Nuclear, bad. Coal, bad. Natural gas, bad. Hydro, bad. Solar and wind good. As I post this, it is dark out, whit no wind.
No doubt, to this reporter getting out of bed in the morning is “dangerous.”
There’s nothing one hundred percent safe except not to be born.
The failed reactors were designed by General Electric.
Good grief! Has this author ever heard of an “Act of God”?
They suffered an earthquake larger than I’ve ever heard of (and I’m a native of CA). Then they were nearly washed off the island by a Tsunami that crippled the eractor. THen they were beseiged by aftershocks greater than any CA earthquake in my memory. Who can plan against those forces of nature?
The big mistake, as I see it, is that they should not have tried to save these units. Fill them with cement and seal them.
The Japanese were told years ago that they could have a meltdown if they lost power to their reactor and the auxiliary generators were not available. The tsunami took out the power to the plant AND flooded the auxiliary generators.
The Japanese can build safe reactors just like we can. Unfortunately they have the same brand of liberal morons there that we have here so are stuck with old designs.
Is the dumbass WP author talking about the reactor that stood up relatively well to a 9.0 magnitude quake immediately followed by a devastating tidal wave?
The vast majority of mainstream journalists are nothing more than well-written, ideological imbeciles.
I thought these were old versions of GE reactors.
I think the Reactors were American designed and built under contract to American specifications amplified by the Japanese
I know for d*mned sure that libs won’t be able to build one. Perhaps the WaPo bottom-O-the-Math SAT druids might like to remember 1) when this reactor was constructed, 2) when it was scheduled to be shut down, 3) what newer designs are available and 4) how they won’t allow the same meltdown to occur.
Perhaps they can find a very simple, first grade level explanation that they might be able to retain - after three or more readings.
My late father helped design and build them as a GE employee, who worked for them for 39 yrs. At that time in the 70’s, he took about 10 trips over there working with “Japan Electric”.
The placement and surveys, and event prediction and severity are the problem, NOT the design.
It’s morons like this who have impeded research into better, SAFER reactors. These are forty year old reactors, for crying out loud!!
Hate to break your bubble, but what happened in Japan could happen here. Despite everyone’s pronouncements to the contrary, (self interest beside the point), nuclear power has never been all that safe. Flame away aholes.
I am pretty excited over this:
http://inhabitat.com/californias-first-molten-salt-solar-energy-project-gets-green-light/
There are many areas in the USA this system would be applicable to. And it’s certainly a solution for Africa and other moderate climates such as the Middle East and other places with few tornados.
As for nuclear, well, I think the only nation truely proven in the arena of nuclear energy is the USA. We should be running all the plants.
disclaimer: I do not own stock in PG&E or any solar companies
You remember GE, don't you? They're Obama's crony capitalist friends with Jeffrey Immelt appointed the "Jobs and Competitiveness" czar.
The US Navy.
People who don’t build reactors on fault lines or on the sea coast have a chance to build a safe one. The is no economical way to engineer one to be built on a fault line or in the path of a tsunami.
General Electric built it.
This reactor design (the one that failed in Japan) was a fifty year old design. There are significant safety improvements in the newer reactor designs.
Funny thing is they were 40 years old with inferior safety systems to the current reactors. Then they were hit with a disaster way beyond the design parameters. This set of circumstances combined to show just how safe new systems (which don’t rely on external power for shutdown in the event of a disaster).
The issue is that politicians and journalist typically are illiterates when it comes to science and technology.
Reality is a “Model A Ford” design did exactly what it was supposed to do and has yet to kill anyone; despite a catastrophic crash. Rasther than rant about the faults/design/safety of that Model A ask, “ why aren’t we replacing these dinosaurs with Gen 3 / Gen 4 systems ? “
We have the knowledge, we have the industrial capacity, and we have the materials and resources to produce small, efficient, safe gas-cooled reactors capable of siting near demand and using everything from recovered “spent fuel” to salvaged weapon materials as fissile materials safely. (BTW, current systems utilize less than 30% of the “fuel” before its put into storage - where some want to bury it forever out of reach.) >PS