did not know just how bad and dangerous nuclear power ---> could <---- be.

That's a really broad and erroneous statement. Nuclear power still has a really good track record, much better than many other forms of mass energy power generation. The amount of radiation that a typical nuclear plant affects a surrounding population is actually about 1/3 less than a coal plant, not to mention the dangers of coal to the surrounding population and greenhouse gases. Certainly, when things go terribly wrong in a nuclear power plant, it's always a serious concern, but these events have been very unlikely. Chernobyl is something that is not likely to be repeated with the design of modern plants and the damage done by modern plant failures like Three Mile Island and Fukushima is generally highly overrated. I wrote quite a bit above about why Chernobyl caused the scale of damage that it did, and why it's not likely to happen at the Fukushima reactors.

did not know just how bad and dangerous nuclear power could be.

A crappy old plant with inadequate safety features was hit by a monster earthquake and a vast tsunami. The electricity supply failed, knocking out the cooling system. The reactors began to explode and melt down. The disaster exposed a familiar legacy of poor design and corner-cutting. Yet, as far as we know, no one has yet received a lethal dose of radiation.

Some greens have wildly exaggerated the dangers of radioactive pollution. For a clearer view, look at the graphic published by xkcd.com. It shows that the average total dose from the Three Mile Island disaster for someone living within 10 miles of the plant was one 625th of the maximum yearly amount permitted for US radiation workers. This, in turn, is half of the lowest one-year dose clearly linked to an increased cancer risk, which, in its turn, is one 80th of an invariably fatal exposure. I'm not proposing complacency here. I am proposing perspective.

...

Atomic energy has just been subjected to one of the harshest of possible tests, and the impact on people and the planet has been small. The crisis at Fukushima has converted me to the cause of nuclear power.

The amount of energy you're getting out of windmills compared to the amount of energy you're getting out of a coal/nuclear power plant is really, really low. Set that off against the costs and you've got yourself a terribly inefficient source of energy.

thankfully, chernobyl isn't a useful benchmark

george moonbat makes a good point on fukushima:



this is why we *can* have nice things

Sources to back up your claims please? Large wind turbines cost about $1200 per kilowatt now, nuclear costs more than that (2000ish).

Yes he can come to this conclusion because pardon the pun, all the dust has settled in regards to Fukushima.

Separately, the Kyodo news agency reported that the I.A.E.A. had detected radiation levels 1,600 times above normal about 12 miles from the plant. The government has ordered people to evacuate a 12-mile radius around the plant and told those 12 to 18 miles away to stay indoors.

The crisis has raised fears about the spread of contamination of the environment and local food supply. The government has announced that traces of radioactive elements have been found in vegetables and raw milk from farms around the plant, prompting a government ban on shipments from those areas.

Elevated levels of radioactive iodine and cesium have also been detected in the seawater near Fukushima, and the government is testing seafood as a precaution, Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, said Tuesday. Government officials and health experts stress, however, that the doses are low and do not pose an immediate threat to human health.

Also on Tuesday the public broadcaster NHK, citing the government’s Science Ministry, reported that radiation levels surpassing 400 times the normal level had been detected in soil about 25 miles from the Fukushima plant.

In the NHK report, a Gunma University professor said that radiation released by iodine-131 had been found to be 430 times the level normally detected in soil in Japan and that released by cesium-137 was 47 times the normal levels. The professor, Keigo Endo, said that there was no immediate health risk but that the radiation levels would require monitoring.

It's interesting to note that they keep saying stuff like "400 times this" and "47 times that" without giving any basis point. Normal levels of radiation are so damn small that they don't even warrant discussion, so saying that whatever has 400x as much radiation as normal isn't saying much in my books. Even saying that it has 1,600x as much radiation probably isn't much to write home about.

Fuckin' lotta scared ass mother fuckers on this planet, god damn.

I'm not sure you'd have such a cavalier attitude if you lived in Naraha.

Stephen, when will people be able to return to their homes? Next week, next month, next year?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/asia/23japan.html?ref=global-home



Piece of fucking cake I'm sure, Stephen.

No, certainly not, which is why I said in my next post that unless you live in the area or even in Japan, then you're wasting your god damn brain power worrying about this shit.

jesus christ brian you are one dumb fuck. do you even read the shit you quote? or understand what it means? "radiation levels 1,600 times above normal" (normal being..?), "Elevated levels of radioactive iodine and cesium" (elevated above what? elevated to a high enough level, and for long enough, to be harmful?), "radiation levels surpassing 400 times the normal level" (the normal level is what?). if i said you were "1600 times more likely to have a clue in the next five minutes", you would still be a flailing tard five minutes from now, on account of being so dense now

also, "doses are low and do not pose an immediate threat to human health" and "no immediate health risk". but don't take any notice of those guys; they're just scientists. they've got nothing on you, bri

Except there is a nuclear power plant less than 20 miles from where I live. If there were some sort of disaster at the power plant near me, 1-4 million people could be displaced/poisoned very easily. Are you saying we can't take lessons from things like this?

I can definitely understand how this is creating an unsettling feeling for those who live near nuclear power plants. I've got faith in the technology that runs them but I never will underestimate the ability of humans to fuck things up and create a disaster where there never should have been one (its one of those things where you don't get the luxury of saying we have a statistically good safety record when one big fuckup means what it does when a reactor goes tits). I don't know that I'd want to live near both a nuclear power plant and a massive fault line.

We've been dealing with headlines over here in Washington like "SCIENTISTS IN WASHINGTON DETECT ELEVATED LEVELS OF RADIATION AFTER JAPAN REACTOR DISASTER" without mentioning that the 'elevated levels' are still thousands of times below what would even be considered a minimally hazardous exposure risk. People are forwarding emails about radioactive rain falling down on us and causing cancer, they are taking potassium iodide pills...generally forgetting that they are exposed to more radiation than what is being detected over here when they change the batteries in their smoke detector.

But didn't the powers that be assure us that there is no possibility of our reactors (I'm assuming you're Canadian as well and are referring to one of the reactors in Ontario or Quebec, yes?) being breached? As if.

I'm as worried as you are about that issue and I live across the country, so let me clarify. I'm saying not to worry about environmental radiation floating around after the incident has already occurred. It's not like a bomb has exploded and blasted radioactive shit all over the place. We're talking small leaks and at worst a fully exposed core, which is bad but not as bad as a weapon. Granted, I've read that Japan uses enriched uranium which I think is more radioactive than unenriched, so that gives a bit of pause for thought. Not sure if enriched uranium for reactors is on par with weapons-grade uranium. I think Canada uses strictly un-enriched fuel.

Also keep in mind the train of events that lead to this: Japan sits on a triple-fault line, was blasted by the largest earthquake in its history AND is fully susceptible to tsunamis! How often does that triplet of shitty circumstances occur? All of the reactors in eastern Canada are certainly not susceptible to 30ft tsunami waves wiping their backup generators off the map. At worst, they will be heavily damaged by an earthquake, but anything can be heavily damaged by an earthquake. To nullify something simply because an earthquake could occur is stupid because you have zero control over it. I'm pretty sure all modern reactors automatically shut down if an earthquake of a certain size occurs.

Harper is splitting and selling the company that designs and distributes our nuclear reactors, I think that is scarier than any earthquake.

sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet


I kinda like it here though.


For anyone interested, here is the biggest issue we have to deal with here in regards to our nuclear plants.

http://www.friendsofbruce.ca/Special%20 ... Notes.html

sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet


I kinda like it here though.


For anyone interested, here is the biggest issue we have to deal with here in regards to our nuclear plants.

http://www.friendsofbruce.ca/Special%20 ... Notes.html

I have to say I don't understand why people don't want/like nuclear-based energy. In terms of "normal, everyday use" it's pretty damned reliable and safe. Yes, it's dirty to mine and get rid of the waste (there are solutions but nobody wants to bear the cost of getting them implemented) and yes there's a reason to be concerned about the reactors if a disaster happens, but this event has proven that it takes some pretty fucking hardcore disasters to happen before you have begin worrying about the reactor.

It makes me wonder why they didn't have a contingency plan for the tsunami, being so close to the coast and all.

lol @ stupid yanks that freaked out and bought anti-radiation meds