Nuclear cleanup is all-embracing to the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030. Most unfortunate, though, the amount of waste is large widespread, - yet as silenced as invisible. However, the two major powerplant disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima are minor compared to the 2000 detonated nuclear bombs, the many leaking storages and all the accidents. Still, the aim for this blog is not to trigger some Blame-Game, but merely to set the focus on the status, some solutions and safer utilizations.
This sub-series to the UU blogs, called SDG2030/QoH, concerns the Sustainable Development Goals to promote the Quality of Humanity. As mentioned about pollution in general, the nuclear waste does certainly affect most SDGs to some extent, including; 1, No Poverty; 2, No Hunger; 3, Good Health; 6, Clean Water and Sanitation; 7, Clean Energy; 8, Decent Work; 9, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; 11, Cities and Communities; 12, Consumption and Production; 13, Climate; 14, Submarine Life; 15, Life on Land; 16, Peace; Justice; and Institutions; and 17, Public/Private partnerships. These Goals also include their 169 targets.
It should be noted though, that there are natural levels of radioactivity, which we always have been exposed to - and always will. The radiations might even be a reason for our development as humans. Moreover, radioactive technology is also utilized to clean water. For example, 20% of the industrial water pollution stems from the textile industry that can be cleaned by nuclear utilization. (See video-link to the IAEA).
In fact, there have been 2121 nuclear weapons detonations by 2476 devices. There were 520 atmospheric, 8 underwater and 1352 underground of 90 Mt (Megatons TNT). The detonations had a total yield of 545 MT, where 217 Mt were fission 328 Mt were fusion. Even though US had more device tests than SU (1132 vs 981) - the US detonated far less yield than the SU (197 vs 297). Besides, there are big differences on how ‘dirty’ these bombs were, - how much radioactivity they really spread. The IPPNW states that the nuclear atmosphere test caused 0.4 million deaths by cancer by 2000 and 2,4 million deaths from nuclear testing.
A nuclear and radiation accident is defined as a significant consequence to people, the environment or the facility. The prime examples are the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. However, as of 2014, there have been more than 100 serious accidents. (ref Wikipedia)
Howto recover the radioactive calamities, then? The UN is the only and the vital institution for nuclear sanity. Historically, in 1963, the 3 of 4 nuclear nations USUK (US, SU, UK) and many other UN nations, except France and China, signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, that allowed only underground testing. However, underground detonations did (officially) stop before 2000 with the signing of a comprehensive treaty, - except for North Korea that continued with their latest detonation in 2017.
The sad conclusion is that done is done and can’t be undone. However, some nuclear waste can be cleaned up and the most potentially disasters can be prevented for happening. Still, some of all the radioactive materials are too wide-spreads and contribute to the ‘natural radiation’ - hopefully at safe levels. Moreover, the heavy nuclear atoms sink down in the ground. For example, the Chernobyl waste have now sunk 20 cm, which makes an effort to remove it unlikely. The region might be unhabitual for a hundred years. Such sites need to be evacuated and isolated. Most important though, is that any of the united nation and related organisation do understand that nuclear terrorism is the very opposite of the civilizations’ SDGs for 2030. Any such uncivilized member of the UN is the most serious danger to itself and any other – and needs to be disabled from any decision-making in the UN - until its regime is proven sane.
Links
Nukes and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency):
https://www.iaea.org/topics/accident-reports
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKZV7eXZtao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents_and_incidents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_weapons_tests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_weapons_tests#Tests_by_country
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_testing
UN Sustainable Development Goals
https://sdgs.un.org/goals
SDG11:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goal_11
See all UU blogs at: http://bloguu.azurewebsites.net/
Music
Breathing - Kate Bush instrumental + original lyric version
https://youtu.be/YS9pKUNCblM
https://youtu.be/gjXfVM_JU5k
“Nuclear testing ended over 20 years ago but the legacy of the test areas still remains and will do for hundreds or thousands of years. 8 countries have actively tested nuclear weapons, some in their own backyard if it was big enough like the Soviet Union and the US but they also used others peoples’ backyards in the Pacific, the British and French did this. But what happened to the test sites, in this video we look at the US and Soviet test programs and what became of them and the people nearby.”
Video documentary: What Happened to the Nuclear Test Sites?
Video - A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 (to 2000)
https://youtu.be/LLCF7vPanrY
Video - The Nuclear Waste Problem
https://youtu.be/uU3kLBo_ruo