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.
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability goals address the global challenges, including poverty, inequality,
… Read more climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. As the concept of sustainable development developed, it has shifted its focus more towards economic development, social development, and environmental protection for future generations. The concept of sustainable development has been and still is, subject to criticism, including the question of what is to be sustained in sustainable development. It has been argued that there is no such thing as sustainable use of a non-renewable resource since any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to the exhaustion of earth's finite stock.