Getting to see what form of energy isn't safe

[johnretired]

The sky is falling

I wish you could open your eyes. At least the oil decays, and bacteria will eat it. When your talking millions of years for something radioactive to be safe, a person has to be off the rocker to support an industry that should have been abolished the day it was invented. Oh well maybe this japan reactor deal is what all ya needed to wake you up, its a shame our grand kids will have to suffer higher cancer rates because of some peoples stupidity. And what are all gona say when the next earth quake causes another one smoke either here or where ever? Don't we have enough nuke waste built up? Naa lets add some billions of tons more by building more nuke plants. Just don't dare try to paint something though . Anyone gona wake up?

Since you mentioned cancer, do you know how we cure it???
Nuclear sciences!!!!! A lot has been learned and used to keep 10's of thousands alive from this and the used rods are part of it.
Relax, technology is not a bad thing.
More people die from food poisoning than radiation. The released radiation will not affect us in the states. It can't get here in enough quatity to be dangerous.

[Ron E]

It sounds like an emergency cooling system failure, not a reactor failure. Better backup/redundant cooling systems should be the major lessons learned from this event. Other than that, the power plant held up very well.

[Keith Morganstein]

It sounds like an emergency cooling system failure, not a reactor failure. Better backup/redundant cooling systems should be the major lessons learned from this event. Other than that, the power plant held up very well.

Exactly. The vast majority of nuclear power plant incidents / accidents are cooling related. Only Chernobyl was different where many operator errors as well as design issues led to a catastrophic incident during a "safety test"

At Fukushima, the 40 year old reactors withstood a 9.0 earthquake and a 30+ foot tsunami without issue. The real problem is that the back-up power Diesel generators were located lower than the power plant. They were swamped by the tsunami and unable to run. No utility power, no back up power and you have a big problem.

A common misconception is that when a reactor is SCRAMED, (the control rods are quickly and fully inserted), the pile is shut off. This is not so. The reactor is no longer critical (does not have a self sustaining chain reaction) but it's still very hot with a lot of neutron activity. It has to be cooled for a long time, especially if it was running at near full capacity for over 100 hours.

The newer reactor plants have many improvements over the older designs. The new designs (Gen III and Gen III+) are far safer than those of the past.

The Gen III advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) that has been permitted in the USA (will be built at at least four USA sites) has a much improved design over older BWR reactors as those in Fukushima .

The Gen III+ ESBWR reactor has a passive cooling system that does not rely on pumps at all. It uses isolation condensers and gravity systems to cool without pumps. The Gen III+ ESBWR reactor will cool for at least 72 hours with no attention at all.

I expect we will end up with fast breeder, passive cooling systems designs within a few years.

Note: I'm not in love with nuclear energy, but I understand it just a little bit and realize it's here for a long time. Panicking about it is irrational. Learn from issues that arise and make improvements.

[1989TransAm]

"Panicking about it is irrational. Learn from issues that arise and make improvements"

I agree. Looks to me that it was the tsunami that caused the most damage, not the earthquake itself. As to the power plant it was the tsunami that took out the back-up power generators that would have kept the pumps going. At this point the death toll from the power plant itself appears to be small and I believe mainly from the explosions caused by the leaking hydrogen gases. The earthquake and following tsunami are responsible for the 10000+ deaths.

[CamKing]

The Gen III+ ESBWR reactor has a passive cooling system that does not rely on pumps at all. It uses isolation condensers and gravity systems to cool without pumps. The Gen III+ ESBWR reactor will cool for at least 72 hours with no attention at all.

Right now, Engguy is thinking, "but what happens to the cooling system if we lose gravity? "

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

Right now, Engguy is thinking, "but what happens to the cooling system if we lose gravity? "

Now I really am afraid, not only will the sky be sky falling, the ground would be rising. We''ll be smashed in between.

[Engguy]

So how many of you that love this nuke crap, are getting a plane ticket to japan to help hold the hose on the core? I'd love to see ya all put your money where your mouth is, so to say.

[CamKing]

So how many of you that love this nuke crap, are getting a plane ticket to japan to help hold the hose on the core? I'd love to see ya all put your money where your mouth is, so to say.

As soon as you stop using electricity.

BTW, I drive past a nuclear power plant every day on my way to work, I also spent my youth surfing 100 yards from the cooling water outlet of San Onofre nuclear power palnt.

Do a little research chicken little.
Tell us how many people have died from Nuclear powerplant meltdowns, then compare that to how many were just killed by a 30 foot wave.

[1989TransAm]

"So how many of you that love this nuke crap, are getting a plane ticket to japan to help hold the hose on the core? I'd love to see ya all put your money where your mouth is, so to say."

You have made so many irrational statements your credibility is very lacking. That statement is so stupid in so many ways.

[1989TransAm]

Here is a story on the radiation fears by Reuters of all places. Basically people are way over reacting.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/ ... IZ20110318

[Rick360]

How many years of fossil fuel are left to burn? Then what?

Our civilization runs on energy, lots of it. Where can we get that amount? I work at a coal fired power plant with 2 units. 900MW & 750MW. The smaller unit burns 350-400TONS/HOUR of coal at full load. If you run that ONE plant 24/7 all year thats over 3 Million Tons of coal a year. Then there's the amount of energy for cars, trucks, trains and airplanes. In the KC metro area we have over 5000MW of generation. That's one metro area. How long can we continue this without ? Nuclear is our only current option if we are not going to change our ways. Hopefully some new technical innovation will come along to provide that power. til then ... there's always wind and solar power ... but for some reason people still expect the lights and heat to come on even when its dark and the wind's not blowing.

Rick

[pdq67]

"me: "Why can't you fix it?"

engineer: "We can fix it, but they can't/won't do it"
"It blows up and we have to rebuild it to the original specs because to deviate from the specs, even for a tiny little retrofit to an insignificant part, requires inspection and recertification. The red tape and expense would put the refinery under if they ever even tried."
"So we rebuild it, it explodes, and then soon I get a new boss and we start rebuilding it""

This is because of NSR, (aka, New Source Review)! You add RACT/BACT/LAER and HAZE Transport onto all this and you will fast see why EPA's air reg's are destroying our country's industrial base as I type.

Rick360, what power plant you close to? Iatan??

I'm in Columbia, MO so know most of them.

pdq67

[DrillDawg]

With Japan's reators ready to melt down, maybe soon all will get to see the lies told by all the libs etc about how safe nuke crap is, and ha ha what Clean energy it is. I'll take a bath in a vat of oil any day. So where can we get radiation detecters?

Cars, war, hunger, bad people, ect, all will kill more people each year than the nuke power plants ever will.


DD

[pdq67]

Hunt up a PRB coal assay report and see just how much uranium it has in it.

pdq67

[Rick360]

Rick360, what power plant you close to? Iatan??

I'm in Columbia, MO so know most of them.

pdq67

Yes, Iatan is where I work. 750MW(old) + 900MW(new)

Rick