Toxic Isotopes and Tsunamis: A Report On Nuclear Energy

     On March 11^th, 2011, a massive 9.0 earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean, not far from the coasts of Northeastern Japan. This sparked a giant tsunami that headed straight to Japan and the 40 year old nuclear power plant producing energy there. The earthquake/tsunami combo spawned countless disasters and blackouts all over the north, sending up tsunami warnings to countries around the Pacific, from Hawaii to California. The plant, Fukushima No. 1 (also Fukushima Daiichii) suffered blows to its central cooling system from the tsunami and not long after several explosions occurred. So far, four nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichii power plant have exploded or breached, and are reported to be leaching high levels of radiation. The Prime Minister, Naoko Kan, is urging all civilians within 20 miles of the plant to go indoors, turn off ventilators, and not to leave for fear of radiation sickness.
The nuclear plant in Japan had been very vulnerable before the earthquake to natural disasters, and since the first explosion had begun to emit extremely dangerous radioactive isotopes.

     In February 2003, a total of 441 nuclear power plants were reported to be in operation around the world, and 103 of these power plants exist just in the United States. Nuclear power plants first came into the picture in 1951; the United States government had been doing research in nuclear weapons since before World War II, and only afterward encouraged development in nuclear energy. The nuclear energy production process occurs when uranium-235 particles (also U-235) are split in a process called fission, and the heat generated from fission creates so-called “green energy”. These nuclear power plants are powered first by burning coal or oil, then water in boilers are heated to create enough power for proper fission.

     Are there any adverse health/environmental affects due to nuclear power plants and the waste they produce? The answer is yes, and there's a lot about nuclear power that's being left unsaid. The leftover waste created by nuclear plants is plutonium, a highly dangerous chemical that was used in making the Nagasaki bomb. It only takes 18 pounds of plutonium to make a bomb similar to this; given the fact that 310 tons of plutonium was produced from nuclear plants in the year 2000, this waste could encourage terrorist attacks at the least. The average nuclear reactor can emit 20-30 tons of radioactive waste per year. Far from being environmentally friendly, this radioactive waste cannot be degraded by the environment or successfully dumped into oceans without poisoning all of the fish; in some cases it can take hundreds of thousands of years for one pound of plutonium to naturally degrade into the environment. Plutonium and other radioactive substances leaching into the air and ground from nuclear plants has been proven to cause cancer, birth defects, damage to internal organs, and other illnesses in humans. The mining of uranium to create nuclear energy, and the plutonium created as a result, produces radioactive isotopes that can seep into the environment very easily. These isotopes and the mining process itself adversely affects everyone, from poisoning our groundwater to causing cancer and other life threatening diseases.

     The risk of accidents at nuclear power plants is alarmingly high. In 1986, in Russia, the Chernobyl power plant exploded. Thirty people were killed instantly, and 209 people had be treated for severe radiation poisoning. It was the world's worst nuclear accident; according to a study done by the World Health Organization years after, even a faraway place like Scotland had 10,000 times the normal radiation level. The economic disadvantage and stock market drop for the Soviet Union was the worst in fifty years. According to a scientific study by Subcommittee of Oversight and Investigations, an accident or explosion at a US nuclear power plant could kill more people than an atomic bomb.

     Like the Japan earthquake and the resulting disastrous nuclear plant meltdowns, these incidents could have happened at any nuclear plant, whether the cause be a natural disaster or a man-made mistake. Because nuclear waste “recycling” or reproducing is illegal in the US, the waste is usually dumped at specific sites and left to sit and -hopefully- degrade. The best course of action now, to stop the waste from poisoning the environment and its creatures even more, would be to cease all nuclear energy production and seek out alternative energies. There are greener, alternative sources of energy to be sought out. Currently 20% of the world's total electricity is from nuclear energy, and that could be changed if the governments put more money into alternative energies. Geothermal power is renewable and created by harnessing heat from deep under the earth to produce energy. The tides can be used to turn wind turbines and create renewable energy using wind. Bio-energy is also a viable alternative; plant matter and animal waste can be heated and used as fuel for energy/electricity production.

     Though today there is much to be done and changed in the ways we produce energy, the last thing one would want to do is give up hope for renewable energy sources. Petition to your local representatives and government for better safety regulations in nuclear power plants, and pursue action to be taken in renewable clean energy!