NUCLEAR-FREE WORLD

- ENVISIONED DISASTER: NUCLEAR DISASTER- AREA: DISASTER PREVENTION

- PREPARED BY: SZÁSZ ISTVÁN ATTILA, ROMANIA

FACING NUCLEAR DISASTER

I have chosen to focus on a possible nuclear disaster because I think that this threat is a real one and we could all face it someday in the future so it is very important to start working on it’s prevention.

A nuclear disaster would endanger the life of thousands or possibly millions of people who could be killed in an explosion or who could face a severe radiation poisoning.

THERE ARE 2 KIND OF NUCLEAR THREATS THAT COULD EASILY LEAD TO A NUCLEAR DISASTER:

- military threat: referring to actions that involve the use of nuclear weapons and devices.

- civil threat: referring to events that could threaten the safeness of the nuclear power plants from around the World.

- At this time there are 9 states possessing nuclear weapons: USA, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Chorea and Israel. Also Iran is suspected with the intention of enriching uranium, which could be used to build nuclear weapons. - In this case the real threat comes from the possibility of some well organized terrorist organizations to procure nuclear materials and to use them in terrorist attacks. This could never happen in some of the nuclear states, but it represents a high risk in states like Pakistan, North Chorea or Iran, known as supporters of some extremist organizations.

- At this moment we do not know about any terrorist organization that holds any radioactive materials or devices, but we do know about the willingness of some of them to procure this kind of materials.

THE MILITARY THREAT:

- 15% of the worldwide needed electric energy is produced by the 436 nuclear reactors, built in 31 state all around the world. - As we unfortunately witnessed last year at Fukushima, in some extreme cases, these facilities can represent a high radiation poisoning risk which will lead to contamination and health problems among the affected territory.

THE CIVIL THREAT:

MY SOLUTION:

- My idea is based on the prevention of any nuclear disaster that might occur in the future by creating a nuclear-free world.

- The theory works by applying some very simple rules and measures that need to be taken.

- Nuclear disarmament presents itself as one of the most important solutions when talking about preventing nuclear disasters. All the nuclear states have to constantly decrease the number of their weapons until all of them will be eliminated. Many steps in this direction have allready be taken since the end of the Cold War, but there is still a long way to go until we reach the final elimination of these diabolic weapons.

- Strenghtening the nuclear non-proliferation regime is also very important. No state should be let to create highly enreached uranium, which could be used for building nuclear bombs.

PREVENTING THE MILITARY THREAT:

- Upgrading the security level of all the radioactive material storage places is an other important prevention tool. This way we will reduce the risk of anyone unauthorized (involving terrorists) to access these materials, which later can be used to build radioactive devices.

All these ideas are also present in the Non Proliferation Treaty signed by 189 states of the World and refused to be signed by Israel, North Chorea, India and Pakistan. Iran holds a special status by signing the treaty but not applying it.

By not applying these basic prevention ideas, every state increases the risk of terrorist organizations to procure nuclear weapons and use them in attacks that would definitely lead to a major disaster.

- The real solution on preventing a civil nuclear disaster would be a transition from nuclear energy to alternative energy resources, which is much more safer, ecological and also involves lower costs.

- After the events of the 2011 nuclear disaster of Fukushima Daiihi, the civil society has started a worldwide campaign based on the presented idea, and has reached to make some changes in the nuclear energy management politics of many international organizations. The IAEA has decided to inspect and strengten (if needed) the security level of all the existing nuclear power plants and a very important step was taken by Germany who decided to close al it’s nuclear power plants by the year 2022.

- Until all the nuclear energy plants will be closed it is very important to keep them at a maximum security level and also to be careful with the handling and storing of the nuclear wastes.

PREVENTING THE CIVIL THREAT

THE IMPACT OF MY PREVENTION SOLUTIONS

By implementing the solutions I have presented we could eliminate the possibility of a nuclear disaster in the future.

Without nuclear weapons and devices there would be no reason to be afraid of a nuclear war or a nuclear terrorist attack. And by converting to alternative energy resources we could eliminate the possibility of facing a similar event to the one in Fukushima or Cernobil.

All the presented solutions are real-life viable, but their implementation needs a long time, a lot of work and good policies from the international institutions.