Global Futures: Technology built with design faults: Nuclear Accidents

Fukushima power plant being put out

Chernobyl power plant explosion

In 2011 the Fukushima power plant was caused to over heat due to first thought was a natural disaster but appears the problem was faulty design of the structure, this lead to radiation being spread out over the land and pacific ocean the reactor was built in 1971 and in operation for 40 years. This same nuclear technology was seen in the Chernobyl accident and has a likeness that brings up questions of how well was this design thought out?, was this technology tested properly? and is their dangers moving to fast with technology ?

The Chernobyl power plant accident happened in 1986 an was due to also a design faulty design leading to instability at low power during a safety check which resulted in an explosion spreading contaminated radiation area of 500km2 (according to UN)

437 power plants world wide are operational at the moment and with only 2 having malfunctioned since the beginning of the technology it is a small percentage of only 0.45% have caused radiation to leak although with this technology any malfunction can be devastating with this evident in the Chernobyl accident the dangers of this technology is Chernobyl was no just the initial explosion and the radiation effecting the environment but also longer term problems to Humans in the surrounding area there is a 30km2 barrier but the contaminants have spread into a 500km area so there are people still being effected by radiation sickness causing many medical conditions that are still being studied to learn how it is effecting people as this sort of radiation sickness had never occurred before, some of these conditions are:

Thyroid cancer cases as well as many more cancers such as Leukemia, Pregnancy failures, Kids had an increase in:

Disorders of the nervous system 43 %

Cardiovascular diseases 43 %

Gastrointestinal diseases 28 %

Disorders of bone, muscle and connective tissue 62 %

Diabetes 28 %

Kids living in surronding areas of Chernobyl

Chernobyl’s construction of the new sarcophagus offsite in a safe exclusion area

Technology such as Nuclear power plants is both changing the way we power our cities but also in these two cases destroy our cities and lives. Ray Kurzweil says there will be “a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed” (Kurzweil, 7). This stament does not say if it will be transformed for better or worse although so far the technology in the nuclear power plants has brought more negative components so the environment and humans health. Yet the positives that have come out of these accidents are the future technology to contain these accidents quicker and more efficiently as well as learning from the mistakes of the past. The Chernobyl incident caused the construction of the “sarcophagus” which is a combination of steel and concrete to contain the radiation leak Robots where also used towards the end of the construction as radioactive levels grew to high this need for robots increased the development and use of robotics. By the end of 2015 the new sarcophagus will be finished and the power plant decommissioned for good this insight in how to construct safe confinement building will be invaluable knowledge to cleaning up future accidents if they occur.

Technology has the ability to create or destroy, unite or disperse human kind and it existence.

What will the future hold for humanity ?

For futher information about this topic check out the blog post on the page named Global Futures: Technology and Anthropocenic results: Fukushima Nuclear Accident Investigation

References:

Global Green, 2014,Nuclear Power, 18/9/14, http://www.thinkglobalgreen.org/NUCLEAR.html

Wikipedia, 2014,  Comparison of the fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear accidents, 18/9/14, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Fukushima_and_Chernobyl_nuclear_accidents

Green peace , 2006, What happened in Chernobyl, 18/9/14, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/nuclear/nomorechernobyls/what-happened-in-chernobyl/

Investigation of the causes of Chernobyl accident, 18/9/14, http://accidont.ru/ENG/invest.html

Tim Chao, 2010, The issues: how will technology impact us ?, 18/9/14, http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/technology-dangers/issues.html

Maximusriot, 2011, will our technology be used to save or destroy us?, 18/9/14, http://soulpancake.com/conversations/view/75616/will-our-technology-be-used-to-save-us-or-destroy-us.html

Justin Tadlock, 2014, the potential dangers of technological advance, 8/9/14,http://justintadlock.com/writing/potential-dangers-of-technological-advance

World Nuclear Association, 2009, Health Impacts, 18/9/14, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Appendices/Chernobyl-Accident—Appendix-2–Health-Impacts/

Wikipedia, 2014, Chernobyl Nuclear power plant Sarcophagus, 18/9/14, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Nuclear_Power_Plant_sarcophagus

Tags: 85202 Design, Chernobyl, Fukushima, futuring, globalfutures, human-technology, Medical conditions