The explosion and fire at the Japanese Nuclear Plant in NorthEast of Japan has led to the release of a small nuclear plume above the reactors.The southern winds have caused this radiation to spread in many of the prefectures in Japan and cesium and other radioactivity has been detected in the capital of Tokyo.Note Radiation does not affect the human body in small doses as radiation is present in our everyday lives at well.However the increase in radiation concentration can lead to severe health hazards and in extreme cases even death.It is almost impossible to escape radiation effects unless one has special nuclear,biological warfare protective equipment.Note Radiation in Japan is still at quite mild levels and seems unlikely to cause any major health hazard.Radiation will need to increase about 1000 times from the current level for the situation to become serious as of now
This Nuclear Energy Disaster in the Age of Twitter and Facebook will vehemently increase the opposition to the setting up of big Nuclear Plants.The Radiation Leak and subsequent health hazards will make it impossible for a Nuclear Reactor to be located except in very remote areas like the Sahara Desert.NIMBY protests are going to almost kill the Nuclear Industry in the next decade at least in democracies.The Nuclear Industry will take a long time in establishing its trust amongst the citizens.Without Nuclear Energy,the other major forms of Renewable Energy ,Solar and Wind Energy have to gain.Already Switzerland and Germany are deferring the planning and extension of Nuclear Energy.Other countries are putting safety reviews.Note the costs of environment regulation and nuclear waste disposal are already quite high.This will make new nuclear plants uneconomical as they are already facing huge cost overruns . Ask Areva in Finland and Constellation in the US.
Japan’s Nuclear Disaster took a turn for the worse as another Fire and Blast in the Nuclear Reactor led to Severe Radiation Leak.Japan’s PM warned people within 20 miles of the Plant to evacuate and within 30 miles to remain indoors.There is a high probability of the Nuclear Containment Vessel may get Damaged as Temperatures kept rising with the failure of the Cooling Systems.Radiation Levels at the reactor reached 965.5 micro sievert per hour, later jumping to 8,217 micro sievert at 8:31 p.m. The level would be more than eight times the 1,000 micro sievert limit to which people can be exposed in one year without effect, according to the report.The Wind was blowing south which implies that one of the highest population density cities in the world – Tokyo might feel the affects of Radiation.Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged calm in a national address Tuesday.
The Japanese Nuclear Plant Explosions would have sent shivers down the throats of everyone living near Nuclear Plants.Note Japanese Nuclear Plants are thought to be one of the safest just like the French Nuclear Power Stations.However the Earthquake and the subsequent Tsunamis have thrown the Nuclear Plant’s safety features out of gear.The reactors have already […]
The Tsunami Nuclear Energy Disaster which is unfolding in Japan highlights that Nuclear Energy can cause some very serious damage though the safety of the nuclear reactors are highly touted in the media by the Nuclear Energy Industry.These Nuclear Plants in Japan are quite old but so are most of the Nuclear Energy facilities in the West.Most of these Nuclear Plants are susceptible to serious natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.In case of a nuclear meltdown the radiation from the Nuclear Plants can not only cause more deaths and injuries from natural causes but also make the area around the Nuclear Plant uninhabitable for hundreds of years.India and China are on a major Nuclear Energy Building Spree even though their nuclear plants have faced minor accidents in recent years.With this Nuclear Disaster,the protests in the se countries are set to grow with NIMBY becoming the biggest hurdle.Already protests are being held in Jaitapur in Maharashtra over damage to the ecology,expect the Japan’s nuclear reactor incident to basically kill this Areva-NPCIL plant.Nuclear plants in the US and Europe are already facing huge cost and time overruns.This new problem should cause those projects to also die off.
Wind Power has come under attack in the USA focused around the Cape Wind Project off the eastern shore.The project which was conceived over 10 years ago has not managed to still build the Wind Farm due to countless number of lawsuits filed for myriad reasons most of which are quite groundless.However some of the reasons have some solid facts behind the opposition to Wind Energy.Note Wind Energy unlike other forms of fossil fuel energy should have much less opposition however it is not so.Unlike Coal,Gas and Oil Energy it does not lead to increase in Greenhouse Gas Emissions and contribute to pollution.It does not lead to deaths of hundreds of miners each year nor has the danger of a catastrophic nuclear meltdown leading to death and disability of thousands.It also does not have the drawback of massive ocean pollution leading to an ecological disaster.However there are still protests against building of Wind Power Capacity and this article examines them in details.At the outset let me mention that advantages of Wind Power far outweighs the Disadvantages.