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Environmental Issues Connected With Nuclear Reactors : |
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Though nuclear energy can be plentiful in availability and, unlike fossil fuel, is a clean fuel as it does not give rise to particulate impurities, there are several issues which have been causes of concern. Some of the issues are as under : |
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Nuclear waste (which consists of fission products) contains highly radioactive material. Though the level of |
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radioactivity for most components goes down fast, the nuclear waste have to be kept away from human contact as they could cause serious illnesses like cancer. Safe disposal of nuclear waste is a cause of major concern. |
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Like any major power station, nuclear reactors are also likely to have accidents due to faulty design or things |
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out of control. The worst recorded accident which led to several deaths and other fallouts from the released radioactivity occurred in Chernobyl, near Kiev (Ukraine). A faulty design led to a fire and explosion of the graphite core. The radioactivity spread over erstwhile USSR and also to parts of Europe, including Scandinavia. In 1979 one of the plants in Three Mile Island, near Harrisberg in USA, lost coolant leading to over heating and partial meltdown of the core which caused radioactive leak. |
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Because of their high cost, nuclear power plants are designed to produce very high power. This leads to thermal |
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emissions which can lead to local warming at a level much higher than that for conventional power stations. Though the nuclear power stations do not give out more heat to the surroundings than thermal power stations per kilowatt of power produced for electricity, the effect of local heating is more for large power stations. |
