Posted on 06/16/2011 9:30:26 AM PDT by bananaman22
It is becoming evident to many that the March nuclear catastrophe at Japan’s six reactor Daichi Fukushima complex has dealt a huge, possibly fatal, blow to the nuclear industry’s hopes of a revival.
A year ago even global warming enthusiasts reluctantly embraced nuclear power as a carbon-free energy generating system, and the industry was ramping up for glory days as a result.
The triple whammy against nuclear power beginning with the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, followed by 1986’s Chernobyl disaster and now Fukushima, effectively present a “three strikes and you’re out” call against civilian nuclear energy power generation for the foreseeable future.
That said, with the trillions of dollars already invested in 436 nuclear power plants (NNP) worldwide, according to the International Atomic energy Agency (IAEA), the industry has begun to push back, and “ground zero” is emerging as Europe, not Japan, with the lawyers circling.
In the wake of Fukushima, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on 30 May that Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest, would shut down all of its 17 would abandon nuclear energy completely between 2015 and 2022, an extraordinary commitment, given that Germany’s 17 NPPS Germany produce about 28 percent of the country's electricity. Full article at: Nuclear Twilight in Europe
1. TMI was a non-disaster disaster.
2. Chernobyl was a major Commie screwup, inherently unsafe design.
3. Japaneese reactors survived way past design specs for containment failure.
Ultimate failure was due to failure of backup cooling system due to loss of electricity
No “partial meltdown” at TMI. Stopped reading right there. Some steam was released and it was clean.
No “partial meltdown” at TMI. Stopped reading right there. Some steam was released and it was clean.
Also, keep n mind that Fukushima reactors were first generation design and were scheduled for decommissioning.
Current reactor designs (pebble bed, Thorium cycle) are inherently safe).
I wonder what Germany is going to use to make up the power loss from the shutdown of their reactors?
There will always be unanticipated failures. Engineering is a process, in part, of learning from mistakes.
Leftism sucks.
The NRC did much more harm than good at TMI with their alarmist reports onthe possible Hydrogen bubble explosion.
I had a friend who was a health physicist when this happened. He hoped on his motorcycle and drove up there to see if he could help.
He called us back about the MSM news reports about the “panicked emptying of nearby towns due to the potential disaster”. He said that yes, the towns were empty, but it was because everyone was down at the plant fenceline watching the spectacle!
“3. Japaneese reactors survived way past design specs for containment failure.
Ultimate failure was due to failure of backup cooling system due to loss of electricity”
And as far as I know there have been no deaths directly attributable to the nuclear plants vs the thousands from the earthquake and tsunami. Yet, all the attention and emphasis is on the nuclear plants, as though it was the nuclear reactors that caused all the devastation.
Humans are not logical creatures.
“That said, with the trillions of dollars already invested in 436 nuclear power plants (NNP) worldwide”
When it comes to real solutions, we have to ask ourselves “What would Obama do? “ with those trillions of dollars saved by abandoning nuclear plants?
For example, he might
a. Train 10,000 engineers to build a wind powered high speed rail transit for Washington.
b.Create or save millions of jobs jobs by replacing ATM machines with laid off lawyers wholost their jobs blocking nuclear plant construction.
You’re incorrect. Approximately half of the nuclear material from Reactor 2 melted down. That’s a meltdown in every sense of the word.
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