by Dalia Grybauskaitė
The incidents at Chernobyl or Fukushima have taught us that nuclear safety is, by definition, a global challenge. Nuclear reactions can have a broad transboundary impact on human health, environment and food safety.
Therefore, it is our common responsibility and the most urgent task to bring nuclear power production in each corner of the planet into compliance with the highest international safety standards.
Naturally, each country is free to decide on its national energy mix. However, any decision to embark on a nuclear power programme should be extremely well grounded and analyzed. It must consider possible implications to the region and, first of all, immediate neighbors.
Moreover, Lithuania encourages a regional approach to nuclear power development as this type of energy is effective enough to meet the needs of entire regions. It would also strengthen regional responsibilities in the field of nuclear safety.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) plays a pivotal role in setting and promoting the most robust nuclear safety standards. The IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety is a very important step in this direction as it helps to ensure transparency, enhance public awareness and communication between the stakeholders.
By acknowledging that close cooperation among all member states is vital for implementing the IAEA Action Plan, Lithuania encourages them to carry out, on a regular basis, comprehensive safety assessments of operational and planned nuclear power plants by using IAEA peer reviews and follow-up missions on regulatory effectiveness, operational safety, site and design safety, and emergency preparedness.
In this regard, the EU efforts in launching an unprecedented stress tests exercise in European nuclear power plants with the global perspective of implementing similar measures in the neighboring countries deserve special mention.
From now on, after a memorandum of understanding on nuclear safety was signed between the EU and the IAEA on 17 September, the EU nuclear stress tests will become a global benchmark and contribute to the IAEA's Action Plan on Nuclear Safety.
Every new nuclear power plant, its design, site and even the ability of the personnel to ensure safe maintenance should be subject to stress tests and appropriate IAEA mission evaluation.
Nuclear safety and security never go hand in hand with rush and low costs as mistakes are too costly to be allowed.
As a country with long-standing nuclear power traditions and regional nuclear safety concerns, Lithuania has kept nuclear safety high on its EU Council Presidency agenda.
The Greek presidency of EU must be annulled, because the kleptocratic alliance of Pasok mafia and Nea Democratia mafia cannot be trusted. The freakish government of Greece stole my computer, my files, and my life in cold blood! Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com, http://themostsearched.blogspot.com, @Venitis
Most people fear that a nuclear reactor might become an atomic bomb! But this is impossible! Reactor grade uranium is 5% U-235 that produces slow chain reaction. In order to get to bomb grade uranium, the kind that will explode with
an instantaneous chain reaction, uranium must be enriched to 90% U-235.
With energy prices so high, nuclear reactors bring windfall profits! On the other hand, a reactor can melt down. This is what happened at Three Mile Island. A valve stuck open and a series of mistakes led the operators to think the core was overflowing when it was actually short of cooling water.
They further drained the core and about a third of the core melted from the excess heat. Americans were at shock and awe, because they were not sure what was happening. At the end, the melted fuel stayed within the reactor vessel.
Critics had predicted a China syndrome where the molten core would melt down into the earth where it would hit groundwater, causing a steam explosion that would spray radioactive material across a huge area. Three Mile Island was an industrial accident, but no one was injured. This was not the case at Chernobyl, where a cheap Soviet design did not provide a concrete containment structure around the reactor vessel.
A stupid mistake set fire to the carbon moderator, which controls the flow of neutrons. The result was a four-day fire that spewed radioactive debris around the world. More fallout fell on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from Chernobyl than from Three Mile Island!
Nuclear power is risky for investors, because it ties up more capital for longer periods of time than its main competitor, natural-gas-fired generation. Nuclear power makes economic sense only if natural gas prices are very high. Then, over time, the high initial costs of nuclear power would be offset by nuclear power's lower fuel costs. Renewable energies should supply half of all energy needs by 2050 and that nuclear and coal power would continue until supplies could be met entirely by clean energy.
With the earthquake aftermath focusing on Fukushima power plant and possible worst-case scenarios, the question of safety in nuclear energy has returned to the forefront of many people's minds around the world. Naoto Kan had announced that his government will be starting from scratch with its energy plans and the country's reliance on nuclear power following the crisis. For ten years, the Fukushima plant was rated the most hazardous nuclear facility in Japan for worker exposure to radiation and one of the three worst nuclear plants in the world!
After the Fukushima accident, we need to reconsider the cost of nuclear power. It's not enough to meet safety standards. The industry needs to search for the best performance. The Fukushima reactor has long held the potential for an incident of this nature, being an old power plant with a flawed design, which doesn't reflect contemporary nuclear capability.
The safety standards that these old reactors were built to are nothing like today's standards. Fukushima is the second oldest Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) in the world, completed in 1971. Some of these early models have a weak design. At the very time you need the containment facility to protect you, when the core is overheating, you have to vent pressure and consequently possible radiation to prevent explosion.
The earthquake didn't damage the reactors themselves, but did take out mains electricity. The ensuing tsunami knocked out the diesel generators and other back-up systems that were used to pump water around the core, keeping it cool. Once that power failed, the core overheated and was critically damaged a mere 26 hours after the tidal wave hit.
Japanese plants are required to shut down every 13 months for almost four months at a time, twice as long as the U.S. average. Tepco was slow to invest in the more expensive radiation safety precautions needed during maintenance, thus lowering the cost of operating Fukushima before the accident.
But that focus on costs also kept Tepco from developing a more active commitment to worker safety that could have helped it navigate the March disaster. Common cause is the initiating event which triggers a domino effect that inevitably leads to core damage. In this case, tsunami hits, grid goes down, batteries fail, cooling pump stops, core damage results.
0 komentar:
Post a Comment