Is world safe enough for more nuclear reactors?

POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 2, 2026 18:16
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HARDWARE

Sunday, June 19, 2011 3:37 PM

The liquid waste can be processed to remove the contaminants. Once they are precipitated out of the water it is safe for the environment. Other chemicals comprise the intermediate level waste.

Once DU become vaporized and airborne it enters the environmental cycle where it is carried to the ground by the water cycle. And, please try to remember that it is a vapor. Only in high concentrations is it measurable, and harmful.

Time will tell in Germany. I hope they can make it work with renewable energy. I think Merkel is playing a shell game. Give me an update in 20 years.

Definitely don't call me son.

The nuclear cat is out of the bag. How do you propose to get it back in?

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics - RAH

...and he that has no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. Luke 22:36

SIGNYM

Sunday, June 19, 2011 4:26 PM

HW, there are so many things that "can be" done... we COULD run our reactors to be safer, after all. BUT WE DON'T.

WHEN something horrible goes wrong, what is the WORST POSSIBLE thing that can happen? When a coal-fired plant blows up, you'll kill people at the plant. But when a nuclear power-plant blows up? Hell.... you'll kill people thousands of miles away for decades to come.

Oh, and...

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Only in high concentrations is it measurable, and harmful.

Do a google search on birth defects and cancers in Fallujah.

And, for the record, I will not call you "son".

NIKI2

Sunday, June 19, 2011 4:34 PM

DT:

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Nuclear is a fear buzzword for the hippie generation

Bullshit. I won’t even go INTO your claim

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in the 1970s was transformed into "nuclear free" with help from massive funding from API, the American Petroleum Institute, aka Cheney's Sect Energy Commisision (not so secret, I know an insider who gave me the whole list. The industry lobby provides almost all the funding for anti-nuclear activism.

I’ve learned it’s not worth the time or effort to challenge your most out-there claims, but really...!

You make the argument that the only options are coal or nuclear, from what you wrote

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That is your alternative. Take your pick.

But that’s a fallacy and you don’t address other forms.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

NIKI2

Sunday, June 19, 2011 4:38 PM

Geezer,

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Seems pretty frequently to me. Although maybe not every day, you often post two or three a day in the gloom and doom category.

sometimes it's like you are trolling the internet for the most apocalyptic stuff you can find to re-post here.

If it “seems” that frequent to you, maybe you should consider that you are reading what I post through your own preconceptions. I would sincerely appreciate your pointing out all these doom and gloom issues I put up “frequently”, because it’s not my intent, and I don’t believe it’s so. Anti-right-wing, yes, but doom and gloom? No.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

NIKI2

Sunday, June 19, 2011 4:47 PM

I agree with Riona:

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We can't stop other countries from starting, but we can finish up with it ourselves and encourage others to as well, or not to start it.

If one is saying “they’re doing it, so why should we stop”, that’s not a very good argument.

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But that little engine you speak of could end up destroying everything too, or at least destroying notable portions there of.

That point, made by others as well, is to me a very valid one. The storage thing has always bothered me, but now on top of that there’s the problem of nuclear plants being affected like Fukishima, without the government being serious about protecting their population and the danger of them providing fuel, etc., to potential terrorists via change in politics, like Russia.

I was against nuclear, as were many of my fellow “hippies” from the very start, NOT because of anti-war sentiments but because we believed nuclear was dangerous...forty-five years ago. I was part of a protest at a nuclear plant, and it wasn’t about anti-war sentiments at all. Ever.

The alternatives CAN’T produce all we need currently. But that’s simplistic, and is so for exactly the reasons that have been enumerated. It’s not the current system, and there are monied interests who want to keep the current system, and who have exercised the power to do so. It would take work, conservation, changes in politics and more to change over, but I don’t believe nuclear is the answer at all.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

FREMDFIRMA

Sunday, June 19, 2011 9:33 PM

Ain't just hippies - Michigan is home to not only all too many rightwingnuts, but also many old school conservatives who lack the extremism and nuttery of the more modern flyers of that banner.

Generally they weren't best pleased about Fermi in the first place, having valid concerns which those pushing for it never did manage to address.
And then we almost lost Detroit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_1

Do you have any idea how long such folk hold a grudge ?

McCain, on his campaign trail, came up here and decided to give a speech about the glory of nuclear power - to folk who were around back in 1966, just down the road a ways from Fermi.
It did *NOT* go over well, let's just say that.
(I was actually there, having the time, a press pass, and being curious about McCain)

So it's not just hippies, oh hell no.
I won't comment further cause with me the whole Nuclear thing is in conflict with my religious principles, and that's not an argument of hard science, but the rather softer venue of philosophy.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

NIKI2

Monday, June 20, 2011 1:02 AM

This just in:

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A new report says Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant was so unprepared for the disaster that workers had to bring protective gear and an emergency manual from distant buildings and borrow equipment from a contractor. The report, released Saturday by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., is based on interviews of workers and plant data. It portrays chaos amid the desperate and ultimately unsuccessful battle to protect the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant from meltdown, and shows that workers struggled with unfamiliar equipment and fear of radiation exposure.

The report revealed insufficient preparations at the plant that TEPCO hadn't previously acknowledged. It said plant workers had a disaster drill just a week before the tsunami and "everyone was familiar with emergency exits," but it apparently did not help them cope with the crisis.

When the Unit 1 reactor lost cooling functions two hours after the quake, workers tried to pump in fresh water through a fire pump, but it was broken.

A fire engine at the plant couldn't reach the unit because the tsunami left a huge tank blocking the driveway. Workers destroyed a power-operated gate to bring in the engine that arrived at the unit hours later. It was early morning when they finally started pumping water into the reactor — but the core had already melted by then. They eventually ran out of fresh water and had to switch to sea water, which meant scrapping the reactor. Other workers were tasked with releasing pressure from Unit 1's containment vessel to avoid an explosion. But first they had to get the manual, which was not in the control room but in a separate office building at the plant.

To activate an air-operated part of the vent, workers had to borrow a compressor from a contractor. And the workers who had to get close to the unit for the venting had to get protective gear from the offsite crisis management center, 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from the plant. It took an hour just to put on air tanks, coveralls and face masks before the first two workers headed for the reactor building.

After repeated failures, workers managed to vent the containment vessel. But an hour later, the Unit 1 building exploded, damaging similar preparations at two other units, forcing workers to start all over and causing further delays.

The report also said workers borrowed batteries and cables from a subcontractor on the compound to set up a backup system to gauge water levels and other key readings.

TEPCO and the government have said they aim to bring the reactors to "a stable and cold shutdown" by January. But some experts say the plan is too optimistic because high radiation, contaminated water, debris and other obstacles have already caused delays.

Meanwhile, more radioactive water is pooling at the plant. Workers scrambled to restart a key cleanup system, which was shut down Saturday hours after beginning full operations because a component reached its radioactivity limit faster than expected.

More than 100,000 tons of contaminated water at the plant could overflow within two weeks if action is not taken.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2078569,00.html#ixzz1Pm2
WoaI2

What a clusterfuck, on so many levels! That pretty much illustrates my feelings against nuclear...the human factor. Just one component of the things that can go wrong, and potentially different in each country, under each government, and depending on the company running the facility. No thanx.

Is the world safe enough for more nuclear reactors? I say "no", at least as long as humans do the planning, building, maintaining, etc.!

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

http://i25.photobucket.

HARDWARE

Monday, June 20, 2011 3:40 PM

You are losing sight of the fact that it took a devastating earthquake AND a tsunami to make the plant fail.

Quibble all you want, but first show me any industry that prepares for 2 record setting disaster events at the same time.

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics - RAH

...and he that has no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. Luke 22:36

NIKI2

Monday, June 20, 2011 4:12 PM

Not quibbling. Didn't take two disasters to do in Chernobyl or Three Mile Island, and again, my worry is governments that won't hold companies accountable, companies who will skimp to enhance their bottom line, and governments changing which potentially allows all sorts of problems (re: Russia), as well as the fact that anything which can't survive as many disasters as come along without endangering not only itself but the rest of the world isn't for me. Wind turbines fall down, solar panels break, so what? Dams are a problem, in more respects than potential disasters, but nothing will make me in favor of nuclear, sorry, unless they can do something with ALL the spent fuel and guarantee their safety...neither of which is being done currently.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

SIGNYM

Monday, June 20, 2011 4:16 PM

Hardware

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first show me any industry that prepares for 2 record setting disaster events at the same time.

Show me any other industry that HAS to.

SHIT HAPPENS.

The problem with nuclear shit happening is that- unlike a chemical plant or power plant blowing up- the result is more than local. More than international. It's worldwide. And it's the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving and giving. There are STILL farms in northern England that are banned from production because of Chernobyl. You still can't hunt game or pick mushrooms from forests in Germany.

This is not the first, second, or even third serious nuclear power accident in world history. Each one took a series of failures, which nobody would have ever dreamed would have happened.

BUT SHIT HAPPENS.

The disaster at Chernobyl wasn't caused by profit-seeking, it was caused by a safety test. A safety test, for god's sake.
The problem at TMI was initiated by workers repairing pumps on a unit that wasn't even connected to the one that was online.
We've had a record-breaking snowfall in the Rockies. Now, we have record-breaking floods, and not one but TWO nuclear reactors are at risk.

WHEN SHIT HAPPENS, WHAT IS THE RESULT, AND ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE CONSEQUENCES?

Given the consequences of nuclear accidents, do you think we've shown ourselves to be fully capable of dealing with the technology? So far the evidence shows that we are not.

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