WTF Happened to Nuclear Energy?

The fears and the facts around the world’s most contentious energy source

What happened to the promise of nuclear energy? This once seemingly futuristic and clean power source has fallen by the wayside, with countries even turning off their nuclear reactors during an energy crisis. Let’s dig into why people are so afraid of nuclear energy, and if their fears are realistic.

About:
Johnny Harris is an Emmy-winning independent journalist and contributor to the New York Times. Based in Washington, DC, Harris reports on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe, publishing to his audience of over 3.5 million on Youtube. Harris produced and hosted the twice Emmy-nominated series Borders for Vox Media. His visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways.

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[adamboey]

As a nuclear physicist who deals with rad waste daily, I appreciate the thought put into dispelling common radiation fears, it only makes my job that little bit easier.

[stonedtowel]

It’s definitely important to note that a lot of people that don’t bother studying nuclear, usually in my experience just associate it with Fukushima, Chernobyl, and for some reason Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Which is extremely disheartening.

[abelsz]

As a geologist, I've been to a nuclear waste storage site. It was created 300 meters below ground level, inside a granite block, which they surveyed so thoroughly, they know basically every cm³ of that formation. There were huge concrete covered halls created down there, the size of two football fields, so impressively huge. The waste is put in those huge halls or silos embedded in 3 ton concrete cubes, and when the halls fill up, they get filled with concrete to the ceiling... There was a several km long ROAD created underground to the storage site, and a large area around the entrance is secured by a private company, basically a smaller army. Getting inside was a diiiifficult thing.😀 If someone would walk up there, and didn't stop when asked, they would be shot immediately.

So yeah. Nuclear waste is taken seriously. Way more seriously than anyone could guess. Being down there, next to the concrete crates, the radiation was less than normal background on the surface. And what is stored down there? Low activity nuclear waste: spanners used in the reactor, gloves, coats, lab glasses etc. So yeah. They take it seriously, the high activity storage site is not done yet, but I can't imagine how overengineered that will be. And it's not some fancy rich western country, this is in Hungary...

Ps.: the guy there told us that the plans must ensure, that the storage site remains intact for the next 2 million years... Just mindblowing.

[RobinSteiner]

Nuclear has extreme regulations that the skeptics tend to ignore when their goal is just to fearmonger mostly. The real reason we don't have more nuclear is because of the immense amount of inspections and regulations that comes with nuclear energy which is understandable. However, this makes nuclear energy significantly more expensive for an investment than other forms of energy. And with low investment and no larger public option (yet!) in America, this leads to less nuclear energy. Another great video, Johnny Harris.

[connorisawsome]

Here in Ontario, Canada, we get around 60% of our electricity from nuclear energy. This allowed us to transition away from coal. This massively reduced the pollution we had in the Greater Toronto Area and southern ontario. When I was a kid, the smog in Toronto was WAY worse than it is now. I had terrible asthma as well. Now air quality has improved and my asthma symptoms have gotten much better over time. THANK YOU NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS!

[tthijj]

I literally submitted the draft version of my Bachelor's thesis on nuclear energy policies in Germany and France last Friday. And now this video comes out!!!

[samraduns]

I love this channel and these creators so much. In an age where 6-second videos are the “perfect length” its great that I can watch a 30 minute video and enjoy every second

[Lappuz]

A thing that's quite important but often overlooked is that even though a particular piece of material may remain radioactive for thousands or even millions of years that doesn't mean it will stay as dangerous for all that time.
Radiation is dangerous when you get hit with many energetic particles but the type of particles that a source can emit will vary greatly over time. Typically the really dangerous stuff is really short lived so most of the danger won't be there anymore in a much much shorter time span.
Another important thing is concentration, especially with fluids. If you can treat the material and dilute it it's simply not dangerous anymore

[Swiftgringo]

I spent a period working at a uranium mine in Canada. LOTS of people asked me, "Don't you get a lot of radiation doing that?" The answer is actually "Yes". Working a "fly-in/fly-out" camp job increases your dosage significantly - although not nearly as much as say, working as a flight attendant. Working in a uranium mine itself? Not really.

[rehbeinator]

Thank you for making this video. My dad is a retired nuclear engineer, and I have a masters degree in nuclear physics. I have been trying for years to convince people of exactly the things you explain in this video, so it is really heartening to see you using your platform for this purpose. People fear what they don't understand, and it's really easy for people to get caught up in worrying about mysterious radiation and a handful of flashy news stories about rare disasters. The main impediment to nuclear energy is the lack of public education on the topic, so thank you for helping to remove that impediment!

[GoneFollows]

Thanks so much for this video. Growing up with a Nuclear Physicist as a father you heard amazing cool and completely confusing things every night, but the majority of the talk was over budgets being low. My dad has over 100 patents from developing Nuclear technology since 87. His job title of Health Physicist did not even exist until Churnobyl. The harsh truth is that the public is scared, the politicians are bribed, and the money is not in unlimited clean power. We live in a world where Fusion COULD have been, but may NEVER be.

[preadb]

Johnny, you and Cleo and your respective teams are all global treasures. Thank you so much for putting so much time into these important subjects and providing your sources. We need more of this.

[acka-g]

This video actually couldn't have come out at a more perfect point. I'm literally writing a text at school about why we don't have more nuclear power.

[WorgenDeath]

I think one thing about Chernobyl that played a very big role in why specifically Europe got really weary of nuclear power generation going forward is that eventho the amount of people that died was relatively speaking not that big, the toxic particles carried by the wind blew all over Europe, to the point that even here in the Netherlands, Iodine pills were distributed because of potential nuclear particles that fell out of the sky and onto farmer's crops. The idea that being literally thousand of miles away you could still be affected was absolutely terrifying to many people in my mother's generation.

[TweetyBlu]

Instead of talking with a nuclear scientist, Johnny, decided to talk with Cleo.

[tejshanbhag]

Really great breakdown! The psychological impact of accidents, recycling potential of waste, and cost distribution on Nuclear energy all provide room for growth in this sector, and a definite need to consider it's greater use in the energy pie as a whole come the future! Look forward to the next one Johnny (and Cleo)

[tabithaesaacson]

I know you touched on it just briefly, but I wanted to address to the concern about a "bad guy" getting into a nuclear power plant. I work in nuclear background investigations. If someone wishes to have unescorted access into a plant (meaning they can walk around without two armed military with them) they have to go through an extensive background check. We call everyone, your old jobs, your family, your references, references from your references, your schooling, all of it. My entire company and job is about keeping those bad guys out of those plants.

[terramater]

The scariness is the MAIN issue for a technology that's otherwise (mostly) great. Fun fact: there's a nuclear power plant in Austria/Europe, very close to our studio. It was built in the 1970s and 100% completed but never turned on. Replaced by a coal power plant, far worse for the environment. It's still there - so, in our video, we went there to find out wether we could turn it on today. As Cleo frames it perfectly: it's all a political problem, not a technological one.

[Pokyachi]

I think that you put so much emphasis about the number of people that would die per energy unit for different sources, but you didn't mention how these were calculated. I know that some data sources in case of e.g. deal not only with accidents, but also pollution-related deaths. It would be good to know what you were touching on with your research!

[kumarchheda]

Apart from the awesome conversations and insights that the video give me, I couldn't take my eyes off of how well this video was made. It's so well shot, so well edited. It's brilliant.