Why does nuclear power have a negative effect on our environment?

Answer 1

You guys are KILLING me!

1) Nuclear power is not inefficient. Nuclear power plants operate under the same working principles as any other power plant. They heat water into steam. This results in a conversion efficiency of ~33-35%.

2) Waste is only a political problem. Technology exists to get rid of ALL the byproducts generated by nuclear power plants! Look up reprocessing, then transmutation.

3) Accidents occur because people are idiots. Which is why the next generation of power plants, GEN IV, will have entirely passive safety systems. Meaning that once an accident occurs, the best thing for the operators to do is step away from the control panel. They do this by using the laws of gravity and such.

4) To answer the any higher enrichment will give us less reaction time comment. That is absolutely absurd. The key is to keep the reactor period (the time it takes for the thermal power to increase by a factor of 2.718) high. I've operated a 75% enriched core, and the period was around 100 seconds during operation.

5) There is a video of a jet fighter crashing into a power plant wall (it wasn't an actual power plant, but used the same wall design). You should check it out. Lets just say that there is no way any 747 or A380 will get through that wall.

6) Power plants have a very short life span? I would say that 50 or more years is a pretty long time, wouldn't you?

It is truly disturbing to hear some of the comments that are left by some people, especially Blue Sky.

For more information on the solution to the waste "problem":

http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-2/text/radside1.html

Answer 2

The immediate effect is nil.
The main problems are:
1. The possibility of an accident which could allow radioactive material to escape endangering anyone downwind;

2. The waste from the nuclear reactor needs to be stored for many thousands of years before it becomes safe. At present it is stored in bunkers, many underground.
There is a danger that the storage facilities may deteriorate or be damaged and the extremely radioactive material get into the ground water effecting the food chain for miles around.

Answer 3

Nuclear power is very, very inefficient - in fact, most nuclear power plants work at around 3% efficiency. That's a lot of waste. The reason is any higher efficiency will give us less reaction time if anything goes wrong. It's very dangerous. And the reaction time is exponential. If you try to run it any higher, you are looking at a fraction of a second to react in case of emergency. And the waste itself is radioactive. It will kill you. And it will kill people for a very long time. A nuclear waste dumpsite is 'hot' for thousands of years. And another problem is keeping control of the waste - it is very good to make nuclear weapons with. In fact it only takes about 10 pounds of plutonium to blow up a city the size of New York. I know of 1 nuclear dump site that is missing over 200 pounds of it. They say it gets lost in rounding off numbers. Do you know airplanes are not allowed to fly over nuclear power plants? Just in case they crash they don't want it hitting them. Another thing is nuke power plants are expensive to build and they have a very short life span. The radioactivity makes metal brittle - then they have to quarantine the land for a long time.

Answer 4

the earth is nuclear powered.... how do you think they find out how old dinosaur bone fossils are?

the erath is a big nuclear isotope soup cooking down as we speak.

just the 'nuts' on top are having a hard time dealing with it. might as well make power while we can before we burn enuff coal so we cannot see our feet. if we can drill a 20 mile deep hole then we can dispose of 'spent' nuclear fuel. a-bombs are for stone age sissies.

Answer 5

It produces waste that remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years.

There are some people who think we cannot keep it safe for tens of thousands of years. They just think that is too long. That our attention span cannot handle this time period. That it would need special containment for that long and re-containment from time to time.

Ten thousand years ago the San Francisco Golden Gate was a river through a meadow. So because of this and the leaks and strange things that go on inside closed drums of waste that we really don't understand, they oppose it's use and feel it can harm the environment.

Answer 6

Does Chernobyl ring a bell? The risk of a nuclear accident far outweighs the benefits of nuclear power.

Answer 7

Because of radioactive waste. However, there is very little of it compared to the massive amount of smoke a coal power plant generates to make the same amount of electricity, and it can be safely contained, if the public were not so afraid of it.

Answer 8

By all laws of nature, it doesn't. Nuclear power is scary, because nuclear things can make bombs, and REPUBLICANS like bombs! My opinion is that nuclear power is opposed by many environmentalists because it provides a solution to fossil fuels while not limiting the upward progress of humanity.

Answer 9

It doesn't normally. Only in the case of an accident is there any effect on the environment; that is the same in any heavy industry.

Answer 10

Because of how you have to dispose of the waste: putting it in sealed ceramic containers buried underground. And you have to remember where you buried them, because they're radioactive.