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AT: Nuclear Winter – Meltdowns
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AT: Nuclear Winter – MeltdownsNo meltdown impactTiffany Kaiser 11 {Writer for Daily Tech, citing Nuclear Regulatory Commission Report. 8-2-2011. "NRC: Far Fewer People Would Die in a U.S. Nuclear Meltdown Than Previously Thought," http://www.dailytech.com/NRC+Far+Fewer+People+Would+Die+in+a+US+Nuclear+Meltdown+Than+Previously+Thought/article22330.htm}//JM The nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan has caused a nuclear frenzy where leaders around the world are questioning the safety of their plants. For instance, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for global nuclear review after visiting Japan, and U.S. senators demanded that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) repeat an expensive inspection of the country's nuclear power. But now, the NRC is close to completing a large nuclear study that may ease a few worried minds. The NRC has been working with Sandia National Laboratories (a Department of Energy lab) on a study that revises previous projections of how quickly and how much cesium 137, which is a radioactive material made when uranium is split, could release from a plant after a nuclear core meltdown. The NRC has been working on the study for six years, and it will not be completely finished until next spring. But the nuclear watchdog group, Union of Concerned Scientists, has obtained an early copy of the report through a Freedom of Information Act request. The new study is based on how much and how quickly cesium 137 could escape an American nuclear plant if a total blackout were to occur. A total blackout means complete loss of power from the grid, and backup diesel generators and batteries have failed as well. This leads to a nuclear meltdown. NRC scientists said that a total blackout would be rare at an American plant, but it is better to be safe than sorry. In addition, the NRC wanted to update previous projections related to cesium 137. The NRC focused on two different types of reactors in the U.S.: the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, which has boiling-water reactors like Fukushima Daiichi, and the Surry Power Station in Virginia, which has pressurized-water reactors. Over 100 different plants were studied. Through computer models and engineering analyses, the NRC has concluded that the meltdown of a typical American reactor would lead to "far fewer deaths" than previously thought. According to the new study, only 1 to 2 percent of a reactor core's cesium 137 could escape during a total blackout. Previous NRC estimates concluded that 60 percent of the cesium inventory could escape. In addition, the new study found that one person in every 4,348 within a 10-mile radius of a nuclear meltdown would develop a "latent cancer" from radiation exposure. In previous estimates, it was one person in every 167. The NRC said that large releases of radioactive material would not be "immediate," meaning that people within a 10-mile radius would have plenty of time to evacuate the premises. It concluded that the chance of death from acute radiation exposure within a 10-mile radius would be near zero, but some would be exposed to high enough doses to experience fatal cancers decades later. "Accidents progress more slowly, in some cases much more slowly, than previously assumed," said Charles G. Tinkler, a senior adviser for research on severe accidents and an author of the study. "Releases are smaller, and in some cases much smaller, of certain key radioactive materials." Download 0.83 Mb. Share with your friends:
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