On Wednesday, we talked about radiation protection standards
and how much a nuclear site, whether medical or power producing, is allowed to
release to the public. I emphasize the term nuclear plant because the reality
is, if you’re not working with explicitly radioactive material, like those
regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the rules don’t really
apply to you.
In theory, this makes sense. Why regulate if there’s no
danger right? Wrong! The truth of the matter is that not just controlled
materials produce radiation and without proper oversight, there are big
industries that release radiation without ever being controlled. For example,
fly ash, a product of coal fire plants, carries into the environment about 100
times as much radiation than a nuclear plant. If this sounds like an ad hominem
argument, I don’t mean it to (well, maybe a little).
In fact what I mean to say is that the nuclear sector is
thoroughly regulated, to the extent that two inspectors for the NRC are located
at each power plant. Every move made at a nuclear plant has includes an insane
amount of preparation. And more importantly, our operators are most definitely
NOT Homer Simpson. Most plants even require a bachelor’s degree for operators,
and that’s before the two to three years of training that precede actually
being able to touch something.
Radiation releases are an important thing and preventing
them, along with other releases to the public, is a big deal. Or maybe
more industries should be as regulated as we are. That would prevent things
like this plant in Texas that didn’t even have fire codes.
I agree that other industries should be more regulated. The nuclear industry has a high level of reliability when it comes to protecting the public (despite what the media might have you think).
ReplyDeleteYeah I have a feeling that the public would be much more scared to live next to a nuclear plant than a coal plant, when in reality it should be the other way around. Maybe it's just the word "nuclear" that scares people into thinking that but if they really understood how much regulation there is in the nuclear industry compared to others, such as coal, they wouldn't be as worries about it.
ReplyDeleteIt comes back to previous discussions that have occurred about the misinformation that is rampant within the nuclear industry. It's actually quite infuriating! For example, images like this one (http://www.deepseanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/A-Radioactive-Nightmare.jpg) talk about the disaster that was Fukushima, and how the world is being bombarded with radiation. In reality, the full image (http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/honshu20110311/honshu2011-globalmaxplot_ok.jpg) comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and it's talking about wave sizes after a tsunami. The image has nothing to do with radiation at all but it's used to fear monger!
DeleteOther industries should be more carefully looked into, especially if they are carrying radiation out to he environment at high levels. It is not fair to the nuclear industry to be so strictly regulated when others, for example, the fly ash from coal fire plants mentioned is nowhere near as regulated as a nuclear power plant. Yet, it releases higher levels of radiation to the environment.
ReplyDelete