Tapestry Press
Nuclear Power is Not the Answer
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Tapestry Press
Nuclear Power is Not the Answer
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Nuclear Power is Not the Answer by Helen Caldicott. Published in 2006 by The New Press. 221p. Dr. Helen Caldicott, a physician, has been an opponent of nuclear weapons for more than 30 years. Thus she has a thorough understanding of the issues surrounding both the peaceful and defense uses of nuclear energy. The title refers to the claim that nuclear power will help prevent global warming. She argues forcefully that contrary to prevailing opinion, nuclear power produces greenhouse gases. Helen cites green house gases produced in mining, refining, making fuel cells, building the concrete structures of the plant and then the process of storing wastes and clean-up. These energy costs, she argues, exceed the actual energy produced by the operation of the plant. Essentially generating nuclear power is an expensive way to boil water. Writing in an easy to understand style, she describes the processes included. First the richest ore will be exhausted in about 5 years. The less uranium in the ore, the more energy it requires to extract. After mining and milling, the uranium must be converted to uranium hexaflouride. That is then enriched and formed into solid fuel pellets, the size of a cigarette filter. The pellets are packed to form fuel rods ½ inch wide and 12 feet long. Fifty thousand fuel rods provide fuel for a typical 1,000 megawatt reactor. This equals about 100 tons of uranium. The operation of the fission process in the reactor intensifies the radioactivity of the fuel 1 billion times. There are now 103 nuclear power plants located at 65 sites in the US, most of them aged and vulnerable. Helen documents the accidents that have occurred in nuclear power plants. In March 1979, the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania melted down. The reactor core of 100 tons of uranium overheated and melted. The actual amounts of various radioactive elements released remains unknown. The estimates of radioactive iodine released were judged inaccurate by experts. 172,000 cubic feet of high-level radioactive water was released without permission into the Susquehanna River. Hundreds of local people reported red skin rashes, bleeding from the nose, nausea, diarrhea, hair loss, etc., the symptoms of acute radiation sickness. The wastes generated by nuclear fuel production and power plant operation put surrounding communities at risk. Waste containment is a ticking time bomb. The costs of these processes and decommissioning old nuclear power plants rises as we delay addressing them. Review written December 14, 2010
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