Chernobyl - an argument against nuclear power?
Posted by: Deane F on 31 July 2007
I've recently seen a couple of documentaries about the explosion at the Chernobyl Power Plant in 1986 and the aftermath. The stories about the "liquidators" - the cleanup crews of whom many died at the time as well as years later - were among the most affecting for me.
Although there have been no other major accidents (although the Three Mile Island partial meltdown got close) I wonder if the Chernobyl disaster was really a warning that has not been heeded? After all, although the safety record with nuclear power is supposedly pretty good, the consequences of a major accident are so very severe that I wonder if it is really worth it. Am I a pessimist to assume that it is only a matter of time before the same sort of thing happens again?
Although there have been no other major accidents (although the Three Mile Island partial meltdown got close) I wonder if the Chernobyl disaster was really a warning that has not been heeded? After all, although the safety record with nuclear power is supposedly pretty good, the consequences of a major accident are so very severe that I wonder if it is really worth it. Am I a pessimist to assume that it is only a matter of time before the same sort of thing happens again?