I want to tell you the filthy truth about nuclear energy. It is totally bad, unsustainable and unethical and it is not any solution to climate crisis as some people try to tell. Nuclear energy has a share of 2,5% of global energy production and it is not possible to increase that because there are uranium reserves for 25-30 years. So it cannot compete with renewable energy. The energy consumption will increase so much that the potential of nuclear energy is minimal.
The biggest problem of nuclear power is the mining and the radioactivity: the uranium mines and their radioactive waste. They pollute the air and water of people living nearby the mines. People die and children get horrible birth defects. Jadugora India is one of the most horrible examples. In Karoo South Africa uranium mines have wasted all the water of the villages and now there is a serious water shortage.
In Canada uranium mines have been established to holy lands of Native Americans and now they have lost their traditional lifestyle. In the US they have planned to set up a mine in Grand Canyon National Park. In Australia the mines are on the lands of the Aboriginal people. Uranium mining is a part of modern globalization and exploitation of Global South. They destroy the environment and peoples life in Africa, Asia etc. Please read this book: Gabrielle Hecht – Being Nuclear, Africans and the global nuclear trade
It tells about how uranium is a blood mineral that they are fighting for, how children are forced to work in mines, how they pollute the air and water of people, how terrorists try to buy uranium
Nuclear power is always linked to nuclear warfare. Russian nuclear power is produced by Rosatom. Same company produces Russias nuclear warfare. And so Areva in France etc. Actually French agentsset up a bomb to Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in the 80’s because Greenpeace resisted nuclear test. Nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean killed thousands of people.
In Finland Talvivaara/Terrafame mine has been a disaster. In 2012-2014 it polluted totally many lakes and rivers near the mine. The water turned into salt water and all the fish died. The color of the water turned into brown. The dust from the mine has caused illnesses to the people living nearby. The main owner of the mine Pekka Perä got only a fine of 300€ euros because of political corruption. Now they are planning even more these polluting mines to Finland. Talvivaara has destroyed over 1000 km2 (over two times of the area of Helsinki) of old and valuable forests that were also huge binders of carbon. Now the area looks like the salt deserts of Death Valley, California.
Nuclear power and the uranium mines are not carbon neutral. They destroy huge carbon sinks and storages by destroying forests. The machines in the mines vonsumpt huge amounts of diesel. Also the cosumption of water is enormous. Compared to other mines uranium mines have much more worse environmental affects.
Nuclear power is also very dangerous. The disaster of Chernobyl has caused at least 200 000 deaths. According to the study of New York Academy of Science the number is at least 985 000.
Finnish nuclear power plants produce five trucks full of radioactive waste each year. And these wastes remain dangerous for 200 000 years. Also these plants kill 10 000 000 fish in their processes using sea water. These fish is carried to junk yard.
This girl is Parvati Gobe. She lives in Jadugora area India. Here birth defects are caused by radioactive wastes of a uranium mine near her village. This is so sad. The greedy politicians supporting nuclear power don’t care even the children.
Here are articles about nuclear power and uranium mines:
https://www.newsclick.in/uranium-mining-jharkhand-radioactive-poisoning-ravaging-lives-villages
https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/unending-despair-indias-magical-land
https://theecologist.org/2016/apr/28/uranium-mining-threatens-south-africas-iconic-karoo
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222290/
http://www.ejolt.org/2015/07/talvivaara-mine-environmental-disaster/
Here are some graphs I want to show you: the share of nuclear power is only 2,5% of global energy production and it cannot be increased from that not even in theory. Nuclear power is one of the biggest mistakes in human history. The reason to it is Cold War and nuclear warfare competition.
I know surely that we can produce all the energy we need with clean wind and solar power. These two are the most important of the renewable energy sources. Agenda 2030 goals of the UN can only be achieved by investing only clean renewable energy and actually the UN is not supporting nuclear power.
Author: Daniel Elkama
Ecoblogi - A Blog by Daniel Elkama 
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