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 ...
Far from it.
Any facts yet?
Ooh, being tag teamed, how utterly flattering. lol:)
And might I add - a little strange. I’m sure I’m not the only one on this thread to question what’s been spoon fed re nuclear energy..:)
...waiting...
None.
General Electric built it.
How many have died in nuclear plant accidents again?
None.
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Ah...wrong:
Official Ukrainian figures state that 148 000 people died as a result of Chernobyl during the ten years following the catastrophe. The Russian Committee of Liquidators stated that 100 000 liquidators have died over the past two decades as a result of their work at and around Chernobyl. According to the data of The Chernobyl Union of Ukraine, 622 250 people have died during the same 20 years. The organization has a special calculator on its website, updated daily
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-yaroshinskaya-en.html
Failsafe designs, e.g. they fail into a safe mode that causes no harm, quite the opposite of current designs.
For instance, the heat output of a pebble bed reactor falls to a safe idle level when all power and coolant is shut off. In this idle state, it loses as much heat through the vessel walls as the fuel generates.
Hit and run poster. You make a statement that you can’t back up and then ignore requests to make sense and go on your way to make more foolish claims on other threads.
Isn’t being anonymous wonderful? No responsibilities, never having to back up anything you say. What a great country!
100,000 civilians died at the hand of US soldiers in Iraq. I read it in the newspapers and the magazines. It must be true.
If you object to evidence presented in written form (in this case, Soviet state documents and medical records), you may the prefer the YOUTUBE series titled “The Battle of Chernobyl”
This reactor design (the one that failed in Japan) was a fifty year old design. There are significant safety improvements in the newer reactor designs.
Planned Parenthood has that covered.
Yes, I’ve heard the design was 40 years old and due to be taken off line.
But of course facts that don’t fit the playing field leveling agenda are simply ignored.
Could please tell us your choice for the best source of energy?
Today and the future?
Thanks much...JUst read up on it.
FTA- USSR was the only nuclear country in the world without its own nuclear safety laws.
You can fix stupid if they get burned bad enough.
99.95% of people that die have consumed water 48 hours before dying. There must be a correlation.
I’m not suggweing we all go out to the mines to soak up Radon (even though there are people that do it). My point is nuclear power is the greenest, safest, least environmentally hazardous energy source we have.
Even the founder of greenpeace says so.
A russian combustible reactor in russia operated by people who were doing things knowingly they were not supposed to do does not count.
The question is, how many in the USA?
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