Fallout from Chernobyl
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Transcript of Fallout from Chernobyl
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Fallout from Chernobyl
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400 million people exposed in 20 countries
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Chernobyl’s political fallout
• Stimulated Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness)
• Stimulated nationalism in Ukraine, Belarus, and other republics that lost clean-up workers.
• Growth of environmental opposition
• Questioning of the heart of technocratic power– Soviet leaders were engineers, not lawyers– USSR collapsed within 5 years.
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Radiation and Health
• Health effects as a result of radiation exposure:
-increased likelihood of cancer
-birth defects including long limbs, brain
damage, conjoined stillborn twins
-reduced immunity
-genetic damage
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3.5 million sick,
one/third of them children
8,000 deaths in 14 years
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My grandmother, by Luda
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Death of my life, by Marina
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Chernobyl is war, by Irena
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Beauty and the beast, by Helena
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Nothing escapes radiation, by Irena
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Chernobyl, our hell, by Eugenia
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Self-portrait, by Natasha
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“It Can’t Happen Here”
• U.S. reaction to Chernobyl, 1986– Blamed on Communism, graphite reactor
• Also Soviet reaction to Three-Mile Island, 1979– Blamed on Capitalism, pressurized-water reactor
• No technology 100% safe– Three-Mile Island bubble almost burst
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Three-Mile Island, PA 1979
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Health around TMI
• In 1979, hundreds of people reported nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and skin rashes. Many pets were reported dead or showed signs of radiation
• Lung cancer, and leukemia rates increased 2 to 10 times in areas within 10 miles downwind
• Farmers received severe monetary losses due to deformities in livestock and crops after the disaster that are still occurring today.
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Plants near TMI
-lack of chlorophyll
-deformed leaf patterns
-thick, flat, hollow stems
-missing reproductive parts
-abnormally largeTMI dandelion leaf at right
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Animals Nearby TMI• Many insects
disappeared for years.
– Bumble bees, carpenter bees, certain type caterpillars, or daddy-long-leg spiders
– Pheasants and hop toads have disappeared.
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Nuclear reaction
• Chain reaction occurs when a Uranium atom splits
• Different reactions– Atomic Bomb in a split second– Nuclear Power Reactor more controlled, cannot
explode like a bomb
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History of nuclear power
1938– Scientists study Uranium nucleus
1941 – Manhattan Project begins
1942 – Controlled nuclear chain reaction
1945 – U.S. uses two atomic bombs on Japan
1949 – Soviets develop atomic bomb
1952 – U.S. tests hydrogen bomb
1955 – First U.S. nuclear submarine
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“Atoms for Peace”
Program to justify nuclear technology
Proposals for power, canal-building, exports
First commercial power plant, Illinois 1960
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• The energy in one pound of highly enriched Uranium is comparable to that of one million gallons of gasoline.
• One million times as much energy in one pound of Uranium as in one pound of coal.
Economic advantages
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Emissions Free
• Nuclear energy annually prevents– 5.1 million tons of sulfur– 2.4 million tons of nitrogen oxide– 164 metric tons of carbon
• Nuclear often pitted against fossil fuels– Some coal contains radioactivity– Nuclear plants have released low-level radiation
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Early knowledge of risks
• 1964 Atomic Energy Commission report on possible reactor accident
– 45,000 dead– 100,000 injured– $17 billion in damages– Area the size of Pennsylvania contaminated
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States with nuclear power plant(s)
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Nuclear power around the globe
• 17% of world’s electricity from nuclear power – U.S. about 20% (2nd largest source)
• 431 nuclear plants in 31 countries – 103 of them in the U.S.– Built none since 1970s (Wisconsin as leader). – U.S. firms have exported nukes.– Push from Bush/Cheney for new nukes.
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Countries Generating Most Nuclear Power
Country Total MW
USA 99,784
France 58,493
Japan 38,875
Germany 22,657
Russia 19,843
Canada 15,755
Ukraine 12,679
United Kingdom 11,720
Sweden 10,002
South Korea 8,170
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Nuclear fuel cycle
• Uranium mining and milling
• Conversion and enrichment
• Fuel rod fabrication
• POWER REACTOR
• Reprocessing, or
• Radioactive waste disposal– Low-level in commercial facilities
– High level at plants or underground repository
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Front end: Uranium mining and milling
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Uranium tailingsand radon gas
Deaths of Navajominers since 1950s
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Uranium enrichment
• U-235 – Fissionable at 3%– Weapons grade at 90%
• U-238 – More stable
• Plutonium-239 – Created from U-238; highly radioactive
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Radioactivity of plutonium
Life span of least 240,000 years
Last Ice Age glaciation was 10,000 years ago
Neanderthal Man died out30,000 years ago
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• Largest industrial users of water, electricity– Paducah, KY, Oak Ridge, TN, Portsmouth, OH
• Cancers and leukemia among workers– Fires and mass exposure.– Karen Silkwood at Oklahoma fabrication plant.
• Risk of theft of bomb material.
Risks of enrichmentand fuel fabrication
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Nuclear Reactor Process
• 3% enriched Uranium pellets formed into rods, which are formed into bundles
• Bundles submerged in water coolant inside pressure vessel, with control rods.
• Bundles must be SUPERCRITICAL; will
overheat and melt if no control rods. Reaction converts water to steam, which powers steam turbine
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Technology depends on operators
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Other reactor accidents (besides TMI and Chernobyl)
• 1952 Chalk River, Ontario– Partial core meltdown
• 1957 Windscale, England– Graphite reactor fire contaminates 200 square miles.
• 1975 Browns Ferry, Alabama– Plant caught fire
• 1976 Lubmin, East Germany– Near meltdown of reactor core .
• 1999 Tokaimura, Japan– Nuclear fuel plant spewed high levels of radioactive gas
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United States
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Risk of terrorism(new challenge to industry)
9/11 jetpassed nearIndian Point
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Nuclear Reactor Structure
• Reactor’s pressure vessel typically housed in 8” of steel
• 36” concrete shielding
• 45” steel reinforced concrete
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Breeder reactor “Breeds” plutonium as it operates
Uses liquid sodium metal instead of water for coolant– Could explode if in contact with air or water
• 1966 Fermi, Michigan – Partial meltdown nearly causes evacuation of Detroit
• 1973 Shevchenko, Russia– Breeder caught fire and exploded
• Controversial proposals in Europe, U.S.
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Reprocessing
• Separates reusable fuel from waste– Large amounts of radioactivity released
• 1960s West Valley, NY – Radiation leaked into Lake Ontario
• 1970s La Hague, France – Released plutonium plumes into air
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Back end: Radioactive wastes• Low-level wastes in commercial facilities
• Spent fuel in pools or “dry casks” by plants
• Nuclear lab wastes– Hanford wastes leaked radiation into Columbia River
• High-level underground repository – Yucca Mountain in Nevada to 2037– Wolf River Batholith in Wisconsin after 2037?– Risks of cracks in bedrock, water seepage
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Yucca Mountain
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Transportation risks
• Uranium oxide spills
• Fuel rod spills (WI 1981)
• Radioactive waste risks
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“Mobile Chernobyl”to Yucca Mtn.
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Kyshtym waste disaster, 1957
– Explosion at Soviet weapons factory forces evacuation of over 10,000 people in Ural Mts.
– Area size of Rhode Island still uninhabited; thousands of cancers reported
Orphans
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Radioactive Waste Recycling
• Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities by recycling it into household products.
• In 1996, 15,000 tons of metal were received by the Association of Radioactive Metal Recyclers . Much was recycled into products without consumer knowledge.
• Depleted Uranium munitions for military.
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• Nuclear energy has no typical pollutants or greenhouse gases
• Nuclear waste contains high levels of radioactive waste, which are active for hundreds of thousands of years.
• The controversy around nuclear energy stems from all parts of the nuclear chain.
Summary