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Nuclear Fission - Age Old Dream Of Infinite Power; Power To Destroy !

The most common nuclear fuels, ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu, are not major radioactive hazards by themselves: ²³⁵U has a half-life of approximately 700 million years, and although ²³⁹Pu has a half-life of only about 24,000 years, it is a pure alpha particle emitter and hence not particularly dangerous unless ingested. Once a fuel element has been used, the remaining fuel material is intimately mixed with highly radioactive fission products that emit energetic beta particles and gamma rays. Some fission products have half-lives as short as seconds; others have half-lives of tens of thousands of years, requiring long-term storage in facilities until the fission products decay into non-radioactive stable isotopes.

There have been a few costly nuclear power station disasters that have happened in the past. Also irresponsible governments can easily misuse the enriched Uranium for nuclear arms production. Movements such as Greenpeace have denounced the use of nuclear fuels as alternate energy in the past. The recent APEC report also shows that Greenpeace had rejected nuclear fuels on the basis that current day nuclear technology does not warrant its use even for peaceful purposes.

All radioacitve disposals are indeed expensive and short-sighted. Till this problem is solved in a satisfactory and energy efficient manner, nuclear fuels cannot be used for peaceful purposes in a effective way. However with the immediate and urgent need for finding alternate energy resources in most countries, Nuclear Power is still a very attractive option. The research and development in disposal and recycling of radioacive wastes is still a very high priority effort.

• Environmental Management Press Releases
• Internaltional Atomic Energy Agency
• Nuclear Energy Institute 
• World Nuclear Organization                                                                                                                  
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Uranium Information Centre (Australia)
• Scientific Articles on Fusion Technology updates                                                                                 
• American Nuclear Society - Nuclear Science and Engineering

News

• Greenpeace denounces the use of nuclear fuels as alternate energy
• Toshiba has announced a mini-nuclear reactor for powering a house or apartment complex 
• Austral urged to sell uranium to India 31 Dec 2007
• New findings from Hiroshima-Nagasaki study - Download pdf
• Australia changes its nuclear power policy - Download pdf

'I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds' - Robert Oppenheimer

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