The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. There is a wide spectrum of concerns over nuclear power and it remains a controversial area of public policy. Many studies have shown that the public perceives nuclear power as a very risky technology and, around the world, nuclear energy has declined in popularity since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Anti-nuclear critics see nuclear power as a dangerous way to generate electricity. Opponents of nuclear power have raised a number of related concerns, such as radioactive nuclear accidents, pollution from uranium mining, radioactive waste disposal remaining dangerous for thousands of years,
… Read more and the vulnerability of nuclear reactors. Anti-nuclear groups also favour the use of renewable energy, such as hydro, wind power, solar power, geothermal energy and biofuel. Of these concerns, nuclear accidents and disposal of long-lived radioactive waste have probably had the greatest public impact worldwide. Anti-nuclear campaigners point to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency as proof that nuclear power can never be 100% safe. Costs resulting from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are likely to exceed 12 trillion yen ($100 billion) and the clean up effort to decontaminate affected areas and decommission the plant is estimated to take 30 to 40 years.
Risks of Nuclear Power:
- Nuclear accidents: a safety concern that the core of a nuclear power plant could overheat and melt down, releasing radioactivity.
- Nuclear Fuel Mining: mining waste of nuclear fuels like uranium and thorium, results in its radioactive decay. That causes radium pollution and radon pollution in the environment and ultimately affects public health.
- Radioactive waste disposal: a concern that nuclear power results in large amounts of radioactive waste, some of which remains dangerous for very long periods.
- Nuclear proliferation: a concern that some types of nuclear reactor designs use and/or produce fissile material which could be used in nuclear weapons.
- High cost: a concern that nuclear power plants are very expensive to build, and that clean up from nuclear accidents are highly expensive and can take decades.
- Attacks on nuclear plants: a concern that nuclear facilities could be targeted by terrorists or criminals.
- Curtailed civil liberties: a concern that the risk of nuclear accidents, proliferation and terrorism may be used to justify restraints on citizen rights.