- •Fallout from Chernobyl
- •400 million people exposed in 20 countries
- •Chernobyl’s political fallout
- •Radiation and Health
- •8,000 deaths in 14 years
- •My grandmother, by Luda
- •Death of my life, by Marina
- •Chernobyl is war, by Irena
- •Beauty and the beast, by Helena
- •Nothing escapes radiation, by Irena
- •Chernobyl, our hell, by Eugenia
- •Self-portrait, by Natasha
- •“It Can’t Happen Here”
- •Three-Mile Island, PA 1979
- •Health around TMI
- •Plants near TMI
- •Animals Nearby TMI
- •Nuclear reaction
- •History of nuclear power
- •“Atoms for Peace”
- •Economic advantages
- •Emissions Free
- •Early knowledge of risks
- •States with nuclear power plant(s)
- •Nuclear power around the globe
- •Countries Generating Most Nuclear Power
- •Nuclear fuel cycle
- •Front end: Uranium mining and milling
- •Uranium tailings and radon gas
- •Uranium enrichment
- •Radioactivity of plutonium
- •Risks of enrichment and fuel fabrication
- •Nuclear Reactor Process
- •Technology depends on operators
- •Other reactor accidents
- •United States
- •Risk of terrorism
- •Nuclear Reactor Structure
- •Breeder reactor
- •Reprocessing
- •Back end: Radioactive wastes
- •Yucca
- •Transportation
- •“Mobile
- •Kyshtym waste disaster, 1957
- •Radioactive Waste Recycling
- •Summary
Nuclear fuel cycle
•Uranium mining and milling
•Conversion and enrichment
•Fuel rod fabrication
•POWER REACTOR
•Reprocessing, or
•Radioactive waste disposal
–Low-level in commercial facilities
–High level at plants or underground repository
Front end: Uranium mining and milling
Uranium tailings and radon gas
Deaths of Navajo miners since 1950s
Uranium enrichment
•U-235
–Fissionable at 3%
–Weapons grade at 90%
•U-238
–More stable
•Plutonium-239
–Created from U-238; highly radioactive
Radioactivity of plutonium
Life span of least 240,000 years
Last Ice Age glaciation was 10,000 years ago
Neanderthal Man died out 30,000 years ago
Risks of enrichment and fuel fabrication
•Largest industrial users of water, electricity
–Paducah, KY, Oak Ridge, TN, Portsmouth, OH
•Cancers and leukemia among workers
–Fires and mass exposure.
–Karen Silkwood at Oklahoma fabrication plant.
•Risk of theft of bomb material.
Nuclear Reactor Process
•3% enriched Uranium pellets formed into rods, which are formed into bundles
•Bundles submerged in water coolant inside pressure vessel, with control rods.
•Bundles must be SUPERCRITICAL; will
overheat and melt if no control rods.
Reaction converts water to steam, which powers steam turbine
Technology depends on operators
Other reactor accidents
(besides TMI and Chernobyl)
•1952 Chalk River, Ontario
–Partial core meltdown
•1957 Windscale, England
–Graphite reactor fire contaminates 200 square miles.
•1975 Browns Ferry, Alabama
–Plant caught fire
•1976 Lubmin, East Germany
–Near meltdown of reactor core .
•1999 Tokaimura, Japan
–Nuclear fuel plant spewed high levels of radioactive gas