Is nuclear fission safe?

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21 Jan 2013, 6:48 pm

The Australian government is reopening negotiations with India in preparation to sell more uranium to there.
With the safety record of one of the worlds hi-tech leaders ( Japan ) in tatters after the Fukushima meltdowns, is it a wise or responsible path for a developed nation like Australia to pursue?

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21 Jan 2013, 6:59 pm

Well, if they do I hope they will build far away from geologically unstable portions of the Earth's crust.

Stargazer43
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21 Jan 2013, 7:24 pm

As long as they have stringent safety measures in place. Most nuclear power plants in the US operate with VERY high safety factors, on the order of 10 or so from what I've heard, in order to go well above and beyond any conceivable scenario. With those safety considerations in place I think that it's an excellent and very safe source of energy. But if someone tries to cut corners and save a bit of money for a cheaper design, then lord help us!

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21 Jan 2013, 10:04 pm

If a nuclear fission station is over-designed about 10:1 it is probably very safe. But over designing raises the cost of construction. Even so a safety margin is good to have. Look at what happened at Chernobyl. Some incompetent commissar was doing non-standard operations on a facility that does not have proper containment. There rest is history. There is an entire region around Prepiyat which is blighted and won't be livable by humans for at least another century.

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SherabDorje
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22 Jan 2013, 1:02 am

one of the most major issues is the creation of nuclear waste which has a very long half-life (i think millenia? at least several centuries).

The US government does not seem to be doing a stellar job at storing this waste. After not even one century, already there are some reports of groundwater contamination outside a storage facility in Colorado.. and apparently Chesapeake Bay as well.

With the abundance of energy available from, say, the sun, why gamble with creating radio-isotopes that are so deadly? Germany now generates all of its power needs from solar.

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22 Jan 2013, 2:47 am

Safe, but only if they use the latest technology and are willing to pay to upgrade their equipment.

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22 Jan 2013, 8:09 am

SherabDorje wrote:

I personally say we ship all of the worst stuff off into deep space! But I'm sure most of the people with the money would disagree with me lol. And Germany doesn't generate all of it's power from solar, but they do use it pretty extensively. I've never been a huge fan of solar power myself just due to the low efficiency, wind is where it's at in my opinion!

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22 Jan 2013, 8:16 am

ruveyn wrote:

Wold you venture odds of a Cherynobyl happening in India?

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22 Jan 2013, 8:54 am

Stargazer43 wrote:

I personally say we ship all of the worst stuff off into deep space!

Rockets (and shuttles) are known to explode on take-off occasionally. Spreading the "worst stuff" around the surface of the planet, possibly in highly populated areas would somewhat undesirable.

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22 Jan 2013, 9:27 pm

I found this on youtube.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CIQ6H5nA2Y[/youtube]

All comments welcome please.

Guilliman
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23 Jan 2013, 10:19 pm

Stargazer43 wrote:

I personally say we ship all of the worst stuff off into deep space!

Having a rocket with a few tons of radioactive materiel explode in the upper atmosphere is the worst that can happen to this planet. The fallout would spread with the wind across a LARGE part of the continent(s). Having it explode just outside the atmosphere isn't an option too. The radiation would kill off satellites.

The best we can do is stockpile it for a very long time :/.

It's why I'm hoping the first large Fusion plant is a success. Current estimates;

Input: 50MW to keep the reaction running,
Output: 500MW

Currently being build in France http://www.iter.org/

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24 Jan 2013, 1:47 am

Guilliman wrote:

Stargazer43 wrote:

I personally say we ship all of the worst stuff off into deep space!

I sure hope it works.
I heard cold fusion works too.

Question14
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24 Jan 2013, 3:11 am

Don't really know as much as i would like about fusion.
What are the results of a fusion reactor? in other words is there any waste?

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24 Jan 2013, 9:57 am

Question14 wrote:

Don't really know as much as i would like about fusion.
What are the results of a fusion reactor? in other words is there any waste?

No waste. But no one has ever produced a controlled fusion reaction with net power output.

Fusion has been predicted 30 years in the future for the last 55 years. A hundred years from now it will still be 30 years in the future.

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TallyMan
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24 Jan 2013, 10:01 am

ruveyn wrote:

Question14 wrote:

Don't really know as much as i would like about fusion.
What are the results of a fusion reactor? in other words is there any waste?

The annoying thing is that it is the engineering and technical problems that are preventing it from becoming a reality. The sun has happily produced a countless amount of energy from hydrogen fusion for billions of years; the tricky bit is trying to duplicate it on a small scale without a massive gravity field to hold everything together. Magnetic confinement so far doesn't seem to cut the mustard.

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Question14
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24 Jan 2013, 10:36 am

So bydoing fusion, you would in affect be controling a very, very tiny star?

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