Is Nuclear energy safe for humans and the environment?

I wouldlike to respond to the post by Victor Adukwu,in which he argued that nuclearpower as a source of energy should be discouraged . I am afraid I would have todisagree with his opinion and indeed those of other people that have made thesame argument.  The use of nuclear poweras a source of energy has existed way before the disasters of Fukushimaand Chernobyl, Infactsince the early 1930s. Research into the applicability of nuclear fission as asource of energy have been ongoing for several decades before then, spearheadedby Marie Curie, her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel in the late nineteenth century [1].

The US,Germany, France and Japan account for about 50% of the world’s total nuclearenergy generation [2] and only the US (Three Mile Island disaster), Russia(Chernobyl disaster, the Kursk and K-19 ) and Japan (Fukishima Nuclear meltdown) have suffered nuclear meltdowns; partial in the case of the Three Mile Islandand full in the case of Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Thefatalities and long-term negative effects on humans and the environment fromknown nuclear power disasters such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, the Soviet submarineK-19[3], the Soviet submarine Kursk [4] and Fukishima may seem high and justifycondemnation but discouraging the further use of nuclear power as a source ofenergy especially as worldwide energy demand increases would be tantamount to throwingthe baby out with the bathwater. In most of these nuclear disasters, thefundamental cause or failure event(s) is not in the nuclear fission process or theradiation itself, rather an extraneous event (tsunami in the case of Fukushima) that thenleads to the main accident or meltdown.

Having saidthat, it is important to point out the positives from the use of nuclear power.Nuclear power as a source of energy is particularly suited for use in a numberof engineering applications where fossil fuel/volatile vapour fuels cannot beused, such as in large surface military ships (aircraft carriers), ice breakersand submarines. The loss of fuel vapour and subsequent contact with any sourceof ignition especially in a confined space and underwater (in submarines) canbring about a whole set of challenges, hence the use of nuclear power.

My argumentin a nutshell is that for as long as man’s desire for energy continues to rise,there is need to diversify the sourcing for energy from the fossil fuel andnuclear power is a viable and safe option. What is required is that theoperators adhere to strict operational guidelines.

REFERENCES

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_submarine_K-141_Kursk