TITLE:
Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination
AUTHORS:
Nils-Axel Mörner
KEYWORDS:
Nuclear Power; Uranium Mining; Depleted Uranium; Nuclear Accidents; Waste Handling; The DRD Method
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.3,
February
28,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Nuclear power
was designed to produce electric power. Each part of the chain from uranium
mining to handling of the waste is linked to serious contamination risks,
however. Uranium mining is generally linked to local to regional contamination.
The fuel production also produces depleted uranium at a ratio of 1:7. The
reactors are operating under danger of accidents. Numerous minor accidents and
endless temporary shut-downs are occasionally mixed with disastrous accidents.
The Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011) accidents are notorious. The radioactive
contamination from those accidents is still incomprehensible and will keep serious destructions of the environment for centuries
to come. The handling of the high-level nuclear waste remains unsolved. Methods
proposed in Sweden, Finland and France seem likely to lead to disastrous
radioactive contaminations in the future. The only way out of this dilemma
seems to be a disposal where the waste, though effectively sealed-off in the
bedrock, remains accessible and controllable. At present, the “cost &
benefit” balance seems strongly tilted over to the “far too costly side”,
however.