CNTA exec: Nuclear industry safer than desk work

Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness Executive Director Clint Wolfe enlisted the help of musician Stevie Wonder Thursday morning to explain the basics of nuclear energy to the ladies of the Town & Country Club.

Many myths and misconceptions related to nuclear energy exist, Wolfe said, as Wonder's voice sang the words "When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer ... superstition ain't the way."

"We've got to dissociate nuclear weaponry from nuclear energy," Wolfe said. "They are not the same, and they do not deserve to carry each others' baggage."

Many believe that nuclear power plants are a significant source of Americans' yearly exposure, Wolfe said, though the exposure from nuclear power plants is about .005 percent of the average American's annual radiation exposure - comparable to the amount of radiation received from eating one banana per year.

Nuclear power plants do not pose a risk to the surrounding community, have an exclusion zone of 1,000 feet per Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements and do not pose safety risks the way that other forms of energy do, he said.

"The nuclear industry is safer than working in a bank, in a real estate office or any other type of office job," Wolfe said.

He said that nobody has been killed as a result of commercial nuclear power plants in the United States, but fossil fuel-related deaths have occurred from coal mine disasters and natural gas explosions.

Wolfe held up a small, mint-sized fuel pellet and told the women that the single pellet can satisfy an individual's energy needs for 10 or 11 months. If the fuel pellet were to be recycled, four pellets would last a lifetime¬­ - something Wolfe said would result in 100 tons of waste if taken from coal burning.

"The materials we have now will all fit on a football field," he said. "It is best to get it disposed, but we can store it safely."

Wolfe said that the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl and the current crisis in Japan are an opportunity to learn from past experiences but assured the crowd that a situation like Chernobyl was not a threat.

"There is no conceivable way that the event that happened at Chernobyl could be repeated in an American-style nuclear reactor," Wolfe said.

Wolfe answered questions about the lawsuit brought by Aiken County and other entities against the government in an effort to keep Yucca Mountain on the table as a nuclear waste repository for spent nuclear fuel.

He also explained the process for storing spent fuel at SRS and said that shipments to and from the site happen like clockwork, with no danger to the surrounding communities they pass through.

Contact Anna Dolianitis at adolianitis@aikenstandard.com.