Nuclear technology has been in constant consideration from its inception. Perspectives have changed dramatically since the 1900s to now from a really positive outlook to a downright suspicious glare at any nuclear reactor. These days, the fear of these reactors having a major accident and melting down is at a all time high which creates enormous friction between the corporations who own these reactors and general public who are concerned about it. I seek to answer the question of how fear of a nuclear radiation is used today to change current events. I will use the movie “China Syndrome“, the documentary “Nuclear Nightmares”, and a recent current to support my answer.
The movie “China Syndrome” in my eyes was to open up the issue of the dangers of nuclear power to the public in a way that will shock them into realization. This movie is about a potential meltdown situation at a nuclear power plant because of corporate mismanagement. In the movie, a nuclear scientist analyzes footage of a recent nuclear reactor mishap. He says “I may be wrong, but I’d say you’re lucky to be alive. For that matter, I think we might say the same for the rest of Southern California.” (China Syndrome). This quote shows how the the potential failure of the plant could have killed everyone in Southern California or even more. The fear of radiation killing people affects the preliminary report from this scientist to show how it could have killed many. This can also be connected to the 1986 Chernobyl incident. After the nuclear reactor 4 exploded causing big amounts of radiation spread around the area, the people of the nearby town Pripyat was evacuated following the fear of the people being exposed to this amount of radiation. Both the movie and the disaster show the same fear of radiation killing or severely damaging people in the area of effect. While one is speculation and one was reality, the premise is the same. Fear has affect both decisions because if there was no fear of radiation killing people, people would not have been evacuated and the scientist would not have made such a claim.
Workers who worked to seal off the open reactor core of Chernobyl. The amount of protection gear is a testament to the dangers of radiation. Most of these workers died because even this was inadequate.
The documentary “Nuclear Nightmares” shows that expert’s knowledge of radiation may have to be reappraised after several studies of the area surrounding Chernobyl and other scientist’s research show how radiation is not a heavy hitter in cancer deaths. The documentary goes in length to show how the official chart for gauging radioactive cancer risk Linear no-threshold Model (LNT) may be flawed. The model does not show any data for radiation under 100 microsieverts (mSv). Scientists argue that the radiation under 100 mSv may have a beneficial affect to all lifeforms in fighting against cancer as the low dose of radiation exercises the genes that help people fight against radiation. A quote from the documentary says, “Its a classic example of what some scientist call radio phobia” (Nuclear Nightmares). This means that while radiation is still dangerous, people have a wrong perception of it as a whole. Many people fear radiation because they think it is bad in whichever way but in certain doses, it can actually become beneficial. The Fukushima Da-Itchi incident in 2011 shows how people fears of nuclear radiation affect their judgement on the nuclear reactors. After the meltdown of the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, the government proceeded to shutdown all the nuclear power plants in the country so they can go through a detailed review. The people’s support for nuclear power also plummets to 80% anti nuclear power because of this incident. The people want to keep these reactors shutdown because of fear of another radiation leak which is also how fear is influencing the Japanese people. While it may be ethical to move away from nuclear power, Japan’s nuclear power supports 25% of the nations power consumption and was set to raise up to 50%. With growing fear of nuclear power affecting peoples decisions and resulting in pushing away nuclear power, Japan may resort to burning fossil fuels to create power which does not provide radiation but does produce green house gasses. This fear can be found all over the world and this results to a very biased opinion from a lot of people hating on nuclear power.
The original Chernobyl sarcophagus which prevents any more radiation from going into the atmosphere is close to its failing point. A replacement dome is now in place to stop a new potential radiation leak.
In my own opinion, I think that the fear of nuclear power is irrational and needs to be thought through a bit more by people who severely oppose nuclear power. While there are accidents and the occasional leak of radiation, there have been only 3 major accidents in the entire history of nuclear power. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are good alternatives but they will never give a consistent source of power and a lot of windmills and solar panels are needed in order to produce enough power to match a nuclear reactor. And a solar panels and windmills are not completely environmentally clean either. The use of metals and materials such as nickel to produce the electronic components and mining the metals are also very damaging to the environment. My point in a nutshell is that the fear of nuclear power is really unfounded and irrational when compared to the current alternatives to power production. This also shows how fear controls and influences peoples decisions on such matters.
Elephants Foot, named after its wrinkled appearance and resemblance to an elephants foot is probably the most dangerous object in the world when first created. Found in the basement of reactor 4 at Chernobyl after the core melted. It is made of a mix of melted sand, graphite, and nuclear fuel. Within the first few years of its creation, anyone who looked at it will definitely die because of its high radiation.
Writing this blog post was a a real eye opener for me in terms of radiation. What really got to me was the study of radioactivity in the documentary and how it actually is not a heavy hitter when under 100 mSv in the cause of cancer. It also brought out from within me a point I wanted to make with others but never knew how to express, this point is how people fear nuclear power but when compared to our current energy alternatives, it really is not something to fear because these other sources produce a slower by still deadly outcome in the end.
The spread of radiation from the Fukushima Dai-Itchi nuclear power plant. The scale of its spread is shocking as particles that have absorbed radiation can be picked up by the wind.