Unfortunately, not all of the issues related to nuclear power have solutions.The nuclear industry has been stalled for years now, struggling to compete with cheaper forms of power and viewed as suspect ever since the accidents at Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. It is good to see that new designs that incorporate some safety lessons that we have learned are being developed. It seems clear that nuclear fission will continue to be a significant part of the solution for a long time to come. There are no obvious answers about how we will address the worlds energy needs moving forward. But it's clear today that that view was naive.Įven if no more of them melt down, the problem of what to do with the waste only grows with time. Many people would have said "None!" just a few years ago. How many more will experience meltdowns is anybody's guess. Some are new, some are old, but all will eventually approach and then reach the end of their lives. There are still hundreds of these old-design reactors operating worldwide to provide electricity. We do not have the technology to go into the core area and remove the mess. The problem with these three accidents in which the reactor cores have melted down is that we have no way to clean them up. Many of those brave and/or unknowing souls who were fatally exposed were fighting to prevent the increasing spread of radiation and to try to prevent a theorized secondary explosion which was estimated to be on the order of a 3- to 5-megaton bomb.Ī very large area surrounding Chernobyl is still uninhabitable. Again, no one knows how many have lost their lives due to the contamination. The many inhabitants of the area who received massive doses of radiation and lead. How many of them died as a result is unknown. They each received massive doses during a few brief exposure periods. Over 500,000 soldiers who were employed as "human robots" to clean up the areas of highest contamination and build the enclosure over the reactor because man-made robots failed too quickly. It is thought that one-fourth of them died before age 40. 10,000 miners who tunneled under the reactor received massive doses. 600 pilots who dropped lead into the core all received lethal doses Hundreds of helicopter pilots and soldiers who dropped sand bags received lethal doses 30 first responders: All died within months. Of course the reactor designs are not the same, but it the controllers at Chernobyl did what they thought would shut down their reactor.
What they didn't mention is that it was that step taken at Chernobyl which caused the massive explosion there. Interestingly, they talked about how the reactors at Fukushima were shut down by dropping the fuel rods into the reactor. Later, they mentioned Chernobyl, but there was no mention of the thousands of people who lost their lives due to that accident. One thing I noticed is that in the first half of the show they mainly discussed Fukushima and mentioned Three Mile Island, including stating that there had been no loss of life and very little emission of radiation from the latter. Interesting documentary! Terrapower seems to have an attractive solution.
LTLFTcomposite wrote:Very interesting documentary on PBS
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