The painful lessons imparted by nuclear accidents must be learned, but they should not deter countries from pursuing nuclear power, according to VCDNP Research Associate Noah Mayhew. In a new article published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Mr. Mayhew, Bulat Aytbaev, Dmitry Grigoriev and Vladislav Lavrenchuk note the steadily increasing global demand for energy and argue that nuclear will need to be part of the energy mix in order to meet that demand.
The authors give overviews of each of the three major nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi, including the factors that caused them, the subsequent reactions of the public and governments, as well as lessons learned. The authors note that nuclear energy has a remarkably safe track record when compared to other sources of electricity generation, and this is aided by the fact that safety culture and safety by design have become central tenets in the nuclear industry. They conclude that, while cost may remain a barrier to the expansion of nuclear power, safety should not.
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