How is nuclear energy dangerous?

Question

we are having a debate about nuclear energy and i need to no why we shouldn't have nuclear energy >:(

please tell me where nuclear energy is dangerous.

Answer 1

if it get hit!!!!!!!by a plane....

Answer 2

Nuclear energy is dangerous in that as long as money is involved there will be those attempting to save a buck by cutting back on safety and materials.

There is also the risk of nuclear material falling into the wrong hands as the amount of material unaccounted for increases. Not to mention the issue of nuclear waste.

Answer 3

1. radiation caused by meltdowns in reactors is very dangerous (example : chernobyl)

2. Possibility of making nuclear weapons from nuclear fuel

Answer 4

Overall, we actually SHOULD have nuclear energy, but it also needs to have a lot of close control and oversight to ensure that the fission products produced in the fuel fission process, which are highly radioactive, are not released to the environment as a result of some kind of equipment and/or operator failure.

Most nuclear plant problems (about 80%) are caused by the people operating and maintaining the plants.  Loss of coolant flow to the reactor core heat-transfer surfaces can cause the metallic fuel to heat up and melt even after the reactor has been shutdown during a "scram" of the control rods.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a couple of industry organizations monitor what goes on at each nuclear plant in the US.  The IAEA coordinates international nuclear safety.  Also, of course, each nuclear utility company has a vested interest in ensuring safety systems are maintained such that they will operate properly when needed.

So, to answer your question, since I have been on a number of safety inspection teams at 14 different commercial nuclear plants, the "reason" nuclear energy is dangerous has to do with the attitudes of the operators, the maintainers, and the managers.  It is really difficult to keep about 200 plant systems operating reliably, so there are several human factors involved that go beyond design human factors.

When a nuclear power plant (a "base load" source of electrical power generation) is not on line making electricity, the nuclear utility can easily lose about half a million dollars each day in revenues.  Thus, some managers are highly motivated to get the plant back on line, especially at the end of a long outage when hundreds of different maintenance projects have to be completed.  They sometimes ask the maintenance people to hurry up or cut corners, or they simply postpone preventive and corrective maintenance that they "hope" won't be a problem while the plant operates for the next 18 to 24 months.  They even may try to justify startup by saying that they will do some of the work "online" which means that they have to take some equipment out of service at the time that it might actually be needed.

There are "redundant trains" of systems that perform the safety functions reliably.  If one train of components fails, the second train is expected to be adequate for the situation.

So, to the extent that nuclear power plants can be dangerous, it is often the financial issues that get in the way of safe operations and complete maintenance.  One reason why the US Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program is so safe is simply that they seldom startup with any equipment in any system not in good order.  At a commercial plant, there may be hundreds of component maintenance items that have not been done at the point of reactor startup.  Again, most of those matters are dealt with based on financial considerations, and the utility has to justify to the NRC that safety is still adequate.  In the favor of the commercial utilities, they tend to have many more plant systems and safety systems since they have a lot of room to add additional equipment.

Finally, it is increasingly recognized that "safety culture" is important at a nuclear plant so that the workers and managers all have a "safety conscious" working environment that puts safety first.  Moreover, I have found that most critics of the nuclear industry (if not all of them) have very little first-hand knowledge of the level of effort that goes into ensuring the safety of a nuclear plant and thus the people around it.  

The same is true of other types of "nuclear facilities" such as the ones that work on nuclear weapons and their radioactive components.  I have observed "anti-nukes" who have been allowed to be members of inspection teams, but they burned out and left the team after a day or two.  Also, you will know when a nuclear plant has a safety problem since the workers will not work there, out of self preservation!  I have never seen that myself, but I suppose it might have happened.

It's the people who make things unsafe, and it's not just nuclear energy that might be unsafe.  It is often said that you take more risk each day driving a car than you get from living next to a nuclear power plant your entire life.  It is just that it is easy to convince you otherwise if you don't know anything about the details.

Answer 5

It's not very dangerous, it's actually one of the safest forms of mass power. Three Mile Island a U.S. disaster claimed no lives due to meltdown or fallout. The only reason why Chernobyl had such a devastating effect was because Russia was not able to fully and safely support a nuclear power program. You just can't half @ss it and expect it all to work. Go Isotopes!

Answer 6

Nuclear energy is not dangerous. Power plants are designed to be able to handle the impact of an aircraft crash (yes, even before 9/11). Engineers are constantly working on ways to improve safety, and efficiency. Please check the new reactor designs to see the new safety features of nuclear power plants.

Answer 7

If mishandled it could be extremely dangerous: just think of the possible consequences if a substantial load of radioactive matter ends up in wrong hands ! On the other hand if handled properly it is said and believed to be one of the cleanest and most reliable sources of energy...

The truth is: if we are to deal with nuclear devices, we need to have properly trained personnel and they should be supervised by scientists...Very complicated on an altogether scale and this is the point you should make !

Answer 8

Nuclear energy is dangerous in the same

way ALL electric power is dangerous.

Which is really why A.I. Computers, robots,  lasers,

Solar Power, and Rockets for built the idiots.

Since none of them really care where the

electricity comes from:

Coal, gas, nuclear, or whatever.