3 ms·
ASK HN: does anyone familiar with the matter have access to robust predictive models wrt the impact on health of the expected problems with long-term storage of
by hans1729 5y ago
ASK HN: does anyone familiar with the matter have access to robust predictive models wrt the impact on health of the expected problems with long-term storage of nuclear waste?
For the german/french speaking part of the audience, ARTE recently uploaded an insightful documentation on the state of nuclear facilities in France (which I found very sobering, to say the least): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXrL4tPMoM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXrL4tPMoM -- while that is surely not ARTEs best piece and you get an idea of the redactions opinion through editorialization, it's definitely a recommended watch. The link points to the german version.
Bottom lines:
- nuclear power is not as transparent about the existing impact on the environment as one would think. for example, rivers even in the middle of europe are regularly contaminated with "negligible" contaminants, where what is defined as "negligible" is _not only intransparent, but not publicly known and censored in cases of information-requests, with the given reason being raison d'être of the state (!)_
- the storage-situation is not only not robust (not a single long term storage concept actually proved viable, globally), but much worse than I'd have anticipated
[...] those are the points that immediately come to mind.
My point here is: yes, great, we need to reduce the burden on the environment as much as possible, and _if_ nuclear is the way to go, then please, let's do that. But the unwillingness and lack of competence with regards to the long-term potentials for problems will bite us, and it will do so in more than one way, and I'm very concerned because of it. If the situation in central europe is as questionable as ARTE illuminates, I'm not sure I want to know how bad it is in regions with less political transparency. Hence the initial questions, primarily: who has access to such models?