that video I posted in the Open Comments section called “Deadly Secrets – Russia” by journeyman pictures. It is about the Mayak reactor in Russia and how bad the area around it is.
Thx for that video. I watched it.
It was disturbing. I’ve been hearing a lot of disturbing stuff about Russia in this regard. They really don’t give a shit about their own populace.
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=1409
“”In Soviet times I felt more freedom,” he says. “The only aim of our company today is profit. It is the cruellest capitalism.” Under the Soviets there were many opportunities for work and we did not feel oppressed. Today there are staff cuts at the plant. Even now we have democracy, workers dare not say a word against their employers.” Tuitin endures daily work in the electrolysis plant. Here, toxic fumes blind the senses, forcing him and his colleagues to wear respirators. Lists of dead workers adorn the walls of the plant’s lobby, usually men “only 50 or 52 years old”, Tuitin says. Many of his colleagues hide their illnesses to avoid losing shifts. “If I lose my job, then I won’t find another place to work in this town. What will my family eat? We go to work despite knowing conditions are bad. Forced work like this is normally called slavery…………
……… There were no lunch breaks, and Melnikov is now a scrawny shadow of the plump former sailor pictured on his campaign leaflets. “We got the attention of the country, showing them that life in Norilsk was far from perfect,” he says. “But at the same time Moscow’s TV screens show our bosses getting awards for responsible social behaviour.” Local women still come to his office to shake his hand and thank him for his calorific and personal sacrifice. But most locals see Sunday’s elections as still another battle between “company men”. Gloom is the order of the day, and the toll on the workers is rising. Union reps told me that four workers had died in the past fortnight, two that weekend. They were aged 42, 49, 52 and 55. The cause of death was unknown.
A Norilsk Nickel spokeswoman would not confirm the deaths, but said that if they died at home, it was not company business. She also declined to comment on the ecological situation, saying they were too busy. She thought nothing of giving me a report that said only 4% of adults in the town were healthy. Irina Pogrebenko, an ecologist with links to the company, said that many workers were born in other areas of Russia and not used to the Arctic climate, and that alcoholism was rife and exercise rare.
The company’s pension policy speaks volumes. The hardest working 12% can retire at 45. As one worker said: “You pay all your life towards a pension you don’t live to collect.” As retired workers move away, it is virtually impossible for locals to keep records of when and how they die. ”
It’s utterly disgusting.
How bleak is this? Norilsk sucks.
I am still not sure about nuclear power but in a series articles about relative safety I was surprised to find out how deadly at least one Hydro-electrical failure could be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam#Casualties
“Casualties
According to the Hydrology Department of Henan Province,[5] in the province, approximately 26,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent epidemics and famine. In addition, about 5,960,000 buildings collapsed, and 11 million residents were affected. Unofficial estimates of the number of people killed by the disaster have run as high as 230,000 people.[6] The death toll of this disaster was declassified in 2005.”
Quite a few people die mining coal (I have read over a thousand in China alone in the last decade…) and the soot and pollution from coal is alleged to kill or shorten the lifespan of thousands of people a year.
Then there is the specter of anthropogenic Global warming.. the total future costs of which are unknown.
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