Pandora's Promise
After watching the movie on Pandora’s Promise on Sunday April 6,2018. When I hear the word nuclear, my first reaction brings horrific images to my brain asvI think of war and Hiroshima. When I initially hear nuclear power I think of the awful events of Chernobyl and the chemical meltdown that ensued, leaving a large town deserted and ruined. However, my view on nuclear power has completely changed. The movie starts off with a fantastic quote that I
thought was worth mentioning because it really relates to this topic of discussion really well. The quote is, “ The more you peel that onion, the more strange things you figure out”.
Pandora’s Promise was released in 2013 and directed by Robert Stone. It begins with clips from the Fukushima Disaster in 2011. Then the movie showed scenes of marches, speeches before it transitions into introductions with several environmentalists. The environmentalists tell their personal stories about their complete conversion from being anti-nuclear to pro-nuclear. Mark, the environmentalist, does a great job at presenting the
issue at hand and the pros and cons of using specific energy sources and why he is pro
nuclear now.
The main question that is looming throughout the video for me is if Nuclear power is the
answer to closing the gap between renewable energy sources like wind/solar and fossil
fuels if our energy consumption is going to double by 2050?
answer to closing the gap between renewable energy sources like wind/solar and fossil
fuels if our energy consumption is going to double by 2050?
Mark further in the movie explores Fukishima and Chernobyl which shows place frozen in time and explains to us why the horrible things that happened there happened and the fact
that radiation levels in some of these areas have actually been reduced from removing
many meters of top soil but will still never be the same.
Mark explained that when he would go to anti nuclear protests and rallies there slogan they stood by was," no compromise in defense of mother earth". This hits the message clear that maybe if you are anit-nuclear then you are pro fossil-fuel use because the amount of
electrictiy neeeded to meet the human societies needs can not be completely converted to
renweable energery. It is simply not going to happen and if we dont find an alternative to
burning fossil fuels, we may be in for a rude awakening come 2050.
Len Koch goes on to describe in the movie about how nuclear power came to be what it is
today. He was part of the EBR-1 project. The world's first nucelaer power plant. He goes on to introduce the two types of reactors that were available in the 1950s. The two types were
a breeder reactor and a light water reactor. Len tells us a breeder reactor essentially breeds plutonium and can recycle it over and over again. While the light water reactor was much
simpler but produces much much more waste. Unfortunately because of a series of events
the breeder reactor was overlooked by the loight water reactor. This is thanks in part to
General Rickover choosing the light water reactor as the main reactor for his project and as a result got marked first over the breeder reactor. Len goes on to tell us that as other
countries like Russia started to catch up with the United States with nuclear power,
President Eisenhower didn’t want to lose nuclear business in Europe. So he had the adams for peace which as a result made nuclear power become commercialized using the light water reactor and now 50 years later we have roughly 400 nuclear plants around the world that have produced tons of waste that we weren’t anticipating.
Breeder Reactor
Light Water Reactor
Some interesting facts that Len stated that made me raise my eyebrow included, " 1 pound of uranium ,which is about the size of your fingertip, if your able to release all the energy, it
has the equivalent of about 5,000 barrels of oil". To me that is mind blowing and incredibly
efficent.
electrictiy neeeded to meet the human societies needs can not be completely converted to
renweable energery. It is simply not going to happen and if we dont find an alternative to
burning fossil fuels, we may be in for a rude awakening come 2050.
Len Koch goes on to describe in the movie about how nuclear power came to be what it is
today. He was part of the EBR-1 project. The world's first nucelaer power plant. He goes on to introduce the two types of reactors that were available in the 1950s. The two types were
a breeder reactor and a light water reactor. Len tells us a breeder reactor essentially breeds plutonium and can recycle it over and over again. While the light water reactor was much
simpler but produces much much more waste. Unfortunately because of a series of events
the breeder reactor was overlooked by the loight water reactor. This is thanks in part to
General Rickover choosing the light water reactor as the main reactor for his project and as a result got marked first over the breeder reactor. Len goes on to tell us that as other
countries like Russia started to catch up with the United States with nuclear power,
President Eisenhower didn’t want to lose nuclear business in Europe. So he had the adams for peace which as a result made nuclear power become commercialized using the light water reactor and now 50 years later we have roughly 400 nuclear plants around the world that have produced tons of waste that we weren’t anticipating.
Breeder Reactor
Light Water Reactor Some interesting facts that Len stated that made me raise my eyebrow included, " 1 pound of uranium ,which is about the size of your fingertip, if your able to release all the energy, it
has the equivalent of about 5,000 barrels of oil". To me that is mind blowing and incredibly
efficent.
Mark who was anti-nuclear gave points that made him switch to pro nuclear:
Thinking about his kids, Mark sees that the destabilization and climate change is going to reak havoc on the human society if there isn't a big change soon! Not only is nuclear power very efficent, it doesn't produce carbon dioxide. This is actually very important as climate change will not stop unless we reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being produced. Currently Coal is not only the most used energy source worldwide, its use is accelerating worldwide, faster then natural gas, renewable energy, everything! This is not only bad, it is literally killing humans in the United States and worldwide. The movie states that, "3 million people die every year from air pollution from fossil fuel burning and if you add up all fossil fuel burning in the United States , from power plants, just the fine particulates alone in the pollution kill 13,000 people in the U.S.A. every year!"
The movie then goes on to show us graphs depicting the data of deaths per energy source, and shockingly nuclear is the second safest after wind! Even though nuclear has a rough past being associated with war and these horrific meltdowns so has natural gases. Without natural gases the planes that dropped the nuclear bombs wouldn't have been able to function without natural gas. So is Nuclear really as bad as people make it out to be? No! It's not! Not even close! The environmentalists women says that nucear energy is, " its actually very safe overall, and add to the irony that it's even safer then solar because making solar panels is an icredibly toxic process". She goes on to say that there hasn’t been a single death in the United States from the operation of commercial and nuclear reactors in the history of this country! She also says that, " the leaks from a nuclear plant actually is incredibly safe. You get more radiation from a banana then if you drank all of the water that comes out of the nuclear plant in one day!
Thinking about his kids, Mark sees that the destabilization and climate change is going to reak havoc on the human society if there isn't a big change soon! Not only is nuclear power very efficent, it doesn't produce carbon dioxide. This is actually very important as climate change will not stop unless we reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being produced. Currently Coal is not only the most used energy source worldwide, its use is accelerating worldwide, faster then natural gas, renewable energy, everything! This is not only bad, it is literally killing humans in the United States and worldwide. The movie states that, "3 million people die every year from air pollution from fossil fuel burning and if you add up all fossil fuel burning in the United States , from power plants, just the fine particulates alone in the pollution kill 13,000 people in the U.S.A. every year!"
The movie then goes on to show us graphs depicting the data of deaths per energy source, and shockingly nuclear is the second safest after wind! Even though nuclear has a rough past being associated with war and these horrific meltdowns so has natural gases. Without natural gases the planes that dropped the nuclear bombs wouldn't have been able to function without natural gas. So is Nuclear really as bad as people make it out to be? No! It's not! Not even close! The environmentalists women says that nucear energy is, " its actually very safe overall, and add to the irony that it's even safer then solar because making solar panels is an icredibly toxic process". She goes on to say that there hasn’t been a single death in the United States from the operation of commercial and nuclear reactors in the history of this country! She also says that, " the leaks from a nuclear plant actually is incredibly safe. You get more radiation from a banana then if you drank all of the water that comes out of the nuclear plant in one day!
In the end although the movie was very long, I actually enjoyed it very much! It really swayed my opinion about nuclear power as i didn't know as much about it as I actually thought. I think small and safe nuclear power plants is the answer to our future.
*IMAGES FROM CREATIVVE COMMONS*
*IMAGES FROM CREATIVVE COMMONS*
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