The elimination of nuclear power plants can lead to the death of many people

In recent years, some countries have decided shut down their nuclear power plants and replace the energy they produce with other, safer sources. Some calculations have been made as to what economic or energy implications this decision. However, there has been little analysis of how this will affect air quality. For this reason, a group of scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a computational model capable of calculating even the increase or decrease in the number of deaths that this would entail.

It should be noted that, despite accidents like Chernobyl, nuclear power is safe if proper controls are in place. Besides, it’s pretty clean here. For this reason, according to this study, which has just been published in The energy of naturemortality associated with environmental pollution can increase significantly. Only in USAhappen over 5,000 deaths per year.

The main reason is a failure in choice of energy sources. With the elimination of nuclear power plants, there would be no choice but to resort again to fossil fuelsuch as oil or natural gas, so that the emissions of pollutant particles and gases will increase significantly. You can use renewable sources such as wind or solar, but even then there will be some detrimental effects.

What will happen if nuclear power plants in the US disappear?

United States 92 nuclear reactorswhich is the largest number in the world.

Thus, it is a good country to carry out this kind of calculation. The authors of the study built a computational model that took into account several factors. To begin with, he carried out calculations as it is done in reality, choosing at every moment the need cheapest source of energy. They also took into account weatherto watch how polluting emissions move around the country. And finally turned on mortality data associated with environmental pollution.

After this model was developed, it was introduced two scenarios. In the first of these, all nuclear power plants have disappeared, and it remains to choose the cheapest one, based on current availability. Meanwhile, the second presented the amount of renewable energy that should be available in the United States by 2030.

Thus, it was seen that mortality would increase by several 5200 people per year in the first scenario. Logically, the second would be much more favorable; but it will still be another 260 deaths than if nuclear power plants were kept.

In addition, black people, who often live closest to fossil fuel plants, have been found to be hardest hit.

This is what has already been observed

Similar studies have not been carried out before. However, they have seen results that match their findings in real life. For example, in 1985, the closure of a nuclear power plant located in the city of Valley of Tennessee forced to use more fossil fuels. This has also been seen in Germany. There, a decision was made to close nuclear power plants and initially they paid for the consequences in the form of environmental pollution. Over time, it became possible to increase the use of alternative energy sources, but initially these consequences had to be paid.

So the conclusion of this new study is that it is safer to maintain nuclear power plants. Until other methods of generating nuclear energy, such as fusion, are commercialized, the only thing left to do is to strengthen the safety of fission nuclear power plants so that there is no Chernobyl again. Another option is to eliminate them, but the consequences are much worse than we thought. At least based on this study.