Posted on 03/25/2011 1:54:53 PM PDT by fightinJAG
You will not be surprised to hear that the events in Japan have changed my view of nuclear power. You will be surprised to hear how they have changed it. As a result of the disaster at Fukushima, I am no longer nuclear-neutral. I now support the technology.
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.
If other forms of energy production caused no damage, these impacts would weigh more heavily. But energy is like medicine: if there are no side-effects, the chances are that it doesn't work.
Like most greens, I favour a major expansion of renewables. I can also sympathise with the complaints of their opponents. It's not just the onshore windfarms that bother people, but also the new grid connections (pylons and power lines).
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
“Yet, as far as we know, no one has yet received a lethal dose of radiation.”
I think he spoke too soon. The two workers who were up to their knees in contaminated water are in very bad shape as we speak.
good. now you know what us engineers have always known and why we weren’t ever worried about the doom’s day stuff coming from the media.
So, why are the Japanese doing this?
Radiation victims to be sent to key medical facilities across Japan
TOKYO, March 26, Kyodo
The Japanese government plans to send people exposed to high-level radiation to key hospitals across the country if the number of such victims tops the 100 mark in the aftermath of the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, government and medical sources said Friday.
The government came up with the plan as the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, one of the country’s two specialized radiation research centers, cannot handle such a large number of radiation victims at once, the sources said.
Currently, the government designates the National Institute of Radiological Sciences as an emergency medical facility for radiation victims in eastern Japan and Hiroshima University in western Japan.
On top of the two, medical facilities that can offer emergency treatment to radiation victims are set up in 19 out of the country’s 47 prefectures where nuclear power facilities are located.
Read later
Don’t stop worrying yet.
Fresh coolant injected, high-radiation water leaks in nuke crisis
TOKYO, March 26, Kyodo
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday it has begun injecting freshwater into the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor cores at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to enhance cooling efficiency, but highly radioactive water was later found leaking near all four troubled reactor units at the plant.
A day after three workers were exposed to water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level at the turbine building connected to the No. 3 reactor building, a water pool with similarly highly concentrated radioactive materials was found in the No. 1 reactor’s turbine building, causing some restoration work to be suspended, it said.
Pools of water that may have seeped from either the reactor cores or spent fuel pools were also found in the turbine buildings of the No. 2 and No. 4 reactors, measuring up to 1 meter and 80 centimeters deep, respectively, while those near the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors were up to 40 cm and 1.5 meters deep.
So I guess it was Nature who put the diesel tanks and generators down on the beach where the Tsunami had no trouble washing them away? If those gensets had been operational, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
This ‘disaster’ (cough, cough) in Japan is nothing, really.
The plants did a remarkable job standing up to the earthquake and tsunami - things could be much worse.
That stated I'm down right ashamed of far too many FReepers acting like absolute pussy's regarding this matter.
It's as if they are Chicken Little's saying ‘the nuclear sky is falling, the nuclear sky is falling.’ Just completely out of the DU playbook.
They make less sense than the geeks on the Apllesause ping list - IF THAT IS EVEN POSSIBLE!
That's my rant - flame away.
I will not respond because I have made an appropriate statement and if you disagree with it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x740324
Out.
I've heard that the doses were in the 2-6 Sv range, which can be fatal doses.
“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. “
OK that is great spin of a bad situation...
I am not anti-nuclear but let’s not forget that in order to make these things possible, the govt has to put up a lot of $ and there is an entire bureaucratic regime to put up with. Don’t expect efficient free market results from this process.
Is it a natural or man made disaster when a volcano sends lava into a village, killing and laying waste to it?
Is it a natural or man made disaster when an airliner is hit by unexpected wind shear killing all aboard?
You can use 20/20 hindsight all you want, but they did have a break wall and the plant lasted this long with no tsunami damage.
The quake and wave were both enormous. This was natural and unprecedented. There is no way they could have imagined the size of breakwall required. Mankind learns and moves on. To your point, I do believe there are a lot of emergency power relocation projects that will happen. But no matter where you put it, there is always something that could happen that would take it out, even if it were in the building or in a cave. Again, 20/20 hindsight is not available when engineers make decisions.
Why do we continue to want to "blame somebody? That's what RATS do. Conservatives attempt to understand, learn, and get back to the task at hand. In this case, it is get Japan back on it's feet and avoid a paralyzed energy policy.
In the first four days of the Japan reactor crisis an Austrian group estimates that the I-131 emissions were 20% of the entire I-131 emissions in the Chernobyl accident. In the same four days the Cs-137 emissions were about 50% of all Cs-137 emissions in the Chernobyl event:
http://www.zamg.ac.at/docs/aktuell/Japan2011-03-22_1500_E.pdf
Well, another 8 days of emissions have gone by, so it’s not a stretch to figure that total emissions from the Japanese reactors have probably exceeded total emissions from the Chernobyl accident.
Radiation exposures to populations have been limited in Japan ONLY because the reactors are located on Japan’s east coast and most emissions have been blown out to sea. If the reactors were on the west coast, much of northern Japan would be uninhabitable.
So, Farnsworth who’s not Farnsworth, is this really just a ‘cough-cough’ crisis?
“So, Farnsworth who’s not Farnsworth, is this really just a ‘cough-cough’ crisis?”
You bet your ass.
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