Transportation

risks

•Uranium oxide spills

•Fuel rod spills (WI 1981)

•Radioactive waste risks

“Mobile

Chernobyl”

to Yucca Mtn.

Kyshtym waste disaster, 1957

Orphans

–Explosion at Soviet weapons factory forces evacuation of over 10,000 people in Ural Mts.

–Area size of Rhode Island still uninhabited; thousands of cancers reported

Radioactive Waste Recycling

•Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities by recycling it into household products.

•In 1996, 15,000 tons of metal were received by the Association of Radioactive Metal Recyclers . Much was recycled into products without consumer knowledge.

•Depleted Uranium munitions for military.

Summary

•Nuclear energy has no typical pollutants or greenhouse gasses

•Nuclear waste contains high levels of radioactive waste, which are active for hundreds of thousands of years.

•The controversy around nuclear energy stems from all parts of the nuclear chain.