Word: reactors
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...Equally pressing is the problem of permanent storage for lethal radioactive wastes contained in spent reactor fuel elements. The practice now is to dissolve the fuel rods in nitric acid, then store the liquid in vats underground. Already the AEC has more than 80 million gallons of this lethal liquid (which includes wastes from weapons production) In tanks that must be constantly cooled and scrupulously maintained for hundreds of years before the radioactivity is spent. The AEC is now perfecting ways to solidify the wastes to permit storage in underground caverns. Even so, the growth of nuclear power could make...
...Deaths. Apart from the hazards of low-level radiation, there is the danger that a major reactor accident could release lethal amounts of radiation into the air. To prevent this, the AEC continually upgrades its stringent operating standards, and reactors have a far better safety record than any other major U.S. industry. Most experts agree that the chance of a major accident is exceedingly remote. But accidents do happen, as the Northeast power failure vividly demonstrated...
...this sense, the danger does exist. The consequences of the worst accident imaginable were, in fact, projected by the University of Michigan's Engineering Research Institute in a study of the Enrico Fermi Plant near Detroit. In 1966, the Fermi reactor was disabled by an accident that released no radiation, and it is still closed. According to the study, if all the radioactive material contained in the Fermi plant were blown into the air during a thermal inversion, 67,000 people could die of radiation poisoning. Even if only 1% of the radiation were released, there would...
...Right now, insurance companies limit reactor coverage to $82 million. As a result, the Government has to provide an additional $478 million of insurance to persuade utility executives to go atomic. There is no way to eliminate the danger altogether, but it could be minimized by restricting reactors to sparsely populated areas. Physicist Edward Teller also suggests that they could be built underground, a technique already used in Sweden...
...Along with radiation, critics of the reactor program are alarmed about the effects of thermal pollution on marine life. The problem is that nuclear plants use cool water from rivers and bays, then return it hot. All steam-generated plants require cooling water-as do many other basic industries-but reactors can use as much as 35% more water because they use heat less efficiently than plants fueled by coal or oil. Heat decreases the dissolved oxygen content in the water, makes existing pollutants more toxic, disturbs the reproduction cycle of fish and spurs the growth of noxious blue-green...