Boycott Toshiba’s
mini nukes by Russell Hoffman
T
oshiba, known worldwide for its electronic products, plans to build “small” (room-sized), fully-automated nuclear reactors, a mere 1/5000 th the size of existing boiling water reactors (BWRs) and pressurized water reactors (PWRs), which are old, massive and deteriorating. Did I also mention unsafe? Size notwithstanding, each of the new reactors will still contain enough lethal poison to wipe out a city. Toshiba plans to bring the f irst of the new reactors online in Japan this year, with Europe and America following in 2009.
it destroys any container it is stored in. Toshiba hasn’t solved that problem because the manufacturer can’t perform miracles. The nuclear waste problem is unsolvable at the atomic level, yet the nuclear industry continues to create more waste, with the false promise that a solution is just around the corner. It isn’t. In the US, Yucca Mountain isn’t a safe and proper solution and nothing else is even being considered. The energy source used in the new Toshiba reactors is a uranium-based fuel used by most nuclear power plants, which, of course, should also all be closed down in favour of alternative
Techno-nerds’ reactions to the new reactors on the Internet would make you think these were puppy dog friendly, couldnever-harm-a-flea energy sources, but the articles are written by computer “geeks,” who know nothing about nuclear waste issues, terrorism or economics. They just love the idea of “unlimited” cheap power, but they need to look a little deeper under the hood before they endorse these things. It takes approximately 800 to a thousand people to operate one of today’s nuclear reactors, which, on average, produces one megawatt of electricity per employee. In startling contrast, Toshiba’s proposed reactors will supposedly be completely automatic. No one will operate them and no one will guard them. According to the optimistic manufacturer, an apartment complex will be guaranteed steady power for up to 40 years. The cost, per reactor, is rumoured to be about $3.5 million. After 40 years, not only will the fuel have to be stored for millions of years, but the entire reactor will have to be isolated from humanity – on a finite planet with limited resources. In its press releases, Toshiba makes no mention of future plans for storage. Even after 60 years, tens of billions of dollars and thousands of the world’s best scientific brains puzzling the matter, we are still no closer to knowing what to do with radioactive waste because
energy sources. While renewable energy solutions are available, affordable and effective and could generate real profit for corporations, they don’t make millions for large utilities. A properly thought-out, renewable energy system would rely upon thousands of small sources of energy, and could, therefore, be very reliable even if some of those sources shut off for parts of every day. It should be illegal for utilities to refuse to purchase renewable energy at fair prices. The Toshiba babynukes will rely on a closed-loop, liquid sodium primary coolant system, instead of water. The manufacturer claims that reservoirs of Lithium-6 are used to stop the reactor if necessary. Note: Sodium ignites when exposed to air. Firefighters will have to treat a Toshiba pocket-reactor fire completely differently than how they have been trained or are capable of handling. Worse, the Toshiba reactors can be blown up by a bomb. continued on p. 22 FEBRUARY 2008
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