Posted on 06/16/2014 9:16:25 PM PDT by Up Yours Marxists
The government released an annual energy report Tuesday that called for a return to nuclear power generation, saying increasing fuel costs for thermal power and a surge in CO2 emissions are reasons why Japan should power up its idled reactors.
The report reflects the pro-nuclear government’s latest national energy policy, which defined nuclear power as an “important base-load power source.”
All reactors nationwide are currently offline, as most of them have remained since the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, triggered by the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
A thorium reactor could be built on top of a mountain...
They’re too busy spending all their money on mopping up the mess they have to invest in any safer technology.
It’s like handing a 5th and car keys to a new car to an alkie along with a nice sendoff of “drive safely”.
Plus, you could extract the thorium from coal, and use the electrical power generated by the thorium to make coal squeezins like the Germans did in WWII. (Petroleum product)
It's called the Fischer-Tropsch process. We actually had a plant here in the US after the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process
3 meltdowns?
Fukushima was stupid siting, and even then it was only the oldest reactor that actually had problems. On top of that, had they been able to get generator power in place (to replace the on-site generators that were sitting on the ground and got soaked), even that one reactor probably wouldn’t have lost cooling.
Chernobyl (I’m assuming this is #2 on your list) was a bad design, being run badly. Modern reactors don’t do this.
And I’m really guessing now, but is your third one Three Mile Island? If so, then you’re talking about technology that’s half a century out of date at a MINIMUM.
Even modern conventional fission reactors are far more safe than 3-mile, and as others posit above, there are newer designs that are even better. Here in India, there are two Thorium reactors online now, producing power, and they’re 1980s tech. A 21st-century design thorium reactor is going to be even more efficient and safe. Hitachi has 1MW “village-sized” reactors available, that are intended to all but eliminate the need for large-area power grids. A network of these could dramatically reduce power outages and all the challenges associated with maintaining hundreds of thousands of miles of high-tension lines.
Yes, 3 meltdowns at Fukushima. Didn’t you hear?:
Chernobyl was a doping experiment gone bad in what’s actually a safe design for a non-water reactor.
TEPCO and Japan clearly ignored and continue to ignore safety over profits. But Japanese citizens are taking the brunt. Some estimates show cleanup will cost the government almost 500 billion dollars. Half a trillion dollars! It’s at about 80 billion now and they haven’t even removed the fuel yet or put the “covers” around the reactor buildings.
Don’t get me wrong, countries like France do a wonderful job keeping their reactors safe. They have proven to the world nuclear, if done right, is a decent source of power. It’s countries like Japan who should never be allowed to run plants again, especially after polluting a large part of the north Pacific, and ~20% of their own country.
Foolish Japanese government. Melt down still not contained and they want to come back for more. Insanity.
Chernobyl lacked containment, and it wasn’t for power, it was for processing nuclear weapons material. Just goes to show that Communism pretty much had all the corruption of capitalism on steroids.
Seriously, if the “Global Warming” issue will cause us to switch over to nuclear power generation,
call me a “warmer”!!
Just goes to show you that “Global Warming” is just an excuse to do what the left wants to do anyway, at least with their other “solutions”.
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