Upp í vindinn - 01.05.2016, Page 16

deaths. In summary, there have
been only 3 major accidents in
the 50+ year history of nuclear
energy - Three Mile Island in
1979, Chernobyl in 1986, and
Fukushima in 2011. Although these
accidents caused major disruptions
to local communities that were
forced to evacuate, according to
comprehensive scientific analyses
by the UN Scientific Committee
on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR) as well as independent
research groups, only one of them
(Chernobyl) has conclusively led to
deaths from radiation fallout8. In its
most recent report on Chernobyl,
UNSCEAR assessed that between
1986-2006, the total number of
deaths attributable in a scientifically
valid manner to radiation fallout
fronr the accident was 43. The
report authors (which included
scientists from each of the 3 most-
affected countries) chose not to
quantify future radiation-related
deaths because of “unacceptable
uncertainties in the predictions”9.
In conclusion: As we discuss in
our paper and published rebuttals
to critiques of itl(), although
nuclear energy expansion faces
serious challenges - including
waste disposal, safety, cost, and
proliferation - many of these can
be largely resolved with advanced
reactor designs that are being planned
and implemented. An objective,
scientific analysis of all relevant
issues makes it very clear that in
order to achieve climate change
and air pollution mitigation targets,
it is extremely important to retain
and expand the role of nuclear (in
addition to renewables) in the world
energy mix.
References
1) See http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/
outdoorair/databases/en/ and http://news.ubc.
ca/2016/02/12/poor-air-quality-kills- 5-5-million-
worldwide-annually/.
2) See sources in footnote 1 and http://www.ipcc.
ch/report/ar5/wg 1 /.
3) See http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg3/ and
http://www.globalenergyassessment.org/.
4) Freely available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/
full/10.1021/es3051197 or http://
pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/kh05000e.html.
5) See Table 1 in our paper, based on Table 2 of this
paper: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/
article/PIIS0140-6736%2807%2961253-7/abstract.
6) See our paper (footnote 4) and http://
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
energy/2014/09/140924-natural-gas-impact-on-
emissions/.
7) Freely available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.
com/doi/10.1002/2015JD024183/full.
8) See sources in our paper (footnote 4) and the
2013 and 2015 UNSCEAR reports on Fukushima:
http://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/publications/
Fukushima„WP2015 .html.
9) Full report available at http://www.unscear.
org/docs/reports/2008/11 -80076_Report_2008_
Annex_D.pdf; see also http://www.unscear.org/
unscear/en/chernobyl.html.
10) Freely available at http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/
abs/kh06000s.html and http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/
abs/kh07000q .html.
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2016
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