Is nuclear power safe?

Answer 1

Nothing is 100% safe.

Windmils, dams, coal mines, oil refineries all can and do kill people.

Based on the power generated, even counting Chernobl fewer people have been killed by Nuclear power than by a similar amount of coal (our main source of power). Dams also fail and can kill thousands.

Any idiot can tell you that without adult supervison any modern technology can be dangerous. It so happens that the former soviet union where they did have a nuclear disaster at Chernobyl they lacked proper adult supervision. From the way it was run, even before the disaster the regulatory and safety inspectors from the USA would have sent the builders and operators of that plant to their room and taken away thier "toys".

Because of the fear of Nuclear power it is among the most regulated things on the planet, and therefore in a democracy where that fear must be respected, the regulations are enforced and make it very safe.

Sure Kim in North Korea and similar despots may be building a nuclear power plant held together with bamboo, and that is not safe. Such actions are not the norm or tollerated here in the USA or Europe where nuclear power is safe.

Answer 2

I don't buy any of that crap that people are saying about it being safe, and yes I'm reading your arguments.

The fact is that those power plants are disasters waiting to happen no matter how well built they are - and they waste that they generate is going to be extremely harmful to all life on Earth for millions of years.

Did you know that the Nuclear Waste disposal operation in Yucca Mtn where they are dumping all this shi...t is designed to last for 500,000 years ! Thats a long freakin time right? Well guess what...the nuclear waste they are dumping there is actively extremely lethal for MILLIONS of years...So what happens in 500,000?

Look at it this way, How many of the people who think N.P. is safe can look out your window and see those things in your backyard.

If one was going to get built near me, I would pack up and move before it was even started...

Nuclear power is just plain STUPID ! and so are it's followers...

Answer 3

As many others have said, nuclear power is as safe as, or safer than, other forms of power generation.

Everybody remembers Chernobyl as a terrible disaster, but the press have always tended to overstate the scale of disasters to "make a good story" and Chernobyl was no exception.

Have a look here... http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speeches/complexity/complexity.html

This is a speech by Michael Crichton where he talks about how he came to write his novel "State of Fear". He's says...

"The book really began in 1998, when I set out to write a novel about a global disaster. In the course of my preparation, I rather casually reviewed what had happened in Chernobyl, since that was the worst manmade disaster in recent times that I knew about.

What I discovered stunned me. Chernobyl was a tragic event, but nothing remotely close to the global catastrophe I imagined. About 50 people had died in Chernobyl, roughly the number of Americans that die every day in traffic accidents. I don’t mean to be gruesome, but it was a setback for me. You can’t write a novel about a global disaster in which only 50 people die."


Have a read of the rest of the speech - it's quite interesting.

Anyway, to get back to the point, nuclear power generation is simply not as dangerous as some people would like you to believe it is.

Answer 4

Nuclear power has been romanticized in American culture. In the 50's, it was seen as exciting and new. In the 70's, when stories of a dystopian future were all the rage, the media portrayed nuclear power as it did all things scientific: an accident waiting to happen.

The fact is, modern nuclear power plant designs are safe (and Chernobyl was NOT a modern plant design). In fact, they're safer than fossil fuel power plants, even in terms of radioactive release.

Radioactive emissions from nuclear power plants are generally indistinguishable from backround radtion levels.

Even if you take into account all the nuclear accidents in the United States, the amount of radioactive release from nuclear power plants is magnitudes less than that of normal coal burning power plants, which release thousands of tons of uranium and thorium (naturally occurring in coal) into the atmosphere each year.

The process of dealing with nuclear waste is also controversial, but modern proposed processes are, again, magnitudes safer than the public's exposure to natuarlly occurring uranium, radon, and thorium deposits. Sadly, because of fears and knee-jerk oposition that many people have to nuclear waste disposal, nuclear power plants are legally obligated to keep their waste in buildings on the power plant site, which is the very most dangerous aspect of nuclear power in the United States today.

Answer 5

It isn't as safe as they want us to believe! Nuclear power station do release radiation...regularly.
The really isn't the issue though. The real issue with nuclear power station is the ecological impact and the EROEI (Energy Returned over Energy Invested). It takes ten years to build one at great cost (money and ecological), it has a limited life span and then it needs decommissioning again at great cost!.

Answer 6

Safe in what way?
It is ecologically more safe than other methods of power generation. The radiation levels outside a coal-fired power station are much higher than a nuclear one. (They are also higher outside a hospital)
From a Health and Safety point of view more accidents and deaths have resulted from the generation of power by other methods. (Coal mining and Oil production)
It is a renewable source of power and does not involve the raping of our countries scarce stocks of non-renewable fuel.
It is socially acceptable because the NIMBY population are pleased to have nuclear power production remote from their areas.
Nuclear Power is safe provided that profit is not allowed to interfere with the operation and management of the facilities.

Answer 7

Aboslutely. There are risks involved of course, but thats the same with getting in your car everyday. The risks are understood and there are methods to control them, so yes nuclear power is safe.

Also, nuclear power plants are zero emisisons. No smog, no greenhouse gasses, no sulfides or acids. As far as the environment, nuclear power is safer than any other man-made pwoer source.

Answer 8

Nope:

1) UK Atomic Energy Authority pleads guilty to illegally releasing radioactive waste for more than 20 years at the Dounreay plant:

http://www.ukaea.org.uk/news/2007/14-02-07-2.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,,2014437,00.html

Ah yes, they do this for 20 years solid and we're supposed to trust that they and similar agencies can dispose of the waste safely? Ha ha!

One of the quotes from the article on the UKAEA's own site as listed above: "He was speaking outside Wick Sheriff Court where UKAEA was fined a total of £140,000 after pleading guilty last week to four breaches of the Radioactive Substances Act 1960 between 1963 and 1984". Interesting that they fail to add that they illegally landfilled radioactive waste from 1963 to 1975, and that up to 1984, they allowed dangerous radioactive particles to leach out to the sea.

2) In 2006, robot submarines uncovered huge deposits of radioactive sludge that had simply been forgotten(!) in storage tanks at the Sellafield plant. Result? Disposal costs for cleaning up Britain's existing radioactive waste stocks (which are notorious for being under-estimated by the nuclear industry) rise from £56bn to £65, and guess who pays - we do! Question: how many hospitals and schools could you build for £65bn...

The price of uranium is projected to just go on rising due to reactor-building programmes in India and China in particular. Given the Chinese government's environmental record, I really wouldn't want to be living in a neighbouring country when they try to 'dispose' of the waste coming out of their new reactors...

Answer 9

I don't think so. I feel that some point or the other, the nuclear waste is gonna get released and its gonna pollute the environment. Also, during its production, any accident could cause big mamma trouble(Chernobyl accident-1986)

Answer 10

Only as safe as the people who operate it, which makes it, potentially, highly dangerous!
You really DON'T want any of that stuff in your sandwich!