{"id":328074,"date":"2024-05-12T12:33:45","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T10:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=328074"},"modified":"2024-05-12T12:33:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T10:33:47","slug":"wind-turbine-related-radiation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=328074","title":{"rendered":"Wind Turbine-related Radiation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0<\/em>John Droz, Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cLobbyists and other politically correct parties paint industrial wind energy as \u201cfree, clean, and green.\u201d With no consequences for lying, is it any wonder that we are drowning in dishonesty?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is the last in a series I\u2019ve posted about radiation and some of our energy sources. It started with a commentary<\/a> arguing that there are good reasons to categorize Nuclear power as a \u201crenewable\u201d source of electrical energy. Next was Nuclear Power Radiation \u2014 Part 1<\/a> (which outlined radiation from normal<\/em> nuclear power operations, waste, and misc). Then there was Nuclear Power Radiation \u2014 Part 2<\/a>, which briefly covered the rest of the well-known nuclear radiation possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I will give a quickie overview of a radiation source that most people have never heard about. Lobbyists and other politically correct parties paint industrial wind energy as \u201cfree, clean, and green.\u201d Although none of that is true, this deceptiveness is dismissed as marketing puffery. With no consequences for lying, is it any wonder that we are drowning in dishonesty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major eye-opener is that wind turbine manufacture results in horrific environmental degradation<\/a> (also see here<\/a> and here<\/a>). A lot of this happens in China so it is conveniently out of sight. But wait, the same organizations who are promoting wind energy also strongly push the one-world (\u201cwe\u2019re all in this together\u201d) ideology \u2014 so they should be very concerned about what happens in China too, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at one particular matter: Rare Earth Elements<\/a> (REEs). In addition to significant<\/em><\/strong> air and water pollution, the processing of REEs (30+ steps) results in a large amount of radioactive<\/strong> waste. Yes, you read that correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much radioactive waste per turbine? My understanding is the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Fact 1: Each wind turbine is reported<\/a> to have several thousands of pounds<\/strong> of REEs (i.e., typically 2000\u00b1 pounds per MW<\/strong> \u2014 and today\u2019s turbines are 4+MW).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact 2: A US Army analyst reports<\/a> (reference page 16) that for every ton of REE, there can be about a ton of radioactive waste<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Once we have absorbed the significance of these numbers, an interesting question arises: how does the quantity of radioactive waste produced by a 1 GW nuclear facility compare to the quantity of radioactive waste produced by the manufacture of wind turbines that would result in an equivalent amount of annual electricity?<\/em> Let\u2019s look at it by weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key wind energy assumptions are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) An optimistic capacity factor of 33% is assumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) There are 2000\u00b1 pounds of REEs per face value wind turbine MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

c) Every ton of REE results in about a ton of radioactive waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

d) Since some of the reported waste includes water, we\u2019ll generously assume that about 50%\u00b1 of the weight is due to H2O.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the radioactive waste for a 3 GW wind facility:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3000 MW x 2000 REE\/MW x 1 Waste\/REE x .5 =<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3,000,000\u00b1 pounds of radioactive waste<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this compare to a nuclear facility?<\/em> There are two methods for processing nuclear fuel (typically uranium). In the US, the fuel is used once (i.e., is a single pass). In the rest of the world, the fuel is used a second time, which substantially reduces the amount of resulting waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key nuclear assumptions are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) A 1 GW Nuclear facility has 27\u00b1 tonnes\/year (about 60,000 pounds\/year) of used uranium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) If reprocessed<\/strong>, only 3% of this is radioactive waste (60,000 x 3% = 1,800). [See this<\/a> for a good explanation of radioactive waste, and for items a & b.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

c) Twenty years of nuclear power generation is used as that is a very generous expected life of a wind turbine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

d) The reactor is a Light Water Reactor (LWR) [i.e., a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR), or a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The single-pass radioactive waste figures for a 1 GW nuclear facility:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014>  60,000\u00b1 pounds per year. Therefore the twenty-year total of nuclear radioactive waste would be 60,000\u00b1 x 20 = 1,200,000\u00b1 pounds of radioactive waste<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The double-pass radioactive waste figures for a 1 GW nuclear facility:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014> 1,800\u00b1 pounds per year. Therefore the twenty-year total of nuclear radioactive waste would be 1,800\u00b1 x 20 = 36,000\u00b1 pounds<\/strong> of radioactive waste<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compare these to the figure above: 3,000,000\u00b1<\/strong> pounds of radioactive waste for an equivalent amount of electricity produced by wind energy, over twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amazing conclusion is that over the lifetime of a wind project (20 years), wind energy produces more radioactive waste per MWH than a nuclear facility!<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we\u2019ve lifted another wind energy rock, and have found a very disturbing industry secret. The few others who have looked into this have labeled it as the 800-pound Gorilla In The Room<\/a>. Another good piece is from IER: Big Wind\u2019s Dirty Little Secret: Toxic Lakes and Radioactive Waste<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more peek under another rock\u2026 It\u2019s bad enough to largely rely on Communist China for unneeded materials, but it\u2019s even worse when this investigation<\/a> concluded that the Chinese rare earth industry is \u201cdominated by criminal gangs<\/strong>.\u201d In other words, much of every dollar spent on rare earths for wind turbines goes into things like fentanyl production \u2014 which is then sent to the US to kill its citizens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\u2026 the next time that a wind marketer feeds you the \u201cwind is green\u201d sales pitch, say Not so fast!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Droz, Jr. is a Principal at MasterResource. This is a repost from\u00a0Critically Thinking About Select Social Issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The amazing conclusion is that over the lifetime of a wind project (20 years), wind energy produces more radioactive waste per MWH than a nuclear facility!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":328077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691828587,691819187,691828586,691828585],"class_list":{"0":"post-328074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-chinese-rare-earth-industry","9":"tag-industrial-wind-energy","10":"tag-radioactive-waste","11":"tag-rare-earth-elements-rees","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/0721-F2-1-1920x1280-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1nlw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":433993,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=433993","url_meta":{"origin":328074,"position":0},"title":"Lid Lifted on the Filthy Manufacturing Secrets Behind the \u2018Clean\u2019 Green Power Revolution","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"24\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The dirty manufacturing secrets behind the \u2018clean\u2019 green power revolution continue to pile up. 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