Sunday, January 20, 2008

Safety of nuclear power?

Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power, industry, and military uses. In addition, there are safety issues involved in products created with radioactive materials. Some of the products are legacy ones (such as watch faces), others, like smoke detectors, are still being produced.

The topic of nuclear safety covers:
The research and testing of the possible incidents/events at a nuclear power plant,
What equipment and actions are designed to prevent those incidents/events from having serious consequences,
The calculation of the probabilities of multiple systems and/or actions failing thus allowing serious consequences,
The evaluation of the worst-possible timing and scope of those serious consequences (the worst-possible in extreme cases being a release of radiation),
The actions taken to protect the public during a release of radiation,
The training and rehearsals performed to ensure readiness in case an incident/event occurs.




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