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- 32 people died as a direct result of the Chernobyl criticality explosion. There are no credible studies that can tie any incidents of cancer or excess mortality to the Chernobyl fallout. The expected leukemia excess deaths did not materialize and the incidents of thyroid cancer in children were more a function of an iodine deficient diet than any ingestion of iodine from the environment.
- Only about 5% of the available energy is used during the tenure of nuclear fuel in a reactor. The rest of the energy can be used after the fuel is recycled and it is made into fuel for specific designs of Small Nuclear Reactors.
- Only about 5% of the original material in new fuel is changed. The Spent Nuclear Fuel is composed of about 95% uranium, down from the 100% uranium from the new fuel.
- 20% of all electricity in the United States comes from nuclear power and 60% of the clean energy generated in the United States comes from nuclear power. As nuclear power plants close, this energy must be replaced by fossil fuels because renewable sources are not even keeping up with the increase in power demand.
- New fuel needs no radiological protection to handle it. Spent Nuclear Fuel, however, is very radioactive, mostly from the 3% of the material that is fission products. Spent Nuclear Fuel must be handled remotely and cooled and shielded in water for 5-7 years before it has decayed enough to be convectively cooled in shielded concrete casks in a process called “Dry Cask Storage”. These casks remain on each reactor site until a disposition plan has been approved by the NRC and until a single State agrees to take the Spent Nuclear Fuel.
- The nuclear power industry has the best industrial record among all industries in the energy business, including wind and solar companies.
- President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” program launched the worldwide commercial nuclear power industry. The first commercial nuclear power plant, Shippingport, New York, began supplying power to the grid in 1957.
- Illinois has 12 nuclear power plants. 11 are still operating in 2019.
- Health Physicist. Health Physicist professionals are responsible for programs that design safety into facilities, monitor personnel for radiation exposure, ensure radiological areas to not contaminate external facilities, radiological contamination within labs is controlled and mitigated, and for radiological safety programs in all nuclear facilities.
- Nuclear Engineers are regarded as some of the smartest professionals in all fields as evidenced by numerous polls taken among nuclear engineering schools and the American Nuclear Society.
