Chernobyl And The Future Of US Nuclear Energy
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 4/29/08 @ 8:34 pm - Filed Under National Politics
Note: Our own Mike Sylvester worked as a nuclear operator and it will be interesting to hear his opinion
Today’s JG had an editorial on the nuclear accident in Chernobyl and how that should give pause to those that consider expanding nuclear technology here in the US:
Some leading scientists – and environmentalists – are recommending a resurgence of nuclear power to wean the globe off heavily polluting coal to generate electricity. While policymakers consider those suggestions, Chernobyl serves as a reminder of the consequences of nuclear design, construction and operation that are in any way deficient.
It is certainly true that the Soviet-designed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl was deficient. But it should hardly serve as an example of what might go wrong here in the United States. In fact what happened at Chernobyl is not physically possible under US reactor design. Without boring you with the details the Soviet reactor design was deficient in many, many areas. But probably the most significant is that under US design an increase in temperature (i.e. loss of water) in the reactor would cause the reaction to slow while under Soviet design an increase in temperature would actually speed the reaction up.
In other words, like many Soviet-engineered products, it takes an expert operator to step in and stop the unstable system from reaching some critical point. That too was another problem in the Chernobyl accident - they had untrained and unqualified personnel operating the system. I wrote a paper on the Chernobyl disaster so I could go on and on about the comedy of errors and poor design decisions that led to the disaster but suffice to say that specific accident should have absolutely no bearing on our decision to pursue nuclear technology here in the United States.
There are safety concerns we should consider although most of what gets discussed is irrational fear and propaganda. There’s also storage concerns that need to be discussed. But if the country is serious about energy independence and reducing air pollution then nuclear energy must be part of the equation…
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2 Responses to “Chernobyl And The Future Of US Nuclear Energy”
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What is wrong with the editorial is the assumption that “journalists” have any powers of thought that are worth anyone’s time to read or respond to.
Nuclear power is the safest form of power production in the world; however, the US Government and “einvironmentalists” have ruined the industry.
I could go on about this for days…
I spent eight years working in nuclear power plants (I donot glow in the dark).
Mike Sylvester