OnlineSchools.org presents Japan One Year Later
It has been nearly a year since the monster earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, causing the worst nuclear disaster on the planet since Chernobyl. The death toll currently stands at 22,900. Don’t get me wrong. I like nuclear power as much as the next person, but when I hear that radioactive iodine from the explosion of the plant has crept into the world’s food supply (as the infographic video above demonstrates), I stop and think, “Why do nuclear power plants still exist in 2012 when alternate, cleaner energy sources are available?” You tell me.
Dan says
March 10, 2012 at 5:11 amNuclear power plants still exist because economics permit them, new ones aren’t being built because of an absence of a cost for carbon emission.
radioactive iodine is a problem… why exactly? Iodine-131 has a half life or 8 days, decays to xenon, which is a nobel gas. You should be more concerned about contamination from other radioactive nuclides.
I don’t think you can find any record of deaths because of Fukishima; it’s all from the tsunami. Any deaths from Three Mile Island? No. some people got an equivalent dose to that of a chest x-ray, so livestock got many multiples more. Ever heard of a nuclear accident in Canada? India? Go look up CANDU reactors on the wiki. France’s power is 80% from nuclear… The public seems to forget the mess up at uranium city in saskatchewan. Can you find any justification for the public hysteria over nuclear power? I guess we prefer poisoning by chemicals and hydrocarbons. Up here in my home province of Alberta, we’re destroying two resources to turn the tar sands into fuel: natural gas and half of the athabasca river. The cancer rates down river from the oilsands are practically a crisis.
Despite what you say, if you look up the statistics, even with Chernobyl, nuclear power is the safest form of power generation.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html
Energy Source Death Rate (deaths per TWh)
Coal – world average 161 (26% of world energy, 50% of electricity)
Coal – China 278
Coal – USA 15
Oil 36 (36% of world energy)
Natural Gas 4 (21% of world energy)
Biofuel/Biomass 12
Peat 12
Solar (rooftop) 0.44 (less than 0.1% of world energy)
Wind 0.15 (less than 1% of world energy)
Hydro 0.10 (europe death rate, 2.2% of world energy)
Hydro – world including Banqiao) 1.4 (about 2500 TWh/yr and 171,000 Banqiao dead)
Nuclear 0.04 (5.9% of world energy)