• Question: What is your thoughts on nuclear power, and does it create a real threat to society not in the case like that of the Japan incident?

    Asked by knowledge69 to Austin, Kirsty, Nicola, Nike, Sarah on 20 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Austin Elliott

      Austin Elliott answered on 20 Jun 2012:


      It’s natural to worry about nuclear power, given things like the Chernobyl Disaster, and what happened in Japan at Fukushima. However, what happened in Japan does show that nuclear accidents can be contained, even when the safety procedures weren’t very good, and when something almost completely unpredictable and one-off happened (the earthquake and tsunami). And the reactors people build now will be much better built and with better ‘containment’ then Chernobyl and Fukushima (both of which were early/old reactors), because people learn from what went wrong in the earlier designs – like anything in science.

      Given that fossil fuels are certain to run out eventually, it seems to me that there is no realistic alternative to nuclear power in the medium term, since ‘renewable energy’ research doesn’t seem to be far enough along to take over from fossil fuels. So I think what has to happen is for the nuclear industry to be properly regulated so that it keeps on having safety as a main priority, whilst research into making renewables viable is given a push.

    • Photo: Kirsty Ross

      Kirsty Ross answered on 20 Jun 2012:


      I think one of the issues with nuclear power is actually waste disposal. We are used to thinking of problems in terms of governmental terms and individual human life spans, but nuclear waste disposal has to be safe for thousands of years. The plants are generally incredibly safe, but waste disposal is still an issue.

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