Three Mile Island reactor 2 (1979). The subsequent restart of reactor 1 was mind boggling.
Half the locations near and downwind of test sites in Nevada, Bimini Island, etc.
Closing of Yankee Row, Elk River, Fermi 1, Three Mile Island 1 (2019) and any number of other nuclear power stations across the country. For what reasons exactly?
Chernobyl at Pripyat (1986). Not US but had far reaching effects beyond the Soviet border. See anybody living in that zone yet?
Fukushima 2011. Three reactor meltdowns after a tsunami and resultant radiation into the ocean that causes the FDA to have to check food imported from that region for radionuclides to this day.
It's really kind of up to the nuclear industry to prove to people it is safe technology. Not for supposed environmentalists to simply state that it is green, when at one point, it was considered the bane of environmentalists everywhere. Tell me, what changed? How is nuclear is all of a sudden considered safe?
You tell me.
TMI is the only applicable one. The others are either not commercial or not in the USA.
There was not just ‘one’ event that caused that. There are plenty of detailed reports on that if you wish to read any of them. The last time we had this discussion I linked numerous articles from town, county, state, federal and private organizations with studies over decades that state there was no evidence of any environmental or health damage to anything or anyone. No one died, no one was injured , no short or long term effects.
The plant closures were simply ones of economics, they could not get a purchase power agreement that made it profitable to run those sites.
There are several which are being evaluated to be restarted simply because large data centers are being proposed nearby specifically because they want to buy the power from these plants and the current grid will not support it. They will remove any impact from the grid and make them economically feasible.
Again, what do any of those other situations have to do with commercial nuclear power in the USA????
Chernobyl was a design that has been outlawed in the USA since Jimmy Carter was president and in every western country at about the same time except the Soviet Union. Which violated everyone of their own processes and procedures resulting in the meltdown.
Fukushima had no or inadequate processes or equipment in place to protect the plant from that event. Seems silly doesn’t it???
All US plants had equipment and processes in place to respond to an event like that and since have doubled and tripled down on them.
These original US plants have operated for decades safely and have proven themselves. Anything that happens anywhere in the world to a plant is dissected and analyzed. If there is a design or process that needs to be changed or implemented it is codified by the NRC and becomes a legal requirement to be implemented with a definitive timeline.
The new AP 1000,’s (2 of which are operating in Georgia and another half dozen or so around the world) have significantly reduced the amount of operator actions and redundant safety equipment required. Amazing designs. I just left a contract working on those units scheduling out their first refuelings. I had to become very familiar with their design and their operating license requirements as I was tasked with laying out a plan for taking those systems out of service and performing required maintenance and surveillances (basically verifying they will operate correctly when required.)
I am not licensed to operate an AP 1000 but I dug into the design and requirements and worked with licensed operators to get the plan approved. Nothing like that goes anywhere without senior licensees approval.
Every day, whether operational or shutdown, a risk analysis is performed to ensure the plant is in a safe condition to operate or protect the fuel. And that is re-evaluated anytime any condition changes.
It is also unlikely they will be doing atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in anyone’s neighborhood. Unless it is from some foreign entity.
