Nuclear Leakages/Environmental Factors

Nuclear Leakages/Environmental Factors:
(University of Michigan Report Including Groundwater Contamination*).
*Note: Below is scholastic assumption that strict US Regulations and Guidelines are followed at all times which history of contaminated areas proves US restrictions were not adhered to at multiple sites throughout America and its territories. There was a nuclear accident(s) at the Rocketdyne/Boeing Santa Susana Field Laboratory in 1959/1964 and the public was not notified despite the lethal properties of the contaminants. More information and additional reports are available at the University of Michigan Website including Engineering Reports and Scientific Research.

Environmental Factors:
There are four main environmental effects to consider when looking at nuclear reactors: leakages, Uranium mining, nuclear waste, and reactor meltdown.

Leakages:Leakages, both radioactive and nonradioactive, from nuclear reactors harm the environment and the population. The most detrimental potential impact to the water quality and aquatic systems is the discharge from the heat dissipation system accounting for the largest volumes of water released back into the environment. Ground water could potentially be impacted by water from the cooling ponds seeping into the underlying water table. Chlorine, used as a biocide at nuclear power plants, denotes the largest potential source of a chemical toxic release to the aquatic environment. The major atmospheric and aquatic pathways from which persons can be exposed to radiation from a nuclear reactor include:

Inhalation of contaminated air

Drinking milk or eating meat from animals that graze on pastures on which radioactive contamination may be deposited

Eating vegetables grown near the site

Drinking untreated water or eating fish caught near the discharge of liquid effluents.

Even though the US has strict restrictions on Uranium mining and its environmental affects, most imported Uranium comes from countries where there are little to no regulatory restrictions on the mining processes.

Uranium Mining:

Uranium mining (UM) is hazardous to humans and their environments due to the following reasons:

(1) Uranium tailings, which are "leftovers" from the mining process, contain highly toxic and radioactive materials such as Thorium-230. These materials also have long half-lives of more than 10,000 yrs. These fine particles can be blown over a very large area and also can reach the food chain, which can cause cancer and other diseases and death to all living things.

(2) UM itself can cause immediate health problems to the miners such as cancer and also death. For most of the mines no measures were taken for them to be covered or protected from nature. So when rain falls on these mines, the rain mixes with the leftover fine radioactive materials and in turn, it tends to seep into the underground water and contaminate the water supply.

(3) UM can also cause detrimental environmental problems, such as the ones mentioned above. In addition, there is a problem with the infinite usage of water supply for the mining cause and without considering the needs of other living things. Furthermore some scientific research had shown that some of the radioactive and toxic gases emitted could cause toxic rain.

(4) Workers and living organisms nearby or miles away can be killed or can be sick due to radon gas that is emitted from Tholium-230.

It’s true that chemical processing and mining of other materials can also cause death/sickness, but UM is still limited in numbers and there are no valid comparisons for relative number of deaths/sickness. Furthermore, UM’s restrictions are still unproven from the standpoint of reliability and accuracy. As to whether or not the restrictions are just like the atomic bomb tests in 1950s, the US government claims that UM is safe enough to merely brush off the Uranium dust from the population’s clothing.

A more eco-friendly UM process, In Situ Leaching (ISL), has been developed to reduce CO₂_{emissions.
ISL is applicable in countries with strict regulations, such as
the US. Traditional UM methods are still used in other countries,
such as Canada and Australia. Despite ISL’s environmental
benefit in the reduction in CO2 emissions, ISL has the risk of
spreading leaching liquid outside the uranium deposit resulting
in groundwater contamination, an unpredictable impact of the
leaching liquid on the rock deposit, and the impossibility of
restoring natural groundwater conditions after the completion of
the leaching operations.}

_{Radioactive Waste:}

_{Nuclear power plants produce
significant quantities of radioactive wastes. High-level nuclear
waste (HLW) presents a difficult disposal problem. The
radioactive components of HLW have intense radiation levels and
the heat that is emitted from them removal from the reactor is
very dangerous. The PBMR will generate small amounts of waste.
However, no matter how small these wastes are, they are still
harmful and have to be eventually disposed somewhere/somehow. In
1997, Michigan shut down the Big Rock reactor due to lack of
nuclear waste storage space. The shut down reactor eliminates a
power source, decreases the return on investment, and forces
other sources of energy to be utilized.}

_{The most favored solution in
nuclear waste disposal is to find stable geological environments
whereby their integrity will be maintained for millions of years
and thus, provide a suitable isolation capacity. One of the main
ways HLW can be disposed is through underground repositories.}

_{Underground repositories have
to be designed in a manner that would have the ability to
permanently isolate HLW from the accessible environment for a
long time period. Extensive experiments were done on the
environment of proposed burial sites. Despite positive results,
climatic and civilization changes have to be considered. It is
impossible to predict how the Earth’s future climatic
changes will affect temperature and ground composition as well as
changes in human civilization. Nuclear wastes pose a threat to
the environment because they are radioactive for tens of
thousands of years. It is expected the chances of leakages of
waste containers/canisters and burial sites will increase over
time creating hazardous environmental conditions. For the reason
that the disposal of nuclear wastes is not 100% reliable and
nuclear wastes production is inevitable, the environmental
effects of nuclear waste have to be taken into account if a PBMR
is to be built.}

_Meltdown:

_{The worst thing that can
happen with a nuclear reactor is to have a meltdown and the
effects of the ensuing fallout. To examine this scenario we would
have to look back at the Chernobyl accident and see what happened
there. The Chernobyl accident was the largest and most severe of
all nuclear meltdowns. The environmental and health impacts from
this accident were severe from the moment it happened and is
still continuing to plague the environment and people. These
include: immediate death of 31 people, an additional 137 were
treated for acute radiation syndrome, 7,000 and 10,000 volunteers
died due to released radiation, and 52,000 km}2 of European agricultural land has been excluded for use. Approximately 14,000 lakes in Sweden have radiocaesium concentrations above accepted levels. It is possible that Strontium-90 could have gone seeped into the soil thereby contaminating the drinking water above acceptable limits in 10-100 years from now. Additionally, there were increased cases of thyroid cancer found in children 0 to 15 years of age. The cases in Belarus increased by 9500% in the nine-year period following the accident. Russia now has cases of thyroid cancer when they never had one before the accident. The total carcinogenic effect is still hard to assess because the cases of thyroid cancer is still increasing.

The PBMR’s zero chance of radiation being released is false. The "Inherently Safe Design" has not been tested in real situations to warrant a zero chance of releasing radiation. In September 1999 in Tokaimura, Japan a human error accident occurred at a nuclear reprocessing plant that was deemed impossible by government protocols resulting in Japan’s worst nuclear accident (l4000 times the normal amount of radiation was released). There are multiple historical examples where designs were claimed to be "inherently safe", accidents occurred. The environmental impacts of such a disaster occurring at the PBMR are too enormous and long term to make the PBMR a safe environmental bet.

Madeline Felkins Hotsheets Rocketdyne/Boeing Contamination News
Felkins ANTHOLOGY and HOTSHEETS *Copyright Madeline L. Felkins 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 All Rights
Madelinefelkins.com Hotsheets.org

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