Departments



Articles

Less

Editorial: Air Boats and the Golden Rule
February 2nd, 2004

Editorial: A Year of Opportunity
January 24th, 2004

Editorial: Sports on TV
January 15th, 2004

Editorial: Mad Cow Disease in the US
December 26th, 2003

Editorial: Jeb`s Water War
November 25th, 2003

Editorial: Citizen Input Needed
October 27th, 2003

Editorial: Congrats to Our Commission, Now We Must Help
October 17th, 2003

Editorial: Remember Owens Valley
September 29th, 2003

Editorial: Gold Plating Reality, Reconstruction Chic
September 21st, 2003

Editorial: The Responsiblities of a Journalist
August 27th, 2003

Editorial: A Fable: The Great Guano Concord
July 24th, 2003

Editorial: Music for Children
May 26th, 2003

Editorial: Speak Out
May 15th, 2003

Editorial: Parking: Our Biggest Problem?
May 2nd, 2003

Editorial: Vote and Vote Well
April 22nd, 2003

More

Editorial: When the Elephants Stampede, the Pygmies Get Trampled

Editorial: When the Elephants Stampede, the Pygmies Get Trampled

Editor


The BP deep-water oil well that is expected to be out of control until August exemplifies three lessons: 1. Starting and stopping an oil well under 5000 of water is a highly technical project. 2. Cleaning up the BP oil spill will go on for months and cost billions of dollars. 3. The oversight failures of the U.S. Mining and Mineral Service become more apparent with each passing week.


Let us now apply these lessons to nuclear power plants as solutions to energy needs. Nuclear power plants can malfunction. Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, Chernobyl in the Ukraine and China Syndrome in fiction are examples. Three Mile Island went out of control, cause 136,000 people to be evacuated and temporary hysteria. When the nuclear plant in Chernobyl blew up workers and firemen died from radiation burns. Furthermore, tens of millions of Europeans were exposed to radioactive fallout. China Syndrome is when a plant goes out of control and melts into the groundwater, and causes an explosion that is beyond imagination. That has not happened, yet.


Cleaning up Chernobyl meant entombing the rubble in concrete, a hazardous and ineffective response. More than 300,000 people were relocated by the government. Clean-up after a China Syndrome event would be impossible.


Regulatory control of the nuclear industry in the U.S. (and the old U.S.S.R.) has been spotty at best. Nuclear waste has already contaminated critical groundwater in the State of Washington. Poorly designed nuclear plants in Ohio, South Carolina and Florida are often shut down for repairs.

In 2009 the Crystal River nuclear plant was found to have a nine inch deep crack in the "containment" dome intended to keep radioactive leaks from escaping. The original 30 year life expectancy of nuclear plants is being extended by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency.

One must ask, "Is this for economic or technical reasons?" The decommissioning of aged nuclear power plants will be very expensive. Letting the plants run longer will help pay for decommissioning, at the cost of old concrete containment domes failing to stand. Keep in mind, federal law limits the liability of nuclear plan owners for nuclear accidents, just as there are limits on oil company liabilities for oil spills.


If nuclear power plants are the answer to energy needs, it is not just Levy County that should think twice about operation, clean-up and regulation of the energy industry.

Click for printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

 

 

© 2013
Cedar Key News

cedarkeynews@gmail.com