The Seabrook Saga: A case study Nuclear Energy The Seabrook Saga: A case study

The Facts Seabrook, New Hampshire Initial proposal in 1972 Proposed building of nuclear power plant: 2 twin reactors, 7 year construction $973 million

Why Seabrook? Perfect location Could use Atlantic Ocean for cooling Strong bedrock to hold up factory Near Boston, could provide millions with energy

Resistance Many people opposed the idea In 1974 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began legal action to stop the construction of the plant After two years of legal battles ground breaking started in 1976. In May of 1977 2000 people demonstrated on the building site and 1400 were arrested In 1990 the Nuclear Regulator Commission gave them the ok to start

So what happened 2 twin reactors 7 year process $973 million cost One was built 14 years once started (18 total) $6.45 billion cost Currently supplies 900,000 homes with power 900 acre site

Seabrook Facts Produces 1160 megawatts of power from a few pounds of Uranium =1,850,000 gallons of oil =10,000 tons (20,000,000 lbs) of coal Converts 33,000 gallons of liquid water into water vapor every minute 398,000 gal of water flow through a tunnel 19 feet in diameter, 3 miles long, 100 feet below the ocean floor Change in water temperature is 20C

What happens when things go wrong? Chernobyl, 1979 in Ukraine Reactor 4 was deliberately shut down for safety test Temp rose too quickly, fire and chemical reactions followed 4,000 ton roof (8 mil pounds) blew off

People affected by Chernobyl 190 people got sick and 31 died from radiation 150,000 people evacuated 260,000 exposed to life-shortening amounts of radiation 30,000 people have died as a result

Risks/Benefits Expensive to build Urban myths and scare tactics Chernobyl and Three Mile Island Less need for fossil fuels No air pollution, global warming, acid rain Save money in the long run

Power plants = Weapons Plants The uranium in plants could not be easily used for weapons Plutonium is the problem Iran and North Korea are/were stockpiling Uranium for power plants, but U.N. inspectors were not allowed into these plants to see where the excess Pu was going

How radioisotopes make energy Alpha Decay: 42He Lowest amount of energy Same as Helium nucleus Beta Decay: 0-1 Energy that can be stopped by a cinder block wall Equal in mass but opposite charge to electron Gamma Decay: 00 Highest amount of energy Too much can be deadly Cosmic radiation---not enough to hurt you