Nuclear: Safest of Conventional Power Sources?
An interesting point to consider: If we generated all of our electricity using the worst reactor design known, the Chernobyl design, and handled all of them just as badly, we would have a system with 1/3rd the deaths that our current fossil fuel system has today!
Here's the math. Assume that the globe has 18 trillion watt-years of electricity capacity per year. We can round that up to 20 terawatt-years. The Chernobyl reactors had 4 gigawatt-years capacity. So global production capacity is equal to 5000 Chernobyl plants. We will assume that each Chernobyl clone (4 reactors per plant) runs 20 years, with one reactor blowing up randomly during that time. (In reality, the Chernobyl event was caused by an astonishingly stupid boss, and was not random at all. There is no real reason to think it should ever happen again, certainly not anywhere near this assumed frequency.)
So, in 20 years, we would see 5000 Chernobyl equivalent events in 20 years. The deaths from those events, over 45 total years elapsed (assuming that every reactor explosion was handled just as badly - no learning occurs) would be 250,000.
That seems like a lot. But that is equal to the deaths from 250 coal fired power plants in just a 30 year period. (Ignoring any future deaths that would result from human-derived climate change.) There are over 1600 coal plants in the world today.
Let's presume that half of those coal plants have near perfect emissions controls, so they act like 800 plants. Those 800 plants are giving us the deaths equivalent to what 16,000 Chernobyl plants would give.
I didn’t realize how much safer nuclear power is. You made very clear and succinct points.
I live about 10 minutes away from a nuclear plant, so I’m happy to see the safety of them verified with facts in your post.
The government sent iodine capsules to me in the mail to take in case of a nuclear accident, so I’ve always been a bit unsettled about nuclear power but knowing that it’s the safest form we have is quite comforting.
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Fukushima and the collapseof the Pacific Ocean ecosystem?
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More myth than reality. Fukushima was bad, but the damage was mostly local. A coal fired plant puts out huge amounts of radioactivity. Something people don't talk about!
And, tbh, there is a lot of pollution from solar panels: their manufacture and disposal are still problematic in many ways.
I'm certainly no expert, and have a strong conspiracy bent to boot, but the more I read about it it seems like a lot of disinfo/ propaganda. I don't believe it was nearly as bad as we have been told.
After seeing the total collapse of the small critters in the tide pools since then?
Have to say it's bigger fact it's worse than they say.
New returning salmon have crazy tumors and defects...
Besides the "background" radiation on the pacific coast shores massively spiking?
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Hmm interesting. I dont know much about nuclear power so I appreciate the Information and seeing the numbers. Personally, I'm a big advocate of solar energy but it's good to be informed about other methods
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Have you heard about the new small modular nuclear reactor design that Nuscale Power has been developing. It is really impressive from what I have seen. It is also supposedly meltdown proof. So much so that their design has been fast tracked by the regulatory entities. I reached out to them via their Facebook page to ask how they handle the waste that is left over and they actually replied to me with a informative well thought out answer. I was shocked.
Wow that is very cool! What did they say?
Sorry for the length but since you asked 😄...
Jay, thank you for your question. What's interesting is that used nuclear fuel still has considerable energy available, and could be recovered.There are existing and new technologies on the drawing boards today that can utilize this fuel. We have demonstrated that used fuel can be safely transported and stored, as needed. The NuScale design will also be able to take advantage of advanced fuel designs in development, when they are ready, which hold real promise to reduce the inventory of used fuel. In addition, the NuScale plant design incorporates proven safe, secure, and effective used fuel management systems. Used fuel is stored underwater in a stainless steel lined concrete pool for at least 5 years. The concrete pool is well below grade as is part of the reactor building; a highly robust structure designed to Seismic Category 1 and aircraft impact resistant requirements, capable of withstanding a variety of severe natural and man-made phenomena. The facility design includes on-site dry cask storage of the used fuel for the life of the facility, or until such time that the used fuel can be ultimately stored at a permanent long-term used fuel repository.
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That's really interesting...thanks for sharing!