use of nuclear power is much more dangerous than is generally believed.
The reason that I have these suspicions is related to my limited understanding of human nature and the laws of physics.

First, my understanding of some laws in physics.

The Earth has an 'escape velocity', web reference here:
http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae158.cfm

There are radioactive elements in the atmosphere, web reference here:
http://www.geocities.com/m_v_ramana/undergroundtests.htm

Radioactive elements create 'heat', information can be found on the net under 'nuclear power'.
Heat is proportional to the kinetic energy of the molecules.
Radioactivity imparts kinetic energy to the surrounding molecules.

Then there is my understanding that scientists are only human and can overlook certain information.

Even Carl Sagan is said to have said:
"There has been a systematic tendency for the effects of nuclear weapons and nuclear war to be underestimated. The yield of the first nuclear explosion near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, was underestimated by almost all those who designed and constructed the weapon. The extent of fallout from early thermonuclear weapons tests was underestimated; the impairment or destruction of satellites by nuclear weapons explosions in space was a surprise; the depletion of the ozonosphere by high- yield bursts was unanticipated; and nuclear winter was for many—ourselves included—an astonishment. What else have we overlooked?"

Excerpt is from:
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Sagan-Nuclear-Consequences31oct83.htm

Then there is the information from various books and the Internet.

Some atmospheric molecules are escaping into space, web reference here:

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast08dec98_1.htm

Information from the site: http://www.physorg.com/news6574.html

"The seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica has widened to a near-record size, at approximately 27 million square kilometers (10.4 million square miles), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said"

It seems that the ozone hole is still increasing in size, and there is some relationship to the "pressure" of the atmosphere to the amount of ozone in any specific area.

Then there is information such as this one from:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301524.html

"The number of 100-acre lakes fell from 10,882 to 9,712, a decline of 1,170 or 11 percent. The scientists said 125 disappeared, replaced by vegetation."

Warmer climate, more sunlight coming to the water surface and/or lowering of the atmospheric pressure could cause greater evaporation rate and that would cause lowering of water levels in the lakes.

From the following site:
http://www.oma.be/BIRA-IASB/Public/Research/Meso/AppliedStudy.en.html#global_change

"Concerning the global (worldwide) climate change, long-term measurements show that the mesosphere has cooled during the last fifty years. "

When I read this it occurred to me that cooling by evaporation is a similar effect.
Once a pot of water starts boiling the water temperature remains the same even if more heat is placed under the pot. Perhaps the atmosphere behaves in a similar fashion in that any extra energy in the mesosphere will simply "boil" the hot molecules into a higher level and that higher level is the thermosphere.

Perhaps the mesosphere has in effect "evaporated" into the thermosphere and in the process of evaporation the mesosphere would have become cooler because the hot molecules would not be there anymore.. The molecules in the mesosphere would need an increase in their kinetic energy in order to do that, but they might obtain that extra kinetic energy from the radioactive molecules that have in the past, or are currently being introduced into that area.
The reason that I suspect that this phenomenon may be occurring is because of information on the net at this site:

http://www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/summer2003/01.html

Excerpt from the site:
"As with many other programs in the early years of the corporation, space radiation studies received a boost by a startling development in the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Beginning in 1958, the United States had exploded a series of low-yield nuclear devices at high altitudes, but the scale and scope of nuclear testing in space escalated dramatically in the summer of 1962, leading to unforeseen consequences. The United States detonated a high-yield (1.4 megaton) nuclear device, code-named "Starfish," on July 9 above Johnston Island west of Hawaii at an altitude of 400 kilometers. The enormous explosion created a new radiation belt and produced an aurora that lasted about seven minutes. In the aftermath, the intensity of radiation in space increased a thousandfold. Several spacecraft were damaged or destroyed. The need to understand the characteristics of space radiation now acquired greater urgency."

It is a known fact that if any object, weather as small as an atom or as big as a spacecraft, has a velocity of about seven miles per second, it has the ability to escape the Earth's gravitational influence.
I am sure that these nuclear bombs that were exploded in the upper atmosphere accelerated a great number of atmospheric molecules into space.

The information from this following site also adds to my suspicion that the atmosphere has received a large quantity of kinetic energy from the radioactive material that has been released into it:

http://www.lutins.org/nukes.html

Excerpt:
"In 1986
After almost 40 years of cover-ups, the U.S. Government released 19,000 pages of previously classified documents which revealed that the Hanford Engineer Works was responsible for the release of significant amounts of radioactive materials into the atmosphere and the adjacent Columbia River. Between 1944 and 1966, the eight reactors, a source of plutonium production for atomic weapons, discharged billions of gallons of liquids and billions of cubic meters of gases containing plutonium and other radioactive contaminants into the Columbia River, and the soil and air of the Columbia Basin."

My suspicion is that the energy from the radioactivity that has been released into the atmosphere by the nuclear explosions that were conducted in the atmosphere, and the hundreds of nuclear power plant accidents all over the world, maybe causing the molecules in the upper atmosphere to 'escape' into space.

If a large quantity of molecules do escape the Earth's gravitational field, then there would be various global changes to the atmospheric environment.
For instance, lowering of the barometric pressure on a global scale would increase the amount of sun's energy that would penetrate through the atmosphere to the surface of our planet.
Increase of energy at the surface of the planet would cause water to evaporate at a faster rate, and perhaps cause some lakes to disappear. The larger temperature difference that would be created between the day and night sides of the globe would generate greater wind speeds and the greater wind speeds would spawn larger and more frequent storms such as hurricanes.
There would be other adverse effects too numerous to mention here.

I suspect that the nuclear explosions in the upper atmosphere and the mixing/diffusion effects from all the nuclear accidents that have polluted the atmosphere have increased the kinetic energy of the atmospheric molecules in the upper atmosphere to a far greater velocity than they would have with only the sun's influence on them.

Furthermore, I suspect that if there is enough molecules in the upper atmosphere with high enough velocity to escape the Earth's gravitational influence, and if these molecules escape into space, then the energy from the sun will have less air mass to penetrate through before hitting the surface of the planet.
Due to such lowering of the filtering effect of the atmosphere, the Sun's energy will heat the ground and the water on the surface of the planet to a greater degree than it would with a thicker atmosphere in place, such changes would cause a variety of adverse effects.

I strongly urge that all aspects of this scenario are thoroughly investigated and if it is deemed that the use of nuclear energy has such drastic consequences, then all efforts to control the situation should be implemented as soon as possible.

At least that is my opinion.
But then RL said: "it cant happen"

Johannes