1. Fallout from Chernobyl

3. 400 million people exposed in 20 countries

5. Chernobyl’s political fallout
Stimulated Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness)
Stimulated nationalism in Ukraine, Belarus, and other republics that lost clean-up workers.
Growth of environmental opposition
Questioning of the heart of technocratic power
Soviet leaders were engineers, not lawyers
USSR collapsed within 5 years.

6. Radiation and Health Health effects as a result of radiation exposure:
-increased likelihood of cancer
-birth defects including long limbs, brain
damage, conjoined stillborn twins
-reduced immunity
-genetic damage

7. 3.5 million sick, one/third of them children
8,000 deaths in 14 years
3.5 million sick,
one/third of them children

8. My grandmother, by Luda

9. Death of my life, by Marina

10. Chernobyl is war, by Irena

11. Beauty and the beast, by Helena

12. Nothing escapes radiation, by Irena

13. Chernobyl, our hell, by Eugenia

14. Self-portrait, by Natasha

15. “It Can’t Happen Here” U.S. reaction to Chernobyl, 1986
Blamed on Communism, graphite reactor
Also Soviet reaction to Three-Mile Island, 1979
Blamed on Capitalism, pressurized-water reactor
No technology 100% safe
Three-Mile Island bubble almost burst

16. Three-Mile Island, PA 1979

18. Health around TMI
In 1979, hundreds of people reported nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and skin rashes. Many pets were reported dead or showed signs of radiation
Lung cancer, and leukemia rates increased 2 to 10 times in areas within 10 miles downwind
Farmers received severe monetary losses due to deformities in livestock and crops after the disaster that are still occurring today.

19. Plants near TMI -lack of chlorophyll -deformed leaf patterns
-thick, flat, hollow stems
-missing reproductive parts
-abnormally large
TMI dandelion leaf at right

20. Animals Nearby TMI Many insects disappeared for years.
Bumble bees, carpenter bees, certain type caterpillars, or daddy-long-leg spiders
Pheasants and hop toads have disappeared.

21. Nuclear reaction Chain reaction occurs when a Uranium atom splits
Different reactions
Atomic Bomb in a split second
Nuclear Power Reactor more controlled, cannot explode like a bomb

22. History of nuclear power
1938– Scientists study Uranium nucleus
1941 – Manhattan Project begins
1942 – Controlled nuclear chain reaction
1945 – U.S. uses two atomic bombs on Japan
1949 – Soviets develop atomic bomb
1952 – U.S. tests hydrogen bomb
1955 – First U.S. nuclear submarine

23. “Atoms for Peace” Program to justify nuclear technology
Proposals for power, canal-building, exports
First commercial power plant, Illinois 1960

24. Economic advantages
The energy in one pound of highly enriched Uranium is comparable to that of one million gallons of gasoline.
One million times as much energy in one pound of Uranium as in one pound of coal.

25. Emissions Free Nuclear energy annually prevents
5.1 million tons of sulfur
2.4 million tons of nitrogen oxide
164 metric tons of carbon
Nuclear often pitted against fossil fuels
Some coal contains radioactivity
Nuclear plants have released low-level radiation

26. Early knowledge of risks
1964 Atomic Energy Commission report
on possible reactor accident
45,000 dead
100,000 injured
$17 billion in damages
Area the size of Pennsylvania contaminated

27. States with nuclear power plant(s)

28. Nuclear power around the globe
17% of world’s electricity from nuclear power
U.S. about 20% (2nd largest source)
431 nuclear plants in 31 countries
103 of them in the U.S.
Built none since 1970s (Wisconsin as leader).
U.S. firms have exported nukes.
Push from Bush/Cheney for new nukes.

29. Countries Generating Most Nuclear Power
Country
Total MW
USA
99,784
France
58,493
Japan
38,875
Germany
22,657
Russia
19,843
Canada
15,755
Ukraine
12,679
United Kingdom
11,720
Sweden
10,002
South Korea
8,170

32. Nuclear fuel cycle Uranium mining and milling
Conversion and enrichment
Fuel rod fabrication
POWER REACTOR
Reprocessing, or
Radioactive waste disposal
Low-level in commercial facilities
High level at plants or underground repository

33. Front end: Uranium mining and milling

34. Uranium tailings and radon gas
Deaths of Navajo miners since 1950s

35. Uranium enrichment U-235 U-238 Plutonium-239 Fissionable at 3%
Weapons grade at 90%
U-238
More stable
Plutonium-239
Created from U-238; highly radioactive

36. Radioactivity of plutonium
Life span of least
240,000 years
Last Ice Age glaciation
was 10,000 years ago
Neanderthal Man died out
30,000 years ago

37. Risks of enrichment and fuel fabrication
Largest industrial users of water, electricity
Paducah, KY, Oak Ridge, TN, Portsmouth, OH
Cancers and leukemia among workers
Fires and mass exposure.
Karen Silkwood at Oklahoma fabrication plant.
Risk of theft of bomb material.

39. Nuclear Reactor Process
3% enriched Uranium pellets formed into rods, which are formed into bundles
Bundles submerged in water coolant inside pressure vessel, with control rods.
Bundles must be SUPERCRITICAL; will overheat and melt if no control rods. Reaction converts water to steam, which powers steam turbine

40. Technology depends on operators

41. Other reactor accidents (besides TMI and Chernobyl)
1952 Chalk River, Ontario
Partial core meltdown
1957 Windscale, England
Graphite reactor fire contaminates 200 square miles.
1975 Browns Ferry, Alabama
Plant caught fire
1976 Lubmin, East Germany
Near meltdown of reactor core .
1999 Tokaimura, Japan
Nuclear fuel plant spewed high levels of radioactive gas

43. United States

44. Risk of terrorism (new challenge to industry)
9/11 jet
passed near
Indian Point

45. Nuclear Reactor Structure
Reactor’s pressure vessel typically housed in 8” of steel
36” concrete shielding
45” steel reinforced concrete

47. Breeder reactor “Breeds” plutonium as it operates
Uses liquid sodium metal instead of water for coolant
Could explode if in contact with air or water
1966 Fermi, Michigan
Partial meltdown nearly causes evacuation of Detroit
1973 Shevchenko, Russia
Breeder caught fire and exploded
Controversial proposals in Europe, U.S.

49. Reprocessing Separates reusable fuel from waste 1960s West Valley, NY
Large amounts of radioactivity released
1960s West Valley, NY
Radiation leaked into Lake Ontario
1970s La Hague, France
Released plutonium plumes into air

50. Back end: Radioactive wastes
Low-level wastes in commercial facilities
Spent fuel in pools or “dry casks” by plants
Nuclear lab wastes
Hanford wastes leaked radiation into Columbia River
High-level underground repository
Yucca Mountain in Nevada to 2037
Wolf River Batholith in Wisconsin after 2037?
Risks of cracks in bedrock, water seepage

52. Yucca Mountain

53. Transportation risks Uranium oxide spills Fuel rod spills (WI 1981)
Radioactive waste risks

54. “Mobile Chernobyl” to Yucca Mtn.

55. Kyshtym waste disaster, 1957
Orphans
Explosion at Soviet weapons factory forces evacuation of over 10,000 people in Ural Mts.
Area size of Rhode Island still uninhabited; thousands of cancers reported

57. Radioactive Waste Recycling
Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities by recycling it into household products.
In 1996, 15,000 tons of metal were received by the Association of Radioactive Metal Recyclers . Much was recycled into products without consumer knowledge.
Depleted Uranium munitions for military.

58. Summary Nuclear energy has no typical pollutants or greenhouse gasses
Nuclear waste contains high levels of radioactive waste, which are active for hundreds of thousands of years.
The controversy around nuclear energy stems from all parts of the nuclear chain.

59. NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Production, Use, Testing, Waste

60. Uranium mining Began during Manhattan Project 1940s
Deaths of Navajo, Dene uranium miners

62. Nuclear weapons production cycle
Spent fuel from civilian energy industry can be used for bombs

64. Military nuclear waste at Hanford, Washington
Leaking tanks contaminated
Columbia River

65. Los Alamos Nuclear Labs, New Mexico
Fires in 2000 endangered
Los Alamos, Hanford

66. Atomic bombing of Japan
220,000 died at
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
280,000 more
exposed to
Radiation
(Hibakusha)

67. Nuclear Club Original: U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China
Spread since 1970s: Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea
Disarmed in 1990s: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, South Africa

68. Weapons-grade uranium stockpiles

70. Atomic Veterans and “Downwinders”
17,000 cancer cases
in the U.S. alone

71. Nuclear fallout from Nevada Test Site
Reassuring government leaflet
Atmospheric nuclear
tests halted in 1963;
continued underground

72. Strontium-90 in milk

73. U.S. tests in the Pacific
75% increase in cesium in islanders

74. Evacuation of Islanders

75. Soviet tests in Kazakhstan
Genetic defects
near Semey
(Semipalatinsk)
Kazakhs protest

76. British nuclear
tests in Australia
Effects on
Aborigines

77. French tests in Polynesia
Also in Algeria in 1950s
French bombing of
Greenpeace ship in
New Zealand, 1985

78. Chinese nuclear tests in Xinjiang
In Muslim Uigur minority region after 1964
1996 Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban signed;
but some small tests continue

79. India and Pakistan nuclear tests Pakistani crowds celebrate
first test,
1998
Indian leader in front
of H-Bomb mural

81. Military nuclear accidents
“Broken arrow”
Lost nuclear weapons: 43+ Soviet, 7 U.S.
Plane crashes, sub sinkings, silo explosions
Some scattered radiation
Lost submarine reactors: 6 Soviet, 2 U.S.

82. Nuclear plants as targets of war
U.S. bombs Iraqi
operating reactors, 1991
Israel bombs Iraq’s Osirak
reactor construction, 1981.
Iraq launches missile at
Israel’s Dimona nuclear
laboratory, 1991.
Reactors as possible
terrorist targets?

84. Kyshtym waste disaster, 1957
Orphans
Explosion at Soviet weapons factory forces evacuation of over 10,000 people in Ural Mts.
Area size of Rhode Island still uninhabited; thousands of cancers reported

85. Websites Military Toxics Project www.miltoxproj.org
Center for Defense Information
Council for a Livable World
U.S. military environmental agencies
Gulf War Veterans Resource Links
Chemical Weapons Working Group