The damage to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
(Fukushima Dai-ichi) has led people worldwide to rethink the ethics of nuclear power.
What happened to HEALTH AND SAFETY?
RISKS: Danger to current and future generations from leakage of radioisotopes used in nuclear power.
Plutonium-239 (half-life = 24,110 yrs) is a particularly toxic radio-isotope.
Normally, 10 half-lives are required before a Pu-239 contaminated area is considered safe again, in the case of plutonium, roughly 250,000 years.
So if Pu leaked, -- say, due to an earthquake -- it would cause a health risk for roughly 8000 generations!!
But still, what or why supported the makers to build a nuclear power plant at first?
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS:
ISSUE #1: HEALTH AND SAFETY RISKS,
a) The possibility of medical science discovering a cure for cancer sometime in the current or next centuries adds uncertainty to the long-term health risks of leakages of radio-active isotopes.
b) The use of nuclear power may increase our knowledge of radioisotopes used for medical purposes (possible benefit?).
ISSUE #2: DEPLETION OF RESOURCES:
Fossil fuels, oil, natural gas and coal, are non-renewable. These resources also affect the goal of health because of their impact on pollution and climate changes.
ISSUE #3: COMPARATIVE ECONOMIC COSTS OF RENEWABLE SOURCES.
Renewable sources such as hydro-electric-power, wind power, solar power, geothermal heat, agricultural biomass and tides do not cause the environmental hazards that fossil-fuels do.
But renewable sources must be balanced with the amount of energy needed to produce and maintain them and consequent environmental hazards. Currently, for example, the energy required to manufacture and install solar energy systems comes from fossil fuels.
This type of reasoning is often called practical reasoning.
It uses different methods from mathematics and the sciences.
Ethical reasoning is a type of practical reasoning that concerns certain societal or life-form goals, such as justice, equality, freedom, health and safety.
Engineering is one of the most important professions in society.
As engineers, we don't just build things and develop processes. We build things and make processes to better society.
To make society better we have to reflect constantly on the products and processes that we make.
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Shine from within
Literatura FaktuBest for Engineers or Leaders. - This book will discuss more on Engineer's decision making. it may drive your wonders to somewhere off-topic but yet describes the morals and valuable lessons. What's important will try to be announced. The first book...
