Thread: UK to put nuclear power at heart of net zero emissions strategy

Originally Posted by Backspin

This is just not true. Nuclear does not produce ANY contaminants that can be classified as pollution. Spent fuel stays in the form of solid blocks and it is transported to safe locations and never heard from again.

Nuclear waste is not clean. As you yourself posted, it has to be transported somewhere and then kept safe - because it is not clean. Some of it may be processed for re-use. Most of it is not.

And do you know exactly what happens before the spent fuel is transported away from the power plant? Do you know how long it is kept on site (at the power plant) before it is transported somewhere? And why is that?

I know you have no idea so I'll tell you what happens.

When it is removed from the reactor, the spent fuel is kept locally and put in large ponds of water. Yes, water. That is to cool the fuel rods down. The fuel rods are kept there for months. Do you think that pond water is clean after that? Let me tell you. No, it isn't. You wouldn't want to drink it or swim in it.

And then there's the small matter of the fuel rod assembly. Not the fuel, but the assembly that the fuel sits inside. What happens to that once it has served its purpose? And do you think it is somehow clean after a year or more in the middle of a nuclear reactor? Let me tell you. No, it is not.

Apart from the above, other contaminated items are produced in nuclear power plants. In the 1980s, the UK nuclear industry used to dump some of their contaminated nuclear "rubbish" at the bottom of the North Sea. According to you, it must have been all very clean and safe, yet it would be transported in a very thick, heavy and sealed container. Why would that be, Backspit?

And when a power plant is decommissioned after its life-cycle ends, what happens to the reactor core, the pressure vessel, and all the other contaminated bits and pieces? This waste is not clean and so must be stored somewhere. But for how long? How many hundreds of years?

I am pro-nuclear, Backspit, but nuclear power is not 100% clean. That's a fact.