Posted on 03/12/2011 7:49:18 AM PST by Texas Peartree
It is very easy to get caught up in our day-to-day frustrations. Is it raining on a weekend? Did you get passed over for recognition at work? Did the waitress accidentally give you a cup of decaf coffee?
If you take a step back though, you can see the true horror of our existence. At any moment the forces of nature could end your life and the lives of your loved ones. That is an existential threat we all live with, but choose not to dwell upon until we must. The people of Japan feel this threat more keenly today.
This weeks earthquake off of the coast of Japan registered 8.9 on the Richter scale and occurred only 250 miles away from densely populated Tokyo. The resulting tsunami appears to have claimed around 2,000 people. Wave observers on America's West Coast were pulled into the ocean and became victims of their own curiosity.
The news today continues to be frightening. A building housing a nuclear reactor has exploded at Fukushima. Evacuations are being carried out but it is not clear if the explosion will lead to death. Interestingly, there are no studies of nuclear mishaps health effects that are based on observation, only unproven models. This fact is a testament to how safe the nuclear power plants are in the West and East Asia.
Chernobyl was a classic Soviet built death-trap, but studies have failed to show much in the way of increased cancer and death since the chaos of the first few days of nuclear leakage in April of 1986. Vegetation and animals have made a comeback in lands near the burnt-out nuclear power unit, something we were told was impossible.
After the Three Mile Island near disaster in March of 1979, two things happened. First,
(Excerpt) Read more at corybirenbaum.blogspot.com ...
I’d bet the farm this is the excuse Obammy needs to stop America’s nuclear industry.
Same as he used the Gulf blowout to stop drilling in water.
“Id bet the farm this is the excuse Obammy needs to stop Americas nuclear industry.
Same as he used the Gulf blowout to stop drilling in water.”
I am very afraid that this is exactly what he will do.
This will kill New Nuclear Power plants for decades just like “Three Mile Island” did.
Why not just post it here?
The solution is simple. Ban earthquakes! That makes at least as much sense as fighting global warming. Throw in volcanoes, tornados and hurricanes, too. They cause a lot of damage. Ban them all and we can live in peace and feel good about ourselves.
Perhaps this is the answer
http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/
A 50 year old nuke plant survives a 9.1 earthquake and a 12 ft(?) tsunami...
Impressive.
(if we all had just gotten squiggly light bulbs and started driving a Prius the minute Algore told us to this never would have happened)
No, but we should ban our massive subsidies for nuclear power, like the Price Anderson Act. Let nuclear power operate in a free market with full liability for accidents (just like any other private business).
Just the ship of cleaning ships the oil companies have to build and keep ready in the gulf?
Some European nut has blamed the Japan earthquakes on global warming...so if we just follow St. Algore there will be no earthquakes.
I live 20 miles form one nuke plant and 60 from another. My only regret is there aren’t more, here in the nice stable flyover country of the midwest where earthquates are very small and easily mitigated. Consider all the facts before forming conclusions about nuclear power. The tragedy in Japan was not a result of a nuclear accident, but of plant siting and design. A bigger tragedy would be to (again) stop development of safe, clean, efficient nuclear power because of this.
And for heavens’s sake, everyone keep Jane Fonda the hell away from TV cameras...
There is no waste that has to be dealt with?
It is fine with me if they are left to themselves. I didn’t even know they were getting subsidies. I did know that each time they seek a permit they have to fend off the environmentalists for years while the price of the project goes up, up, up. I remember in the 1970s, Louisiana Power and Light planned a plant with an expected cost of 435 million but by the time they fought with the environmentalists it was nine years later and the cost had risen to more than two billion.
such lies....it wasn't the quake that harmed the Japanese plants, it was the loss of power,mostly from the tsunami....at least that is what I understand....
here in Washington State, we have people pushing to tear down the hydroelectric dams, and then we have other people nationally wanting to close down coal plants, and to limit natural gas exploration, and to NOT drill in Alaska or offshore, etc...
what the HELL are we supposed to do for energy?.....burn all food for fuel?....
tell ya what,
they talk about renewable energy?
Harness the wind and tides of the Columbia river
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