Apr 2011
Nuclear Power and the Perception of Risk
Nuclear reactors, most of them built in the ‘60s and ‘70s, dot the landscape of the continental United States. They have been in existence long enough for us to forget about them. They generate electric power and that is about the extent of our knowledge and concern.
Nuclear reactors share much in common with other machines and devices which humans have constructed and fabricated: they wear out from use and must be eventually be either discarded or recycled. Many of the reactors in use, however, have exceeded what the manufacturers—mainly General Electric and Westinghouse—specified to be the life of the reactors, but the Nuclear Regulatory Agency has allowed the utility companies to continue to operate the reactors in spite of their advanced age and fragility.
In addition to the age of the reactors, which presents an increased risk of structural failure, the spent fuel rods generated by the fission process have been stored on-site in large containers of circulating water to keep them cool, since they generate enough heat from the remaining radioactivity to combust in the atmosphere if left alone. The government has all but given up its efforts to find a safe repository to store the spent fuel rods for the thousands of years before they become safe.
I wrote a fairy tale for the Jackson Progressive in 1999 that illustrates the problem, The Persistent Genie. The story was prompted by the September 30, 1999 accident at the JCO nuclear fuel plant at the village of Tokaimura, Japan. It began when workers attempted to dissolve 16 kilograms of enriched uranium in nitric acid, although it is considered dangerous to process more than 2.4kg at one time. This set off an uncontrolled chain reaction, resulting in a 'blue flash' at the processing plant. The reaction punched a hole through the roof of the building, radiation began spewing into the atmosphere, and radiation levels went up to 4,000 times normal levels within a minute. There was no containment around the plant, because it was not thought that an accident like this could happen.
Nuclear reactors share much in common with other machines and devices which humans have constructed and fabricated: they wear out from use and must be eventually be either discarded or recycled. Many of the reactors in use, however, have exceeded what the manufacturers—mainly General Electric and Westinghouse—specified to be the life of the reactors, but the Nuclear Regulatory Agency has allowed the utility companies to continue to operate the reactors in spite of their advanced age and fragility.
In addition to the age of the reactors, which presents an increased risk of structural failure, the spent fuel rods generated by the fission process have been stored on-site in large containers of circulating water to keep them cool, since they generate enough heat from the remaining radioactivity to combust in the atmosphere if left alone. The government has all but given up its efforts to find a safe repository to store the spent fuel rods for the thousands of years before they become safe.
I wrote a fairy tale for the Jackson Progressive in 1999 that illustrates the problem, The Persistent Genie. The story was prompted by the September 30, 1999 accident at the JCO nuclear fuel plant at the village of Tokaimura, Japan. It began when workers attempted to dissolve 16 kilograms of enriched uranium in nitric acid, although it is considered dangerous to process more than 2.4kg at one time. This set off an uncontrolled chain reaction, resulting in a 'blue flash' at the processing plant. The reaction punched a hole through the roof of the building, radiation began spewing into the atmosphere, and radiation levels went up to 4,000 times normal levels within a minute. There was no containment around the plant, because it was not thought that an accident like this could happen.
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