Posted on 04/08/2011 4:35:37 PM PDT by matt04
In the aftermath of a disaster, the strengths of any society become immediately visible. The cohesiveness, resilience, technological brilliance and extraordinary competence of the Japanese are on full display. One report from Rikuzentakata — a town of 25,000, annihilated by the tsunami that followed Friday’s massive earthquake — describes volunteer firefighters working to clear rubble and search for survivors; troops and police efficiently directing traffic and supplies; survivors are not only “calm and pragmatic” but also coping “with politeness and sometimes amazingly good cheer.”
Thanks to these strengths, Japan will eventually recover. But at least one Japanese nuclear power complex will not. As I write, three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station appear to have lost their cooling capacity. Engineers are flooding the plant with seawater — effectively destroying it — and then letting off radioactive steam. There have been two explosions. The situation may worsen in the coming hours.
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Increasingly, nuclear power is also promoted because it safe. Which it is — except, of course, when it is not.
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I hope that this will never, ever happen. I feel nothing but admiration for the Japanese nuclear engineers who have been battling catastrophe for several days. If anyone can prevent a disaster, the Japanese can do it. But I also hope that a near-miss prompts people around the world to think twice about the true “price” of nuclear energy, and that it stops the nuclear renaissance dead in its tracks.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nuclear, bad. Coal, bad. Natural gas, bad. Hydro, bad. Solar and wind good. As I post this, it is dark out, whit no wind.
No doubt, to this reporter getting out of bed in the morning is “dangerous.”
There’s nothing one hundred percent safe except not to be born.
The failed reactors were designed by General Electric.
You beat me to it. sd
...and in the 1960s, no less. They, I believe, are the oldest reactors in Japan.
Hence the liberal love of abortion.
Good grief! Has this author ever heard of an “Act of God”?
They suffered an earthquake larger than I’ve ever heard of (and I’m a native of CA). Then they were nearly washed off the island by a Tsunami that crippled the eractor. THen they were beseiged by aftershocks greater than any CA earthquake in my memory. Who can plan against those forces of nature?
The big mistake, as I see it, is that they should not have tried to save these units. Fill them with cement and seal them.
The Japanese were told years ago that they could have a meltdown if they lost power to their reactor and the auxiliary generators were not available. The tsunami took out the power to the plant AND flooded the auxiliary generators.
A 40+ year old GE design back from when you still saw Edsels on the road. Much better safer designs since then
And the GE reactor is designed to melt if enough things go wrong.
There are plenty of fail safe nuclear technologies that have been around since the 50’s, but unfortunately the patents aren’t held by people that bribe governments and get inferior, inherently dangerous products subsidized by our tax dollars.
On the bright side, we’ll save plenty of money on maintenance and insurance now that GE has killed the nuclear industry, driving the price of oil to the point where soon we won’t be able to afford gasoline.
The Japanese can build safe reactors just like we can. Unfortunately they have the same brand of liberal morons there that we have here so are stuck with old designs.
There are designs today that can stop the reactor and the nuclear fission in a passive way where zero power or very little is required to shut it all down. Can someone give a better description of this?
Is the dumbass WP author talking about the reactor that stood up relatively well to a 9.0 magnitude quake immediately followed by a devastating tidal wave?
The vast majority of mainstream journalists are nothing more than well-written, ideological imbeciles.
I thought these were old versions of GE reactors.
...and 9.0 earthquake and tsunami and we are not in Chernobyl territory, nor has anyone died of radiation yet.
I think the Reactors were American designed and built under contract to American specifications amplified by the Japanese
We have two of that design in TN I believe, but if we get a 70ft tsunami to deal with those reactors will be least of the nations ills.
Correction: TVA
I know for d*mned sure that libs won’t be able to build one. Perhaps the WaPo bottom-O-the-Math SAT druids might like to remember 1) when this reactor was constructed, 2) when it was scheduled to be shut down, 3) what newer designs are available and 4) how they won’t allow the same meltdown to occur.
Perhaps they can find a very simple, first grade level explanation that they might be able to retain - after three or more readings.
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