Fukushima: Fallacies, Fallout, Fundamentals and Fear

The Automatic EarthStoneleigh writes: It will be a long time before we have a complete picture of the unfolding nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima, and much longer before the scale of the impacts can truly be understood. Misinformation and disinformation abound in an emotive and exceptionally polarized debate over the nuclear power industry. Teasing apart fact from fiction will be a major task. First we need to look at the latest information on the state of affairs at Fukushima, and then turn to the debate over the health impacts of radiation and comparisons with Chernobyl.

The best interpretation of data and events at Fukushima is being provided by Arnie Gundersen at Fairewind Associates, a nuclear engineer of long experience. His most recent contribution puts the events of the last six seeks in stark perspective. He compares the explosive events at units 1 and 3, providing a very convincing case for the unit 3 detonation having resulted from a prompt criticality in the spent fuel pool. Pieces of fuel rods have been discovered as much as two miles away, plutonium dust has been detected on site and uranium and americium powder has been detected as far away as the US, indicating the volatilization of nuclear fuel. …

The quantity of radioactive material at the site is simply staggering, and its condition precarious. We could yet see more uncontrolled releases of contamination from this material, in addition to the on-going releases due to containment breaches, radioactive steam emissions and water flooding. …

The scope of the accident and its likely impact on the surrounding heavily populated area continues to be considerably underestimated, and evacuation efforts remain grossly inadequate. …

Arnie Gundersen calls the exposure limits being applied for children in the area of the stricken plant “a gross miscarriage of radiation science”. Children are particularly vulnerable to radiation, as their cells are dividing very rapidly. The impact of a given dose is therefore 10-100 times greater, yet the dose limit for children in the area of Fukushima is set at a level most countries would use for adults working at a nuclear plant. …

To me it is clear that the official story of Chernobyl has no credibility. Never-anticipated nuclear accidents continue to occur, and when they do the costs – in terms of health, ecological damage, energy demand for clean up, resource use and money – are astronomical.

The EROEI for nuclear power is already unimpressive over its whole lifecycle, and even a small number of dramatic accidents on the scale of Chernobyl and Fukushima can render the energy balance negative. The risk of nuclear accident is unacceptably high. The costs, even in the absence of accidents, are too high. We should learn from our mistakes and turn away from this technology.

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