Post by austkyzor on Apr 8, 2011 17:51:37 GMT -5
(More a responce to Dan's latest video)
Nuclear Energy is clean, and as long as something really bad doesn't happen, absolutely safe.
And now, to counteract many anti-nuclear arguments before they're even made.
"What about Chernobyl?" - What happened in Chernobyl was the result of human error going through the roof. What was supposed to happen was a routine maintence test, done by people who knew what they were doing. What did happen was a couple of morons pressing the big red button that says "DO NOT EVER PRESS!" and causing a steam explosion. As long as there's always an acceptable number of people who know what they're doing on hand at all times in a plant, there won't be another Chernobyl. Human error also applies to the Three Mile Island incident - and that was never a meltdown.
"What about in Japan?" What's happening in Japan is the result of something (mostly) unpredictable - but not entirely. There's a high meltdown risk because the failsafes failed. This is a flaw in the plants that they were using. If Japan used CANDU reactors, they wouldn't be having as many problems.
In a CANDU reactor everything is at a lower pressure (less chance of steam explosion), and uses Heavy water (D20) instead of regular water (H20). The heavy water not only makes the reactions more efficient (thus producing more power) it uses unenriched uranium (which produces less fission products that have a shorter halflife). An additional feature is the reactor core being designed to withstand heavy seismic activity (Canada has a lot of fault lines). A 9.0 would still cause problems, but not as many as a standard LWR plant because of the reactor's design - not only the ability to withstand seismic activity - but the lower pressures and temperatures as well. The products of the reaction or either absorbed by the D20 or reused (natural uranium becomes enriched uranium) and as a whole much safer. The only safety concern is the release of tritium, which is heavilly monitored and every report is released to the public. For every CANDU reactor in existance.
"What about storage?" They already came up with a storage solution that works. It's called Yucca mountain. The waste is in containers that can withstand impact from a high-speed train, inside a failsafe container that can withstand a missile stored deep in a cave inside a heavilly guarded mountain in the middle of Nevada - and people STILL protested.
By the way, did you know that living within 50 miles of a coal plant exposes you to more radiation then living within 50 miles of a nuclear plant? - that's the response to all radiation concerns.
Weapons proliferation is also a slight concern - you CAN tinker with unsafeguarded and unregulated reactors to produce weapons grade isotopes, but there's still a very low chance of it happening since most reactors are safeguarded, and heavilly monitored by international regulators.
So yeah! That's my responce to Dan's latest video.
Due to my laziness and short attention span, I have decided not to read your lengthy post. - Nuclear power is safe as long as every regulation is made and the plants are well maintained and made in Canada.
Nuclear Energy is clean, and as long as something really bad doesn't happen, absolutely safe.
And now, to counteract many anti-nuclear arguments before they're even made.
"What about Chernobyl?" - What happened in Chernobyl was the result of human error going through the roof. What was supposed to happen was a routine maintence test, done by people who knew what they were doing. What did happen was a couple of morons pressing the big red button that says "DO NOT EVER PRESS!" and causing a steam explosion. As long as there's always an acceptable number of people who know what they're doing on hand at all times in a plant, there won't be another Chernobyl. Human error also applies to the Three Mile Island incident - and that was never a meltdown.
"What about in Japan?" What's happening in Japan is the result of something (mostly) unpredictable - but not entirely. There's a high meltdown risk because the failsafes failed. This is a flaw in the plants that they were using. If Japan used CANDU reactors, they wouldn't be having as many problems.
In a CANDU reactor everything is at a lower pressure (less chance of steam explosion), and uses Heavy water (D20) instead of regular water (H20). The heavy water not only makes the reactions more efficient (thus producing more power) it uses unenriched uranium (which produces less fission products that have a shorter halflife). An additional feature is the reactor core being designed to withstand heavy seismic activity (Canada has a lot of fault lines). A 9.0 would still cause problems, but not as many as a standard LWR plant because of the reactor's design - not only the ability to withstand seismic activity - but the lower pressures and temperatures as well. The products of the reaction or either absorbed by the D20 or reused (natural uranium becomes enriched uranium) and as a whole much safer. The only safety concern is the release of tritium, which is heavilly monitored and every report is released to the public. For every CANDU reactor in existance.
"What about storage?" They already came up with a storage solution that works. It's called Yucca mountain. The waste is in containers that can withstand impact from a high-speed train, inside a failsafe container that can withstand a missile stored deep in a cave inside a heavilly guarded mountain in the middle of Nevada - and people STILL protested.
By the way, did you know that living within 50 miles of a coal plant exposes you to more radiation then living within 50 miles of a nuclear plant? - that's the response to all radiation concerns.
Weapons proliferation is also a slight concern - you CAN tinker with unsafeguarded and unregulated reactors to produce weapons grade isotopes, but there's still a very low chance of it happening since most reactors are safeguarded, and heavilly monitored by international regulators.
So yeah! That's my responce to Dan's latest video.
Due to my laziness and short attention span, I have decided not to read your lengthy post. - Nuclear power is safe as long as every regulation is made and the plants are well maintained and made in Canada.