Abstract
Nuclear power was designed to produce electric power. Each part of the chain from uranium mining to handling of the waste is linked to serious contamination risks, however. Uranium mining is generally linked to local to regional contamination. The fuel production also produces depleted uranium at a ratio of 1:7. The reactors are operating under danger of accidents. Numerous minor accidents and endless temporary shut-downs are occasionally mixed with disastrous accidents. The Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011) accidents are notorious. The radioactive contamination from those accidents is still incomprehensible and will keep serious destructions of the environment for centuries to come. The handling of the high-level nuclear waste remains unsolved. Methods proposed in Sweden, Finland and France seem likely to lead to disastrous radioactive contaminations in the future. The only way out of this dilemma seems to be a disposal where the waste, though effectively sealed-off in the bedrock, remains accessible and controllable. At present, the “cost & benefit” balance seems strongly tilted over to the “far too costly side”, however.
Highlights
In human societies, we use to try to balance “cost & benefit”
I will try to assess the risks of radioactive contamination at the main stages of uranium mining and fuel production, the operation and accidents of nuclear power plants, and the handling of the high-level nuclear waste [1]
Chairman of the Independent Investigation Commission [5] summarizes the situation as follows: “The earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 were natural disasters of a magnitude that shocked the entire world. Triggered by these cataclysmic events, the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cannot be regarded as a natural disaster
Summary
We use to try to balance “cost & benefit”. In the case of nuclear power, it is easy to evaluate the benefit in the form of energy output. The actual production costs can be fairly well handled. The indirect costs, especially the risks of radioactive contamination of the environment, are far more complicated to handle. We end up in a strange “pro and con” debate. I will try to assess the risks of radioactive contamination at the main stages of uranium mining and fuel production, the operation and accidents of nuclear power plants, and the handling of the high-level nuclear waste [1]. It is natural to investigate the observational facts as they are revealed and documented in nature itself, and it feels pertinent to quote a sentence by the 2011 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Tomas Tranströmer; “The truth lies on the ground, but no one dares to grasp it”
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