I've just been reading this excellent article below from our weekly paper the socialist which you can read more articles like this online at www.socialistparty.org.uk
After the tsunami hit on the reactors at Fukushima power plant, the Japanese government is raising the nuclear alert level to seven, on a par with the horrors of Chernobyl a quarter of a century ago. Before that, in scenes reminiscent of BP's desperate attempts to stem last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, emergency workers took emergency measures.
They resorted to pouring sawdust, absorbent polymers and newspapers into a pit connected to the damaged nuclear reactor in a desperate attempt to stop leaking radioactive water pouring into the ocean.
Tragically the bodies of two workers have been recovered from the site, yet as workers from towns in the shadow of the plant face lack of food, water and shelter and the invisible threat of radiation, the world has been split on the issue of nuclear power.
In Germany mass protests have led chancellor Merkel to close seven of the country's oldest reactors and announce a freeze on the development of future power stations. But in the UK the Con-Dems' energy bill is due to underwrite nuclear power stations with yet more public money. And liberal environmentalist George Monbiot has said: "As a result of the disaster at Fukushima, I am no longer nuclear-neutral. I now support the technology."
Monbiot believes that renewable energy is not a realistic alternative under capitalism. Coal, Monbiot argues, is "100 times worse" for the environment and industrial health than nuclear power.
If the world's energy is left to the anarchy of the profit-driven free market, then Monbiot may be right. Profits from carbon and nuclear fuels mean there has been relatively minimal investment in renewable energy. Yet why should the issue of energy, fundamental to modern society yet potentially disastrous for the environment, be entrusted to a system which puts millionaires' profits before the needs of the millions
Consider Tepco, the Tokyo Electric Power Company that owns Fukushima nuclear plant. It holds the monopoly over power to Tokyo and eight of Japan's prefectures. Tepco, the world's fourth largest power company, has a deplorable record of placing short term profits before safety.
In 2002 it was revealed that Tepco had forged safety inspection reports for its nuclear plants while, claims CNN, the seismologist Yukinobu Okamura warned Tepco safety executives that the ageing Fukushima plant was vulnerable to damage from a tsunami.
The solution is to reject the free market in favour of a socialist plan for energy as part of a wider, democratically planned economy. The nationalisation of the energy giants, under democratic workers' control, would allow for a massive investment in renewable energy.
We should reject the technology which has threatened and failed communities from Chernobyl to Three Mile Island. We should also reject the mismanagement of our energy supply, inherent under capitalism, in favour of a socialist alternative which fulfils the needs of both our society and the environment.
Nationalise Tepco and the giant energy corporations under democratic workers' control and management.
For huge investment in renewable energy, based on needs not profit.
For a socialist plan for energy as part of a wider democratically planned economy.
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Showing posts with label Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Why i am against nuclear energy
This post is not a opputunistic or shallow post as someone on twitter claimed me to be for highliting the dangers of nuclear energy as we wittness the meltdown in Japan of more and more of their nuclear power plants.
Radiation from Japan's quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached harmful levels, the government says.
The warning comes after the plant was rocked by a third blast which appears to have damaged one of the reactors' containment systems for the first time.
If it is breached, there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks.
Officials have extended the danger zone, warning residents within 30km (18 miles) to evacuate or stay indoors.
It appears that for the first time, the containment system around one of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors has been breached.
Officials have referred to a possible crack in the suppression chamber of reactor 2 - a large doughnut-shaped structure below the reactor housing. That would allow steam, containing radioactive substances, to escape continuously.
This is the most likely source of the high radioactivity readings seen near the site. Another possible source is the fire in reactor 4 building - believed to have started when a pool storing old fuel rods dried up.
The readings at the site rose beyond safe limits - 400 millisieverts per hour (mSv/hr), when the average person's exposure is 3mSv in a year.
A key question is whether this is just a transient spike, which might be expected if number 2 is the source, or whether the high levels are sustained.
In the meantime, the key task for workers at the plant remains to get enough water into the reactors - and, now, into the spent fuel pools - with the poor resources at their disposal.
Reactor breach worsens prospects
The crisis has been prompted by last Friday's 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan.
On Tuesday morning, reactor 2 became the third to explode in four days at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
A fire also briefly broke out at the plant's reactor 4, and is believed to have caused radioactive leaks.
Reactor 4 had been shut down before the quake for maintenance, but its spent nuclear fuel rods are still stored on the site.
Radiation levels in the Japanese capital - 250km (155 miles) away - were reported to be higher than normal, but officials said there were no health dangers.
Tokyo residents have been stocking up on supplies, with some stores selling out of items such as food, water, face masks and candles.
Housewife Mariko Kawase, 34, told AFP news agency: "I am shopping now because we may not be able to go out due to the radiation."
I myself am anti nuclear and have never seen it as a safe and long lasting renewable energy source. If there was not such more capitalist greed from the energy providers in the world we cold invest a lot more money into greener safera nd altogether safer energies.
In China they plan to build 300 more nuclear power plants in the next 10 years and with the UK's previous and present government fully signed up for this nuclear program which i find very worrying indeed.
I think we should be looking for alternative sources of energy as best we can. There is still no proven safe way of disposing nuclear waste that we know of yet. So far they have been burrying it in the ground which deams the area dead for years. This cannot be good for the planet and we must look again at other alternative forms of energies .
I have found a list of nuclear disasters over the years and highlights the actual dangers of the use of nuclear.
Serious radiation accidents include:
29 September 1957 – Mayak nuclear waste storage tank explosion at Chelyabinsk. Two hundred plus fatalities, believed to be a conservative estimate; 270,000 people were exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Over thirty small communities had been removed from Soviet maps between 1958 and 1991.[20] (INES level 6).[19]
July 4, 1961 – Soviet submarine K-19 accident. Eight fatalities and more than 30 people were over-exposed to radiation.[6]
1962 – Radiation accident in Mexico City, four fatalities.
1979 - Church Rock uranium mill spill in New Mexico, USA.
March 1984 – Radiation accident in Morocco, eight fatalities.[7]
August 10, 1985 – Soviet submarine K-431 accident. Ten fatalities and 49 other people suffered radiation injuries.[21]
September 13, 1987 – Goiania accident. Four fatalities and 249 other people received serious radiation contamination.[8]
December 1990 – Radiotherapy accident in Zaragoza. Eleven fatalities and 27 other patients were injured.[6]
6 April 1993 - accident at the Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex, when a tank exploded while being cleaned with nitric acid. The explosion released a cloud of radioactive gas. (INES level 4).[19]
1996 – Radiotherapy accident in Costa Rica. Thirteen fatalities and 114 other patients received an overdose of radiation.[5]
February 2000 - Three deaths and ten injuries resulted in Samut Prakarn when a radiation-therapy unit was dismantled.[9]
April 2010 - Mayapuri radiological accident, India, one fatality.
Of course the most famous and well known nuclear disaster occured in Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and it is the only one classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator components of the reactor to air, causing them to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated, and over 336,000 people were resettled. According to official post-Soviet dataabout 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.
The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.[3]
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. Fifty deaths, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers, are directly attributed to the accident. Estimates of the total number of deaths attributable to the accident vary enormously. Despite the accident, Ukraine continued to operate the remaining reactors at Chernobyl for many years. The last reactor at the site was closed down in 2000, 14 years after the accident.
So i do hope what is currently happening in Japan doesnt lead to another disaster on this scale like in Chernobyl
I think we should make people aware of the dangers nuclear poses and try and turn our governments against the ideaa nd look more towards greener energies even if it cost them more. It would be worth it if it meant us having a greener planet.
Radiation from Japan's quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached harmful levels, the government says.
The warning comes after the plant was rocked by a third blast which appears to have damaged one of the reactors' containment systems for the first time.
If it is breached, there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks.
Officials have extended the danger zone, warning residents within 30km (18 miles) to evacuate or stay indoors.
It appears that for the first time, the containment system around one of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors has been breached.
Officials have referred to a possible crack in the suppression chamber of reactor 2 - a large doughnut-shaped structure below the reactor housing. That would allow steam, containing radioactive substances, to escape continuously.
This is the most likely source of the high radioactivity readings seen near the site. Another possible source is the fire in reactor 4 building - believed to have started when a pool storing old fuel rods dried up.
The readings at the site rose beyond safe limits - 400 millisieverts per hour (mSv/hr), when the average person's exposure is 3mSv in a year.
A key question is whether this is just a transient spike, which might be expected if number 2 is the source, or whether the high levels are sustained.
In the meantime, the key task for workers at the plant remains to get enough water into the reactors - and, now, into the spent fuel pools - with the poor resources at their disposal.
Reactor breach worsens prospects
The crisis has been prompted by last Friday's 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan.
On Tuesday morning, reactor 2 became the third to explode in four days at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
A fire also briefly broke out at the plant's reactor 4, and is believed to have caused radioactive leaks.
Reactor 4 had been shut down before the quake for maintenance, but its spent nuclear fuel rods are still stored on the site.
Radiation levels in the Japanese capital - 250km (155 miles) away - were reported to be higher than normal, but officials said there were no health dangers.
Tokyo residents have been stocking up on supplies, with some stores selling out of items such as food, water, face masks and candles.
Housewife Mariko Kawase, 34, told AFP news agency: "I am shopping now because we may not be able to go out due to the radiation."
I myself am anti nuclear and have never seen it as a safe and long lasting renewable energy source. If there was not such more capitalist greed from the energy providers in the world we cold invest a lot more money into greener safera nd altogether safer energies.
In China they plan to build 300 more nuclear power plants in the next 10 years and with the UK's previous and present government fully signed up for this nuclear program which i find very worrying indeed.
I think we should be looking for alternative sources of energy as best we can. There is still no proven safe way of disposing nuclear waste that we know of yet. So far they have been burrying it in the ground which deams the area dead for years. This cannot be good for the planet and we must look again at other alternative forms of energies .
I have found a list of nuclear disasters over the years and highlights the actual dangers of the use of nuclear.
Serious radiation accidents include:
29 September 1957 – Mayak nuclear waste storage tank explosion at Chelyabinsk. Two hundred plus fatalities, believed to be a conservative estimate; 270,000 people were exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Over thirty small communities had been removed from Soviet maps between 1958 and 1991.[20] (INES level 6).[19]
July 4, 1961 – Soviet submarine K-19 accident. Eight fatalities and more than 30 people were over-exposed to radiation.[6]
1962 – Radiation accident in Mexico City, four fatalities.
1979 - Church Rock uranium mill spill in New Mexico, USA.
March 1984 – Radiation accident in Morocco, eight fatalities.[7]
August 10, 1985 – Soviet submarine K-431 accident. Ten fatalities and 49 other people suffered radiation injuries.[21]
September 13, 1987 – Goiania accident. Four fatalities and 249 other people received serious radiation contamination.[8]
December 1990 – Radiotherapy accident in Zaragoza. Eleven fatalities and 27 other patients were injured.[6]
6 April 1993 - accident at the Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex, when a tank exploded while being cleaned with nitric acid. The explosion released a cloud of radioactive gas. (INES level 4).[19]
1996 – Radiotherapy accident in Costa Rica. Thirteen fatalities and 114 other patients received an overdose of radiation.[5]
February 2000 - Three deaths and ten injuries resulted in Samut Prakarn when a radiation-therapy unit was dismantled.[9]
April 2010 - Mayapuri radiological accident, India, one fatality.
Of course the most famous and well known nuclear disaster occured in Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and it is the only one classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator components of the reactor to air, causing them to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated, and over 336,000 people were resettled. According to official post-Soviet dataabout 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.
The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.[3]
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. Fifty deaths, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers, are directly attributed to the accident. Estimates of the total number of deaths attributable to the accident vary enormously. Despite the accident, Ukraine continued to operate the remaining reactors at Chernobyl for many years. The last reactor at the site was closed down in 2000, 14 years after the accident.
So i do hope what is currently happening in Japan doesnt lead to another disaster on this scale like in Chernobyl
I think we should make people aware of the dangers nuclear poses and try and turn our governments against the ideaa nd look more towards greener energies even if it cost them more. It would be worth it if it meant us having a greener planet.
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