Interactive Map of Nuclear Reactors and Safety Problems
by Union of Concerned Scientists on 11. 5.07
Here at the Union of Concerned Scientists, our experts pour through reams of data related to several issues, including pollution from cars and trucks, grassfed beef and global warming pollution. We’ve just launched a cool project that gives life to some of the data on safety problems at nuclear power plants, including groundwater contamination from tritium leaks.
The Nuclear Power Information Tracker is a fully interactive map showing operating, permanently closed, and proposed nuclear reactors in the continental United States. Moving a cursor over and/or clicking on a reactor will bring up more in-depth information about each reactor, including owner and licensing dates; local population; past and present safety issues; UCS letters to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); and testimony to Congress.
If you have any suggestions for improving the tracker or if you have additional issues you think would be interesting to highlight, leave a comment below.
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Thank you for this useful tool and all of the other useful work that your organization does.
now help me with this one how much does it cost to build a nuclear power plant what if we just used that money to build solar panels and wind power and just put them on top of our homes and buildings. hmmm could it work ding
Funny you should ask. UCS has some numbers on the cost of new nuclear power plants. I'm not sure what an average panel or turbine costs. The following is from a press release related to loan guarantees for nuclear power in the energy bill that UCS and other organizations are fighting against.
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/congress-should-cut-nuclear-0074.html
[snip]
The biggest cost associated with nuclear power is the billions of dollars it takes to build a plant. Just this week an industry spokesman told the radio show "Marketplace" that nuclear plants "are expected to cost between $3 [billion] and $5 billion each." Earlier this month, Moody's Investment Service projected that the plants will cost $5 billion to $7 billion.
In any case, construction costs historically have been dramatically underestimated. The first round of U.S. nuclear plants built between 1966 and 1977 experienced 200 percent to 380 percent cost overruns, according to the Energy Information Agency. These cost overruns—approximately $100 billion for the first 75 nuclear reactors—were among the factors that led to cancellation of nearly half of U.S. reactor construction projects.
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Great tool, but how's about you make one for coal power plants? And areas also affected by their outputs aside from their own problems? You know, if you take a survey of a bunch of buildings, never mind nuclear reactors, you're always going to find a bunch of things wrong with a bunch of them. Giving some context to the matter would be really good rather than just throwing some fear mongering terminology out there like leaks and such that just can't be good to anybody's mind. I don't doubt there are real problems, serious in some cases, to be dealt with here, but context rather than fear would be a better approach.
There's a ton of context when you visit the reactor site and start clicking around. Thanks for the idea about coal plants. A map showing renewable energy projects to go along with it would be cool, too.
This map is the first project of its kind UCS has done. We hope there will be more like it in the future.
-Aaron Huertas
Assistant Press Secretary, UCS