Is nuclear power safer than wind power?

An opinion article from FoxNews today disclosed a fact not yet mentioned in this blog: Not one single person died from the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima plant in Japan.

How many people have died from Wind Turbine accidents? In a 2009 article written by Ed Hiserodt that highlights the report “Summary of Wind Turbine Accident Data from December 2008″ cites 41 worker fatalities, mostly from workers falling during construction.

Other shocking facts from the report:
“• 139 incidents of blade failure. Failed blades have been known to travel over a quarter mile, and that is from turbines much smaller than those being manufactured today. This type of accident has caused some European countries to require a minimum distance of about one mile between occupied housing and wind turbines.

•110 incidents of fire. When a wind turbine fire occurs, the local fire departments can do little but watch. This isn’t a problem unless the wind is blowing sufficiently to scatter the debris into dry fields or woodlands..

• 60 incidents of structural failure. This includes turbine failure and tower collapse failures.

• 24 incidents of “ice throw” with human injury. These data may be a small fraction of actual incidences, with 880 icing events reported in a 13-year period for Germany alone.”

As the US tries to find an answer for green energy, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons. Looks like wind is not only un-sustainable (the wind doesn’t blow 24 hours a day), but can be dangerous as well. No one in the US has died from a nuclear power plant malfunction in 30 years.

The article by Hiserod also goes into detail about the construction of nuclear power plants and containment units; “Nuclear energy comes from a reactor core about the size of a living room where it can be monitored and contained in-depth. It would take 2,000 30-story tall wind turbines to produce the power of a typical nuclear plant… How many accidents would you expect when building 2,000 30-story turbine generators as compared to pouring concrete for a single containment building of a few thousand square feet?”

These are just a few cons to think about when we consider wind power to replace other forms of energy generation. Click here for fact sheet about how many minerals its takes to build a wind turbine.

Either way we need mining to help provide clean energy, whether it is nuclear or wind power.

The More You Dig – It all starts with mining!

Read the editorial from Fox News here: Nuclear Power is Extremely Safe — That The Truth We Learned From Japan

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