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Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination

Nuclear hazards, linked to both U.S. weapons programs and civilian nuclear power, pose substantial environment justice issues. Nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors produce low-level ionizing radiation, high level nuclear waste, and are subject to catastrophic contamination events. Justice concerns inc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kyne, Dean, Bolin, Bob
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4962241/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27420080
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070700
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author Kyne, Dean
Bolin, Bob
author_facet Kyne, Dean
Bolin, Bob
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description Nuclear hazards, linked to both U.S. weapons programs and civilian nuclear power, pose substantial environment justice issues. Nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors produce low-level ionizing radiation, high level nuclear waste, and are subject to catastrophic contamination events. Justice concerns include plant locations and the large potentially exposed populations, as well as issues in siting, nuclear safety, and barriers to public participation. Other justice issues relate to extensive contamination in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and the mining and processing industries that have supported it. To approach the topic, first we discuss distributional justice issues of NPP sites in the U.S. and related procedural injustices in siting, operation, and emergency preparedness. Then we discuss justice concerns involving the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and the ways that uranium mining, processing, and weapons development have affected those living downwind, including a substantial American Indian population. Next we examine the problem of high-level nuclear waste and the risk implications of the lack of secure long-term storage. The handling and deposition of toxic nuclear wastes pose new transgenerational justice issues of unprecedented duration, in comparison to any other industry. Finally, we discuss the persistent risks of nuclear technologies and renewable energy alternatives.
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spelling pubmed-49622412016-08-01 Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination Kyne, Dean Bolin, Bob Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Nuclear hazards, linked to both U.S. weapons programs and civilian nuclear power, pose substantial environment justice issues. Nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors produce low-level ionizing radiation, high level nuclear waste, and are subject to catastrophic contamination events. Justice concerns include plant locations and the large potentially exposed populations, as well as issues in siting, nuclear safety, and barriers to public participation. Other justice issues relate to extensive contamination in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and the mining and processing industries that have supported it. To approach the topic, first we discuss distributional justice issues of NPP sites in the U.S. and related procedural injustices in siting, operation, and emergency preparedness. Then we discuss justice concerns involving the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and the ways that uranium mining, processing, and weapons development have affected those living downwind, including a substantial American Indian population. Next we examine the problem of high-level nuclear waste and the risk implications of the lack of secure long-term storage. The handling and deposition of toxic nuclear wastes pose new transgenerational justice issues of unprecedented duration, in comparison to any other industry. Finally, we discuss the persistent risks of nuclear technologies and renewable energy alternatives. MDPI 2016-07-12 2016-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4962241/ /pubmed/27420080 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070700 Text en © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kyne, Dean
Bolin, Bob
Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination
title Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination
title_full Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination
title_fullStr Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination
title_full_unstemmed Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination
title_short Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination
title_sort emerging environmental justice issues in nuclear power and radioactive contamination
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4962241/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27420080
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070700
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