Friday, April 08, 2011

Nuclear Energy: Potential for disaster

Of the existing means for generating electricity the most sophisticated & dangerous may be Nuclear Energy. I will not profess to know the ins and outs, but will only state this, IT CAN BE DANGEROUS.

Wikipedia quote: "Some serious nuclear and radiation accidents have occurred. Nuclear power plant accidents include the Chernobyl disaster (1986), Fukushima I nuclear accidents (2011), and the Three Mile Island accident (1979)”

I am sure there have been many more incidents which may have been covered up or thought not too serious enough thus not announced to the public.

Let’s agree that there are many causes behind incidents at a nuclear plant, and most may not lead to leakage of radiation.

BUT..

Of the three major incidents, Fukushima I nuclear accident is happening at present. The catalyst was a 9.0 earthquake, the aftershocks & the subsequent tsunami raged onto areas of Japan. This natural disaster first caused the loss of direct then back up power to the water cooling systems in place at the plant which were used to cool down the reactor rods preventing overhead or a meltdown.

Things quickly went out of hand, and precautions were taken by evacuating people from a 30km radios.

Not to reflect on to the GCC

As an example, if Bahrain had a Nuclear Plant at one end of the kingdom, lets say the far ends of Muharraq (if not mistaken, the length of Bahrain is around 27k) then nowhere on the mainland would be safe as it would be within the current evacuation area of 30km radius.

So we’d all have to go & stay on Hawar island….

I write this only to highlight one point of view & perspective regarding the use of Nuclear power; there are many. Implementation, harnessing & distribution can be performed by any of the GCC states, the fact still remains that this means of power generation although fruitful has its consequences and must be meticulously studied before deciding to adapt it.

Let us also not forget the ‘waste’ byproduct and spent rods, their storage & disposal.

LINKS
Blog by Alec Baldwin: The big lie of Clean nuclear

How a reactor shuts down and what happens in a meltdown


Hazards of storing Spent Fuel