Podcast: Nuclear Power's 70th Anniversary: Then and Now | CHICAGO PRESENTATION - A Mountain of Waste 70 Years High: Ending the Nuclear Age

Podcast: Nuclear Power's 70th Anniversary: Then and Now Today marks the 70th anniversary of the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. In this edition Gundersen and Hurley discuss the first "atomic pile", the decades of secrecy that followed, and the birth of what has become known as the "nuclear priesthood." Also in this episode we discuss nuclear subsidies, water usage, and the problem of nuclear waste. Listen Now CHICAGO PRESENTATION - A Mountain of Waste 70 Years High: Ending the Nuclear Age To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the first sustained nuclear chain reaction "A Mountain of Waste Seventy Years High" nuclear symposium was held at the University of Chicago December 1 and 2, 2012.  The first sustained nuclear chain reaction occurred 70-years ago at a squash court in Chicago on December 2, 1942.  Fairewinds Associates' chief engineer Arnie Gundersen was one of the symposium’s invited speakers.   According to Gundersen, the five problems with nuclear power in 1942 that remain true today are: Secrecy controlled by the nuclear priesthood; Financial subsidies that could have been spent elsewhere; Waste heat discharged into rivers;  Decay heat that continues even after a nuclear plant shuts down; And, finally, high-level waste that must be sequestered for a quarter of a million years. Watch Now Fairewinds Energy Education