Radioactive Sheep

Chloe Bangs, aged 13, of Mt Albert Grammmmar ScSchool (9HSN) remembers the Chernobyl nuclear plant incident in 1986 and considers the possible consequences for New Zealand, if the government were to reconsider our ‘nuclear free' stance.

Remember Chernobyl? Obviously students wouldn't have been alive at the time, but you've more than likely heard of it. Some New Zealanders are now considering nuclear power as an idea for the future, in spite of the fact that New Zealanders have prided themselves as being ‘nuclear free'. The main problem is the fact people don't know enough about nuclear power to make a decision.
This article is to inform everyone about nuclear power and the possible consequences of it, so people actually know what they would be agreeing to.
The nuclear reactor, the most vital (and dangerous) part of a nuclear power plant, works by using neutrons to hit uranium atoms (uranium is unstable and often used in nuclear bombs). This causes a nuclear reaction and produces heat. After a series of other processes, electricity is made and sent off through the power lines.

Meltdown
A fatal mix of equipment failure and human error at the Chernobyl plant resulted in an accident that left the city a radioactive wasteland when the system went into ‘meltdown'. It left many people with cancers such as leukaemia, and 31 people died from acute radiation poisoning. This doesn't include the hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed by cancer. But that wasn't all. The Chernobyl accident sent a cloud of radioactive gases travelling as far as Wales. That's 2136km away from the plant!
Unfortunately for Welsh farmers, they had rain as the radioactivity travelled over Wales. So radioactive particles were absorbed by the grass and plants, which were eaten by sheep. So guess what? They had radioactive sheep, and there was nothing they could do about it. The farmers were not allowed to sell the radioactive sheep as meat because the government didn't want to pass radioactivity onto humans. Even now, 22 years after the Chernobyl disaster occurred, sheep in Wales are still being monitored for radiation. Even more surprisingly, radiation in the sheep still exists. The government will keep monitoring the sheep until 2015 - 29 years after the Chernobyl incident.

What would happen in New Zealand?
If a nuclear disaster like that happened in New Zealand, our economy would collapse because farming is our main industry, with meat being exported around the world. On top of that, we have to consider the cost of a nuclear plant. To build a single 1000MW 2008nuclear power station in New Zealand would cost NZ$3.5 billion.
There are other aspects too. Nuclear power is supposedly environmentally friendly, but that point is arguable. It takes thousands of years for nuclear waste to decay completely, and until then it is still highly radioactive and dangerous.
Adding all these different factors together, we have to wonder if it would really be worth it. Wouldn't it be so much better if the government put those billions of dollars into safer, renewable energy sources? And although the current technology in nuclear plants may be more reliable than that in Chernobyl, the risk of a meltdown is still there. So is nuclear power our future? I say no, but at least if a nuclear meltdown did occur in New Zealand, Kiwi farmers might be able to count their new glow-in-the-dark sheep at night.

What do you think?
How much did you know about the Chernobyl disaster? Should New Zealand reconsider its ‘nuclear free' position? Is nuclear energy safe enough to use here? Drop us an email and share your thoughts: heyyouguys@actv8.co.nz.