We are all paying a high price for nuclear energy

First published Tuesday 28 April 2015 in Letters

I cannot say that nuclear warheads lurking in the murky depths off Scotland make me feel any safer at night. As the saying goes “no nukes is good nukes”.
Is nuclear power ever a good thing?
According to the global warming author Mark Lynas, nuclear power is safe and low carbon to boot. He even went to Chernobyl to show how safe nuclear is. Lynas said that only a handful of fatalities were caused by the nuclear accident.
However a recent study found that nuclear energy has a very high carbon footprint.
Furthermore the deaths from radiation-induced cancers may take years to materialise and even affect future third generations via mutations.
I was shocked to learn that most of the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s budget is being spent on cleaning up nuclear waste at Sellafield. The National Audit Office found the nuclear clean-up is costing some £53bn.
SUSAN THOMAS Magdalen Road Oxford

Comments (2)

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11:22pm Wed 29 Apr 15

CATEGORYSEMANTICS says...

CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!: Naïve: Hansen-Somerville(SI
O)-…-APS.ORG-EPRI.
ORG-NEI.ORG-NRC.GOV-
DOE.GOV as A/THE claimed “panacea” for mitigation of CO2-exacerbated/ driven global-warming climate-change Siegel carbides solid-state “physics”/ “chemistry” FIRST-EVER EXPERIMENTAL NANO-“physics”/�
��chemistry”] Siegel , following: (Alvin)Weinberg(ORNL
/ANS)-(Sidney)Siegel
(ORNL/ANS)-Loretto-H
argraves-Savage-West
wood-Seitz-Overhause
r-… FIRST EXPERIMENTAL DISCOVERY of giant-magnetoresista
nce(G-GMR) identifIED/IES GENERIC ENDEMIC EXTANT domination of old/new (so mis-called)“supera
lloys'': nuclear-reactors/spe
nt-fuel-casks/refine
ries/jet/ missile/rocket-engin
es/hospital-autoclav
es/… in austenitic/FCC Fe-based(stain”les
s”-steels) and Ni-based (so mis-called) "super"alloys (182/82; hastelloy-X, 600, 304/304L-stainless-s
teels, ANY/ALL-other: hastalloys, udimets, renes,...,690(San Onofre PWRs (“SONGS”) Mitsubishi failed (2013) new steam-generators!!!-
leading to complete “SONGS” shutdown!!!) GENERIC ENDEMIC EXTANT detrimental (synonyms!!!): THERMAL: (THE!!!)Wigner's-dis
ease(WD; physics-term) /Ostwald-r
ipening(chemistry-te
rm)/spinodal-decompo
sition (statistical-mechani
cs/physics-term)/THE
RMAL-leading-to-MECH
ANICAL (TLTM)-IN-stability (nuclear-engineering term)/OVERageing-EMB
RITTLEMENT(metallurg
y-term)/ “sensitization”(
marketing/sales-term
; DECIDEDLY NOT sitting around a campfire singing “Kumbaya”(aka “STUCK-DREK”(auf Deutsch oder Yiddish)). Carbides solid-state chemistry/statistica
l-mechanics/physics domination of ESPECIALLY OLD/AGED/even new: nuclear-reactors/spe
nt-fuel-casks(exampl
e: GE/Westinghouse/DOE Hanford)/ refineries/jet/missi
le/rocket-engines is austenitic/ FCC Ni/Fe-based (so miscalled) "super"alloys(182/82
; hastelloy-X, 600, 304/ 304L(low-carbon to mitigate Wigner’s-disease(W
D)-stainless-steels, ..., 690(“SONGS”)!!!) GENERIC ENDEMIC EXTANT detrimental Wigner's-disease(WD)
: Mayo