As an environmental specialist I agree to a certain extent that nuclear power plants are very safe when operating without issues and they do have many fail safe mechanisms to ensure that all accidents are prevented. They also do have a very low carbon footprint as they have very low greenhouse gas emissions.
However the largest environmental impact of NPPs is the long term deposition of nuclear waste, such as spent nuclear fuel. Spent fuel after being taken off the reactors have to be cooled for decades (NOT 2 or 3 years like Mr Stone says here) in spent fuel pools which have to be constantly monitored.
Also considering the many fail safe mechanisms yes, it has a very low risk. However when an accident happens the consequences can be extraordinary.
Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, natural disasters in general, even an asteroid impact WILL HAPPEN in time. It's a matter of WHEN they will happen, not IF they will happen. What if something happens that doesn't allow the people monitoring NPPs to oversee them correctly? I've seen episodes of the JRE where Joe talks about asteroid impacts and it's risk. That's something to think about in this context.
As an environmental specialist I agree to a certain extent that nuclear power plants are very safe when operating without issues and they do have many fail safe mechanisms to ensure that all accidents are prevented. They also do have a very low carbon footprint as they have very low greenhouse gas emissions.
However the largest environmental impact of NPPs is the long term deposition of nuclear waste, such as spent nuclear fuel. Spent fuel after being taken off the reactors have to be cooled for decades (NOT 2 or 3 years like Mr Stone says here) in spent fuel pools which have to be constantly monitored.
Also considering the many fail safe mechanisms yes, it has a very low risk. However when an accident happens the consequences can be extraordinary.
Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, natural disasters in general, even an asteroid impact WILL HAPPEN in time. It's a matter of WHEN they will happen, not IF they will happen. What if something happens that doesn't allow the people monitoring NPPs to oversee them correctly? I've seen episodes of the JRE where Joe talks about asteroid impacts and it's risk. That's something to think about in this context.
Churnable? Or chernoble?
Nothing is more fascinating than two old rich dudes talking about stuff they don't understand.