Nuclear Power
Excellent
essay by Michael Fumento regarding the hysteria against Nuclear Power.
Exorcising the Demons of Chernobyl
Why would an energy-craving nation (the U.S.) that also demands a pristine environment put the kibosh on a limitless form of power (nuclear energy) that produces no air pollution and no emissions environmentalists claim cause global warming?
It stems essentially from two massively-publicized incidents that plague our imagination: Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 and especially Chernobyl in Ukraine. Nobody was even injured at TMI, but Chernobyl was a disaster of epic proportions. Or was it?
For the answer go back to 1986 in the former Soviet Union, a regime in which worker and public safety mattered zilch. A powerful steam explosion at one of four reactors of the Chernobyl nuclear facility near Kiev – a hunk of junk compared to any American nuke plant – caused additional explosions, a fire, and a full nuclear meltdown. Over 100,000 people were evacuated.
UPI's immediate death toll was 2,000 while others used far higher figures. "Late Word From Inside Russia: Mass Grave for 15,000 N-Victims," blared the New York Post. Blame these perhaps on confusion and Soviet secrecy. But in 2001 Agence France-Presse reported the highest toll ever, claiming "between 15,000 and 30,000 people died" from the initial blast and radiation exposure. As to delayed cancer deaths from radiation, some nuclear energy opponents estimated almost half a million.
But a voluminous new report assembled by the Chernobyl Forum, comprising 8 UN agencies, shows not only that the accident's immediate impact was grossly exaggerated but that even delayed cancer deaths will prove minuscule compared to the outrageous predictions.
The actual number of immediate deaths? Not 30,000 but rather 47 says the report. All were among plant personnel and emergency workers, none among the general public.
Delayed cancer deaths estimated in the new report? Not half a million but about 4,000. This though five million people received excess radiation exposure. Yet the report also admits that although there's been plenty of time for cancers to start showing up, researchers are having trouble finding enough cases even to justify the 4,000.
The report did attribute nine thyroid cancer deaths in children from drinking contaminated milk (which may be preventable with cheap iodine supplementation).
But even for the cancer most linked to radiation exposure (leukemia) and for those with the greatest such exposure (cleanup workers) it found studies repeatedly showing no increased risks.
Let's see -- no global warming, no greenhouse gasses. The fuel is a lot more compact so the environmental damage from mining is greatly reduced (It takes 90 rail cars full of coal to power a decent sized city for one day. It takes about six pounds of Nuclear Fuel for the same power output.) True, the waste is radioactive for 30 years or so but the technology to reprocess and store this waste has been around for a long time. C'mon people, wake up!
Posted by DaveH at September 20, 2005 11:13 AM