MANILA, Philippines - Let's all grant that the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) cannot be shaken by the strongest earthquake, offshore or right in Central Luzon, that it has fail-safe mechanism and system. Proponents of the BNPP's advantages also said that a tsunami cannot touch the plant's elevation at 18 m or 59 ft. The tsunami that killed thousands in Indonesia, Thailand, etc. was probably less than 18 m high.
Great problems and questions
But let's cite a few accidents that can be called serious and scary:
1. March 28, 1979 - Worst commercial nuclear accident in the US occurred as equipment failures and human mistakes led to a loss of coolant and a partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island reactor in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
100,000 gallons of radioactive coolants
2. February 11, 1981 - Eight workers were contaminated when 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant fluid leaked into the containment building of Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah 1 plant near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
3. April 25, 1981 - Some 100 workers were exposed to radiation during repair of a nuclear plant at Tsuruga, Japan.
4. January 6, 1986 - Cyclinder of nuclear material burst after being improperly heated at a Kerr-McGee plant in Gore, Oklahoma. One worker died; 100 were hospitalized.
Worst accident in history
5. April 26, 1986 - In the worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power, fires/explosions resulting from an unauthorized experiment at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Kiev, USSR (now in Ukraine), left at least 31 dead in the immediate aftermath and spread radioactive material over much of Europe. An estimated 135,000 people were evacuated from the region, some of which was uninhabitable for years. As a result of the radiation released, tens of thousands of excess cancer deaths (as well as increased death defects) were expected.
Tennis star as baby
One family that left the region for good were the parents of tennis star Maria Sharapova who recalled the scary experience to sports writers last week.
6. September 30, 1999 - Japan's worst nuclear accident ever occurred at a uranium-reprocessing utility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo.
Plutonium/cancer
Similar accidents occurred at a plutonium production reactor in Liverpool, England, on October 7, 1957, released radioactive materials, later blamed for 39 cancer deaths.
On January 3, 1961, a reactor explosion at a federal installation near Idaho Falls, killed three workers, but radiation was contained.
Near Detroit, Michigan, October 5, 1966, a cooling system malfunction caused a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration breeder reactor; radiation contained.
Experiment in danger
On January 21, 1969, Coolant malfunction from an experimental underground reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
On March 22, 1975. Fire at the Brown's Ferry reactor in Decatur, Alabama, caused dangerous lowering of cooling water levels.
Need for complete discussion
BNPP supporters in Congress were directing our attention to strong earthquake and high tsunami, two natural disasters the plant can easily (or reportedly) overcome with a shrug of their shoulders.
The accidents cited above are real and must be addressed by proponents if BNPP is revived to meet some usefulness.
Of greater danger: Nuclear waste
Of equal or greater danger is where to ''throw or hide'' or safely keep nuclear waste - not near the sea facing the western seaboard of the Philippines nor anywhere in Central Luzon and up north after Baguio and near the Ilocos region. Their probable answer: Over our dead body.
The problem with nuclear waste is that it is radioactive and can remain that way for years - in some cases, thousands of years. Early methods of disposal included dumping the waste at sea and suspending them in a liquid or in cement and injecting the radioactive combination into wells. Among the signatories of a 1976 international convention banning ocean dumping is the US. Deep-well injection was stopped in 1984.
Consortiums
Current plans in the US call for consortiums of states to develop sites for storage of wastes. Meanwhile, the federal government continues to search for suitable sites for storage of high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and for very long-lived radioactive materials.
Fierce opposition
The difficulty of resolving nuclear waste disposal issues is illustrated by the saga of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, which was approved by Congress in 2002 as the nation's first long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear waste and high-level radioactive waste. Yucca Mountain could begin accepting waste in 2025, with closure and decommissioning to begin in 2125 (100 years after).
In the meantime, the site (about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas) has been the subject of fierce opposition not only in Nevada, but also in states along proposed transportation routes of wastes.
Nuclear wastes in Luzon?
Would any province in Luzon consent to be the site of nuclear waste? Over our dead body seems to be the answer. Dumping the wastes at sea is both prohibited by the international convention and habagat southwest monsoon that blows toward the northeast between June and October. (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).
