Nuclear Accident of nuclear Power Plants

1. Fallout from Chernobyl

3. 400 million people exposed in 20 countries

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 3.5 million sick,
one/third of them children
8,000 deaths in 14 years

8. My grandmother, by Luda

9. Death of my life, by Marina

10. Chernobyl is war, by Irena

11. Beauty and the beast, by Helena

12. Nothing escapes radiation, by Irena

13. Chernobyl, our hell, by Eugenia

14. Self-portrait, by Natasha

15. “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

16. Three-Mile Island, PA 1979

18. 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.

19. Plants
near TMI
-lack of chlorophyll
-deformed leaf patterns
-thick, flat, hollow stems
-missing reproductive parts
-abnormally large
TMI dandelion leaf at right

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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

23. “Atoms for Peace”
Program to justify nuclear technology
Proposals for power, canal-building, exports
First commercial power plant, Illinois 1960

24. • 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. States with nuclear power plant(s)

28. 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.

29. 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

32. 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

33. Front end:
Uranium mining and milling

34. Uranium tailings
and radon gas
Deaths of Navajo
miners since 1950s

35. Uranium enrichment
• U-235
– Fissionable at 3%
– Weapons grade at 90%
• U-238
– More stable
• Plutonium-239
– Created from U-238; highly radioactive

36. Radioactivity of plutonium
Life span of least
240,000 years
Last Ice Age glaciation
was 10,000 years ago
Neanderthal Man died out
30,000 years ago

37. • 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 enrichment
and fuel fabrication

39. 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

40. Technology depends on operators

41. 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

43. United States

44. Risk of terrorism
(new challenge to industry)
9/11 jet
passed near
Indian Point

45. Nuclear Reactor Structure
• Reactor’s pressure vessel
typically housed in 8” of steel
• 36” concrete shielding
• 45” steel reinforced concrete

47. 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.

49. 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

50. 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

52. Yucca
Mountain

53. Transportation
risks
• Uranium oxide spills
• Fuel rod spills (WI 1981)
• Radioactive waste risks

54. “Mobile
Chernobyl”
to Yucca Mtn.

55. 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

57. 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.

58. • Nuclear energy has no typical pollutants or
greenhouse gasses
• 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

59. NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Production, Use, Testing, Waste

60. Uranium mining
Began during
Manhattan Project 1940s
Deaths of Navajo, Dene
uranium miners

62. Nuclear weapons production cycle
Spent fuel from civilian energy industry can be used for bombs

64. Military nuclear waste at Hanford, Washington
Leaking tanks contaminated
Columbia River

65. Los Alamos Nuclear Labs, New Mexico
Fires in 2000 endangered
Los Alamos, Hanford

66. Atomic bombing of Japan
220,000 died at
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
280,000 more
exposed to
Radiation
(Hibakusha)

67. Nuclear Club
Original: U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China
Spread since 1970s: Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea
Disarmed in 1990s: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, South Africa

68. Weapons-grade uranium stockpiles

70. Atomic Veterans
and
“Downwinders”
17,000 cancer cases
in the U.S. alone

71. Nuclear fallout from
Nevada Test Site
Atmospheric nuclear
tests halted in 1963;
continued underground
Reassuring government leaflet

72. Strontium-90 in milk

73. U.S. tests in the Pacific
75% increase in cesium in islanders

74. Evacuation of Islanders

75. Soviet tests
in Kazakhstan
Kazakhs protest
Genetic defects
near Semey
(Semipalatinsk)

76. British nuclear
tests in Australia
Effects on
Aborigines

77. French tests in Polynesia
French bombing of
Greenpeace ship in
New Zealand, 1985
Also in Algeria in 1950s

78. Chinese nuclear tests in Xinjiang
In Muslim Uigur minority region after 1964
1996 Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban signed;
but some small tests continue

79. India and
Pakistan
nuclear tests
Indian leader in front
of H-Bomb mural
Pakistani
crowds
celebrate
first test,
1998

81. Military nuclear accidents
• “Broken arrow”
• Lost nuclear weapons: 43+ Soviet, 7 U.S.
– Plane crashes, sub sinkings, silo explosions
– Some scattered radiation
• Lost submarine reactors: 6 Soviet, 2 U.S.

82. Nuclear plants as targets of war
Israel bombs Iraq’s Osirak
reactor construction, 1981.
Iraq launches missile at
Israel’s Dimona nuclear
laboratory, 1991.
U.S. bombs Iraqi
operating reactors, 1991
Reactors as possible
terrorist targets?

84. 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

85. Websites
Military Toxics Project
www.miltoxproj.org
Center for Defense Information
www.cdi.org
Council for a Livable World
www.clw.org
U.S. military environmental agencies
http://aec.army.mil
http://enviro.navy.mil
http://www.af.mil/environment
Gulf War Veterans Resource Links
http://www.spidersmill.com/gwvrl
Chemical Weapons Working Group
www.cwwg.org