A Journey of Peace, Justice, Culture, and Environment
Several important recent events remind us how globally dangerous nuclear energy is and why it should never be an alternative to other forms of noncarbon-based energy and other forms of warfare. Last week the world recognized the 77th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in the closing days of World War II. We can still visualize the horrors unleased on the citizens of those cities, killing between 129,000 and 226,000 people, mostly civilians, directly from the bombings or from radiation poisoning. The long-term health effects are still unfolding. Also, this week we have witnessed the occupation of and damage to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, located in southeastern Ukraine, as Ukraine and its allies fight off the unprovoked invasion by Russia. It is unclear what the consequences will be if additional bombing occurs in the vicinity of this, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and one of the 10 largest plants in the world. A release of radioactive material would be catastrophic.
And, we are reminded of three nuclear power plant disasters that resulted in the release of radioactive material. The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania had a partial meltdown in 1979 due to mechanical and operational failures. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located in northern Ukraine, had a meltdown, explosions, and extensive release of radioactive material in 1986 as a result of the operation and design failures. This plant is currently threatened by the ongoing war in Ukraine, once again demonstrating the unfortunate interface of war and vulnerable nuclear power. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was damaged in 2011 as a result of the Tohoku earthquake, the largest earthquake recorded in Japan. The subsequent tsunami produced waves large enough to top the seawall and disable the power plant resulting in three meltdowns, explosions, and the release of radioactive material.
Collectively and to date, these power plant disasters have cost tens of billions of dollars to clean up or contain, caused untold environmental damage not fully assessed or understood, and in some cases caused the death or injury of many workers and residents. There are 440 operating nuclear power plants in 33 countries, each with the potential for disastrous meltdown and released contamination. There are an additional 220 research reactors in at least 50 countries that also produce medical and industrial material and approximately 55 reactors under construction in 15 countries. The construction and operation of these plants are usually a multi-country effort from the source, transportation, and enrichment of the uranium ore to the design, construction, and operation of the nuclear reactor and power plant. The complex and multi-year effort has the potential for many missteps or accidents. Most of the plants are adjacent to bodies of water used to cool the reactors, causing thermal impacts to aquatic systems and creating an increased potential for radioactive contamination. For example, radioactive material released from the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plan was detected across the Pacific Ocean on the coast of North America. The recent US approval to make a prototype mobile microreactor in Idaho for use at military bases, and by countries with fewer power demands, expand the types of locations feasible for power plants and the threat of accidental radioactive releases from mechanical, operational, and design failures, and intentional releases from attacks on military bases and power plants by terrorists or during wars. The situation is an increasingly global problem.
Furthermore, we are reminded of the dangers of uranium in other war-related products. For example, nuclear-powered warships such as submarines (nine nuclear-powered submarines have sunk: five Soviet, two Russian, and two US), have experienced mechanical and operational failures, or intentional scuttling, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives and unrecovered nuclear material. Although mostly submarines are propelled by nuclear power, an estimated 160 ships, including some aircraft carriers, use reactors as their source of energy, traveling the oceans of the world. At least one diesel-powered submarine, however, armed with nuclear ballistic missiles, also has sunk, which brings to mind the thousands of aging atomic bombs on ballistic missiles in aging silos in the US, old Soviet-bloc nations, and elsewhere in the world. The nine nuclear weapon-capable nations include the US, Russia and its allies, the UK, France, Israel, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea, with a total arsenal of approximately 13,000 weapons, mostly owned by the US and Russia, with the capability of destroying the living planet as we know it. The potential for additional submarine tragedies and ballistic missile disasters (intentional and accidental) lingers well into the future. Waging peace throughout the world, and not preparing for and waging war, is ultimately more prudent for a safe and sane future. War is never the answer, especially nuclear war.
Lesser known, understood, or under-reported concerns include impacts from radiotherapy incidents, of which there are several examples in the world. The potential of “dirty bombs” made from radiotherapy materials and waste and released by terrorists, especially in dense urban areas, lingers as a modern, dystopian threat in many metropolitan areas. And, the use of depleted uranium in high-density penetrating munitions and in hardened armor for military vehicles during more recent wars such as the Persian Gulf War and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, has raised many environmental and health concerns, including potential links to “Gulf War Syndrome” among personnel and civilians exposed to contaminated soil and dust from munitions and damaged armored-vehicles. We also cannot forget the global arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, small enough to be launched from hand-held artillery, vehicles, small missiles, and other delivery systems including land mines, depth charges, and torpedoes. Today, there are still possibly thousands of functional tactical nuclear weapons following the disarming of many that occurred after the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western allies. The power of some of these tactical weapons far exceeds the power of the two bombs dropped on Japan. Even now, there is a concern that Russia, the country with the majority of these weapons, may be contemplating their use to enhance its invasion of Ukraine. Ignoring or disregarding the dangers of radioactive materials and the potentially harmful consequences of their use is no less alarming today, and perhaps even more so than during the early days of experimentation. We now know enough of the damaging consequences to warrant abandonment of these dangerous pursuits. Ignoring the consequences will result in more catastrophic disasters.
But these obvious, direct, and indirect impacts from war or mechanical, design, and operational failures, as well as from natural disasters and intentional discarding of equipment or ships, do not tell the whole story of the dangers of nuclear energy and radioactive materials, whether in the form of weapons, power plants, or medicinal therapies. Often overlooked, hidden, or ignored are environmental and health impacts (including a variety of cancers and genetic mutations resulting in birth defects) or potential impacts from other aspects of the process, including impacts from the mining of uranium; the testing of nuclear weapons including down-wind effects (e.g., from the Nevada National Security Site, i.e., the Nevada Test Site) and off-shore marine effects (e.g., Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands); the transportation of radioactive materials on public roads and railways; and the storage of nuclear waste from spent fuel rods and solidified high-level radioactive waste. In the Navajo Nation in Arizona, for example, over 1200 abandoned uranium mines and additional mine waste areas have been identified with radioactive contamination and virtually no containment efforts. The increasing rates of cancers among the residents may be attributed to air-borne and water-borne contamination from these sites. The majority of the world’s uranium ore is mined in Kazakhstan, Namibia, and Canada, followed by a number of other countries. Each country has issues regarding radiative waste and disposal. Today, the US imports most of the uranium it uses, contributing to long-distance transportation concerns.
The transporting of radioactive waste within the US, as proposed for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository near Las Vegas, Nevada, also is problematic on many levels. The residents of Nevada should not be forced to maintain the nation’s nuclear waste; and likewise, the Idaho National Laboratory Site should not have received waste from the Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania and the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, Colorado, even if the lease revenue produced for storage was appealing. All regions choosing to be the producers of nuclear waste should house the waste nearby or not produce it, thereby eliminating the burden placed on other communities and eliminating the need to transport the material long distances on the public transportation corridors through towns and cities vulnerable to accidents, terrorism, and natural disasters. If national, regional, local, or private entities can’t manage their radioactive waste safely, they should not be permitted to produce it.
We have littered the planet with a multitude of contaminated sites, radioactive power plants, military installations, ships, missile silos, weapons, and storage facilities that may never be thoroughly maintained, dismantled, or cleaned up. The collective, global impacts of these many sources of radiation will have long-lasting, seemingly never-ending effects. The half-lives of all isotypes of uranium are extremely long, measured in billions, millions, and hundreds of thousands of years, after which only half of the uranium will have decomposed to radium, another dangerous, radioactive material. As we produce more radioactive waste, the need to find ways to store it becomes quite burdensome and difficult to resolve. Our legacy for future generations is already disturbing. We must act locally and globally to prevent further contamination, accidents, and wars that likely will have unfathomable consequences. And, we must dismantle, clean up, and contain all nuclear arsenals, power plants, and contaminated sites to minimize future risks to our health, the health of future generations, and the health of the ecosystems of the planet upon which humanity depends. There are far safer alternatives starting with world peace and the awakening of a more harmonious and sustainable relationship with nature, which precludes the production and use of enriched uranium and the nuclear power and instruments of war it enables.
Selected References:
https://ag.nv.gov/Hot_Topics/Issue/Yucca/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_Atoll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_nuclear_weapon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium
https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/history-buried-waste-idaho-national-laboratory-site
