Hiroshima, TMI, and the Myth of Radioactivity

Nuclear power is clean, nuclear power is safe. Nuclear power should be cheap. Why isn't it?

In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods, and he was punished with an eternity of having his liver eaten by an eagle every afternoon, only to have the organ grow back overnight. Makes sense to me. The use of fire by humanity made us that much less dependent on the protection of the Greek gods. After a while, we 'fired' them. Now what would happen if Prometheus had stolen fire that used virtually no resources, nor caused any pollution? What then would the gods have done? Answer: They'd have bought him a mansion, and set him up with a profitible fire-distribution monopoly. So 'they' have done with nuclear power.

To be sure, humanity's first generalized encounter with natural fire was an awe-inspiring and hugely painful one. So it was with nuclear power. But to relate modern productive nuclear power to the destruction of Hiroshima is to relate a romantic candle-lit dinner to the fire-bombing of Tokyo. We have the solution to all our energy needs already. We also have a huge wall of bureaucracy, ignorance and profit between that solution and us. Many will point to the Three Mile Island (TMI) meltdown and an example of the enormous danger that nuclear power poses to our safety and our ecology. I say that it stands as a testimony to how hard we can try to create a disaster with low-enrichment nuclear fuel, and still prove how utterly implausible such a disaster is. My conspiracy-theorist alarm goes off when I consider the actions of the operators who took every sequential step to try to cause a radioactive release. I honestly can't imagine that they were paid to create the meltdown, but if they were, they gave their benefactors their money's worth. If they had simply gone home and never touched a switch, the unit would have safely shut down as designed.

Since the TMI 'accident,' our nation's nuclear power industry has been hamstrung by red tape. Unless you have worked in a nuclear power facility (or perhaps some facility overseen by NASA) you would not believe the no-expense-spared level of super-safety culture that exists therein. Please hear me when I say that if this culture would invade your home, you couldn't light the pilot on your furnace for less than $1000, for fear of an explosion. Your 'fridge would be in a locked cage for the freon in it, and the flush handle on your toilet would require a procedural sign-off before each use. This is why nuclear powered electricity isn't nearly free, as it should be.

I have embraced nuclear power. I have literally embraced nuclear fuel during inspections. Fuel inspection requires intimate human contact before fuel is introduced into a reactor. I assure you that I am cancer free at 40, and have a full head of hair. Spent fuel --THE BIG VOODOO-- is nearly as innoccuous. Keep it in a swimming pool filled with borated (that's 20-mule team borax added) water and you can walk right up to it. You can even see it glowing harmlessly under water when it is freshly removed from the reactor.

Since the end of WW II, the government has attempted to maintain the fear and loathing of nuclear power by likening productive nuclear power to destructive nuclear power. Reinforcing the myth that radioactivity in any amout will cause the most dire of effects. Fear not. you have all been witness to acute radiation poisoning. It's called a sunburn.