Posted on 06/29/2005 5:38:31 AM PDT by OESY
...The reactor type used at Chernobyl was inherently unsafe — it has never been used in this country and never will. Above all else, it lacked a containment structure, designed to contain radiation should everything else fail.
The only other meltdown in history came at Three Mile Island — whose containment dome completely contained all the radiation released by the meltdown. Radioactive gases were then control-released into the atmosphere over the course of a week.
Sounds scary? Had you been standing at the perimeter fence at TMI during this period, you would have received about the same radiological dose as a couple of visits to the dentist.
The TMI meltdown was the result of a highly unlikely series of events that took place a quarter of a century ago. Technological safeguards have improved enormously since then. In the United States we now have over 50 years of nuclear experience. TMI was the only meltdown, and it didn't result in a single injury.
What of all those "unplanned shutdowns?"... In reality, they're a safety feature — the plant is designed to shut down when even the slightest thing goes wrong.
Terrorist attack: For the "Riverkeeper" disaster scenario to happen — a mass release of radiation — there would have to be a meltdown combined with a breach in containment. This is where terrorists come in.
Ever since 9/11, Riverkeeper has conjured the vision of someone flying a plane into the containment dome and destroying it....
The dome is reinforced concrete, about four feet thick at its thinnest. A few years back, an F4 fighter-bomber was flown into a similar wall at 500 mph and it did little damage to the wall but thoroughly obliterated itself....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Hooray for the nuclear option!
I just finished a book - 'Shaitan's Fire' by Jake Thoene - about terrorism and a nuclear power plant. I don't know how accurate it was, but the terrorist was Islamic. At least that much was real.
I've lived about 8 miles from Indian Point for most of my life and hardly give it a thought.
I agree, I used to have clients at Indian Point when I worked for a Major Computing Timesharing Company. I never felt in the least threatened frightened or scared in the least when visited their on Business. The personnel there were highly professional and extremely competent, and their adherence to Safety Standards was almost flawless. I lived in Southern Westchester all my life and never once felt threatened in the least by the Plant.
Heck, I drive my boat by it most every weekend. Pretty impressinve sight, actually.
I worked at a nuclear power plant in Illinois for eight years. Although I left the industry seven years ago, I have absolutely NO reservations about expanding nuclear power. I do, however, have a deep hatred for electric utility companies (wasteful socialist money grabbers). I have always believed that a genuine intelligent environmentalist/conservationist would firmly embrace nuclear power. Long term spent fuel storage/reprocessing is the major technological issue...but definitely solvable.
At Indian Point? The mafia would never let it happen.
btt
The First Man-made Nuclear Reactor
How Does a Nuclear Reactor Work?
Where Will the Next Generation of Nuclear Engineers Come From?
I don't think it's major in a technological sense. In a previous life a couple of decades ago I worked on some prototype reprocessing lines that not only partitioned the "waste" (which it really isn't, since it is very useful material), but also allowed implementation of the preliminary steps for full actinide recycle, which you almost have to do to keep volumes reasonably manageable in the long term.
We need only the will to do it and the political courage to move forward on licensing facilities. In addition to LWR material reprocessing, check out the IFR concept. A closed fuel cycle. Very sweet indeed...
Unfortunately, political courage is in short supply. I did, however, find it profoundly interesting that BOTH presidential candidates embraced nuclear power (of course, the one that lost would have been incapable of promoting it because of all his IOUs to the non-nuke crowd).
I think you're probably right. I'll give Kerry some measure of credit for providing verbal support to the industry, but if he were elected it probably would have gone the way of the Clinton years, benign neglect, with cancellation of a useful program here and there at the national labs (e.g., IFR at Idaho).
I saw a presentation on the IFR back in the day. I was truly amazed at the possibility of a closed-cycle. This would definitely be the ticket for a moonbase or even a space station...no refueling (from offsite) for 70 years! Here on earth, though, it seems like the reprocessing could be done at a central facility (thank you Jimmuh Carter...fer nuthin'!)
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