Opinion: Long-term nuclear costs

The lesson to be drawn with respect to the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant from the nuclear crisis in Japan is not that a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami might occur in Vernon, so Vermont Yankee is dangerous.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110319/OPINION02/703199959

Published March 19, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Long-term nuclear costs

The lesson to be drawn with respect to the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant from the nuclear crisis in Japan is not that a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami might occur in Vernon, so Vermont Yankee is dangerous.

The lesson also is not that such an earthquake and tsunami are inconceivable in Vernon, so Vermont Yankee is safe.

It is that when big things go truly wrong it is almost always because something happened that no one thought was possible, or no one thought of at all. And it is impossible to think of every possibility.

If something goes badly wrong at Vermont Yankee, it will almost certainly result from something none of us has thought of. Many of the problems at the plant so far have been like that.

What makes nuclear power uniquely risky is that in the worst case, which will happen from time to time somewhere, large areas of land can become uninhabitable for years, decades or centuries.

In addition, as many smaller releases of radioactivity (and some large ones) from an ever-increasing number of reactors take place around the world and through the years, some radioactivity will work its way up the food chain, and background levels of radiation in the world will increase. This will cause an increased rate of genetic mutations to be inherited by our grandchildren and their grandchildren. Most of those mutations will be bad, and they will cause increased suffering. All from electricity we use today.

RICHARD ANDREWS

Springfield