Reactors, residents and risk (Nature News)

[kristopher]

Map showing the population size living within 75 kilometres of each of the world's nuclear power plants. Population increases with circle size and with colour, from green (< 0.5 million) to red (> 20 million). You need to download the Google Earth plug-in to view this graphic. For a larger version, click here.

In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident, people everywhere are asking: could a similar disaster strike closer to home?

For much of the world's population, distance offers no comfort. An analysis carried out by Nature and Columbia University, New York, shows that two-thirds of the world's 211 power plants have more people living within a 30-kilometre radius than the 172,000 people living within 30 kilometres of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, who have been forced or advised to leave. Some 21 plants have populations larger than 1 million within that radius, and six have populations larger than 3 million.

Population size was just one of the factors that Nature set out to explore in a bid to map reactor hazards around the world. Nuclear experts say that an objective 'danger' ranking is almost impossible because each reactor has its own unique risk profile, and some risks are simply unknowable. Reactor safety depends above all on a 'culture of security', including the quality of maintenance and training, the competence of the operator and the workforce, and the rigour of regulatory oversight, says Mycle Schneider, an independent nuclear consultant based in Paris. This means that a better-designed, newer reactor is not always a safer one. "What is more dangerous, a drunk driver in a brand new Ferrari or a sober Formula 1 pilot in a 30-year-old 2CV?" Schneider says. But experts do agree on a few critical risk factors, and on measures that could limit them.
Population

Population density is one critical lens...

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110421/full/472400a.html

[truedelphi]

1. Scary and sad statistic from the article:

“One hundred and fifty-two nuclear power plants have more than 1 million people living within 75 kilometres.”

[enough]

2. This is a crucial issue that most people aren't thinking about yet. All these aged reactors

all around the country (and the world), all with a lot of spent fuel. And a regulatory agency who can never say anything but "We've looked at that and there's no problem." Fukushima may wake some people up, let's hope.

Thanks for posting this. It's fantastic source of information.