Don't think Chernobyl think Mayak

Advocates of nuclear energy spend a lot of time trying to convice others of its benefits, when they ought to be spending more time thinking how to explain to future generations how they intend to clean up the radioactive waste the industry generates.

Modern nuclear power stations no doubt offer improved reliability and safety compared to the pioneering facilities. Governments are considering building more facilities for reasons such as providing better energy security, also to help rebalance man's carbon output. Carbon receives a lot of attention.

If there is concern about the carbon waste there should be as much concern about the waste generated by the nuclear industry given the prospect of an increase to the world's capacity to generate energy from this source. Unlike radioactive waste, carbon can be handled, processed, stored, and even breathed with little adverse affect on human health. Radioactivity on the other hand leaves a stain that doesn't go away so easily. It cannot be vacuumed or scrubbed away with some detergent, and it lasts for thousands of years.

Mayak is the lesser known cousin of Chernobyl. It ought to provide food for thought to even the most ardent supporters of nuclear power:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/197295.stm
“ …According to some reports, radioactive waste equivalent to roughly 20 Chernobyls was pumped from Mayak into a lake that even today is capable of delivering a fatal dose of radiation within an hour… “


By the way there are about 200 tonnes of highly radioactive waste under Chernobyl…. and the concrete ‘case’ that covers it has already started to leak. If the site is in this state after less than a few decades what is it going to take to keep this under control for the tens of thousands of years it will take for this material to decay to safe levels.

The world simply isn't ready for nuclear power with this in prospect – let alone the security argument. It’s not the facilities in rich nations that are to be feared most, it’s the raft of facilities that will start to spring up all over the world as each country exercises its 'right' to nuclear energy, in places where the operators may be tempted to pocket the dough than spend it on safety measures.

The facts about lake Mayak are staggering:

http://www.ecobridge.org/content/n_wst.htm#mayak
…The most radioactive place on the planet
Artificial lakes containing more than 14 billion cubic feet of waste from the Mayak nuclear processing plant are filled to capacity and within a few years may leak into the region's rivers, Gov. Pyotr Sumin of the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov…Mayak, a major nuclear weapons plant during Soviet times, has been the site of several accidents, including a 1957 waste-facility explosion that contaminated 9,200 square miles. The region has been called the most radioactive place on the planet because of accidents and Soviet-era nuclear waste dumping into lakes and rivers. The vice governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Gennady Podtyosov, once said in an interview that the water level in the lakes was just 12 inches below the limit. If action is not taken, contaminated water could burst the dam within three to four years, he said. ``It would be a major catastrophe,'' Podtyosov said. ``Waste would pollute rivers and flow into the Arctic Ocean.''

As the world considers an expansion of its nuclear power generating capacity it ought to consider introducing the notion of a 'nuclear footprint', similar to the concept of a 'carbon footprint' that is in popular today. It needs to get a handle on how much nuclear waste each person generates, the toxicity, and the number of generations that will need to live alongside it before it renders itself safe.

Each time we switch on our TV or zoom down to maccy dees in our electric powered car. People need to be able to make a choice about the method by which their energy is generated and non-nuclear alternatives need to be given a level playing field equal to the subsidies received by the nuclear industry.