• Question: What is the probability of a nuclear disaster in a nuclear power plant?

    Asked by anon-202040 to Sophia, Sarah, Meirin, George, Emily, Andy on 5 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      Actually, very very low. There’s so many safety systems and shielding from the radiation built into these designs, plus the systems of work make the actions performed in the sites very safe and controlled. They’re also monitored constantly and they’re checked frequently by regulators for Environment Agency and the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR). There have been far fewer nuclear accidents than gas explosions or coal mine disasters but unfortunately we seem to remember nuclear more, perhaps because it’s a less well understood process for the general public.

    • Photo: Andy Buckley

      Andy Buckley answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      Sarah’s answer is perfect! Here are a couple of links for more data (more data is always good):
      https://ourworldindata.org/what-is-the-safest-form-of-energy
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/06/11/if-nuclear-power-is-so-safe-why-are-we-so-afraid-of-it/

    • Photo: George Fulton

      George Fulton answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      I think it is fair to describe nuclear power plants as ‘low risk and high hazard’. The probability of a nuclear disaster is quite low. According to the World Nuclear Association, there have only been 3 major nuclear disasters in over 17,000 cumulative reactor-years of service in 33 different countries.

      In one of these disasters, ‘Three Mile Island’ the disaster was contained and no-one was harmed and in the Chernobyl and Fukushima disaster there was a release in radioactivity. The Fukushima disaster was a special case as this was a direct result of a huge earthquake. However, because nuclear fission disasters are so deadly, nuclear power is a portrayed by the media as a ‘ticking time bomb’.

      In nuclear fusion, there is no chance of a meltdown event. This is because the fusion reaction is incredibly difficult to get working and therefore a run-away event is not possible. (Even in a hydrogen bomb, a nuclear fission bomb is required to get the H bomb going)

      Nuclear fusion would also be described as low risk, high hazard industry, However the hazards are much lower than in fission. It’s important to note that other energy production methods such as thermal power stations are also low risk, medium-high hazard.

    • Photo: Sophia Pells

      Sophia Pells answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      This has already been answered really well by others! Like Sarah said, there have been far fewer accidents and deaths caused by nuclear power plants than other power plants.

    • Photo: Emily Lewis

      Emily Lewis answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      Very very low in modern reactors. They have been built and designed and run to be as safe as possible. When building them they add on 15% extra of everything just in case, 15% extra shielding, 15% extra wall thickness. Then when they run them they are well below any material limits. They write pages and pages of safety cases describing what could go wrong and how they would stop it happening, then they need at least two different ways to stop that thing happening. The rules are super strict which is great because it keeps us safe.

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