Hey everyone, we have a new blogger for Athens Sustained! His name is Alex and he is a grad student here at Ohio University. Read on to see what he has to say about nuclear energy and the Earth Month screening of 'The Battle of Chernobyl'.
As a part of the process of raising awareness about global environmental problems, Earth Month 2011 continues here at OU with a screening of the film documentary ‘The Battle of Chernobyl.” The event is scheduled on April 26, 2011, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster. The screening will start at 7:30pm, at the Scripps Auditorium.
On April 26, 1986, in an area of what was then the Soviet Union (present-day independent Ukraine), an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released large quantities of radioactive material in the atmosphere and forcing the evacuation of over 350 thousand people from the contaminated areas. Today, around 7,000 people work in the decommissioning of the power plant as well as in preventing access to the contaminated 19-mile area around Chernobyl and preventing spread of the contamination.
Released in 2006, 20 years after the nuclear disaster, ‘The Battle of Chernobyl’ is a detailed presentation, with the aid of extensive archival footage and interviews with witnesses, on the circumstances and events as they unfolded beginning on April 26, 1986. The movie was directed by Thomas Johnson and released by the Paris-based ‘Play Film,’ a company which produces documentaries as well as short fiction and feature films. It has won numerous film awards on both sides of the Atlantic.
‘The Battle of Chernobyl’ offers interesting insights on the potential long-term destructive power of nuclear energy and its impact on the life of the local population directly affected, including forced evacuation and the radiation-related illnesses. The documentary gives its audience the opportunity to explore the details of one of the largest environmental tragedies of the last century and the long-term legacy costs it has inflicted on the nation affected.
This is especially interesting as nuclear power plants are an increasingly seen as an important source of affordable energy. Nuclear energy is praised for delivering a clean alternative for energy production to other heavily pollutant materials such as coal. This is mainly because of the lack of carbon dioxide emissions, a key component of global warming. However, such an approach does not take into consideration the tons of radioactive waste produced each year. Radioactivity diminishes over time, in a process that can last, in the case of waste from nuclear power plants, for thousands of years. During this time, the material needs to be preserved in complete isolation to avoid the contamination of the environment.
In the United States, nuclear facilities produce around 20 percent of electricity needs with 104 operating reactors. Ohio is one of 31 US states to house nuclear facilities. Here, nuclear power generates around 10 percent of the energy and facilities are concentrated in the northern part of the state, although (according to the Columbus Dispatch) there are plans to build a third plant in Piketon (Pike County). Most of the energy used is still produced using coal. Renewable energy facilities account only for 1 percent.
The latest nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has once again drawn attention to the safety problems often linked with production of nuclear energy. There are many possible sources of energy, but the ability to use them always entail specific obligations. ‘The Battle of Chernobyl’ can be considered a ‘warning’ for people to treat nuclear energy with respect and to maintain awareness of the potential problems. When you do not know how to use it properly, it can have terrible consequences. Whether nuclear energy is the future remains an issue for debate. However, attaining knowledge, positive or negative, is essential to understand the advantages and the disadvantages. We are all users of electricity. The people of Ohio, including students, are potential beneficiaries of nuclear energy. In this case, we all must also understand the dangers which can arise from its misuse.
No comments:
Post a Comment