[curiosity]

Any interest in the science list about issues related to nuclear power and/or the long-term effects of Chernobyl?

[rmlew]

ping

[burzum]

"And never mind that even U.S. reactors designed four decades ago are incomparably safer than Chernobyl. Newer technologies such as "pebble bed reactors," in which the radioactive material is sealed in small graphite balls, are safer still."

I don't know if the author realized when he wrote this article that the neutron irradiated graphite moderator caught fire in the Chernobyl reactor. While natural graphite is not flammable, when it is exposed to a neutron flux, it stores energy and becomes flammable (and even bulges). Saying that fuel in graphite balls is safer with the graphite being one of the most important items that allowed for the massive release of radiation at Chernobyl is a little silly.

Now I know that the 'pebbles' in pebble bed reactors are more than just fuel surrounded by graphite. But the author didn't say so. To a person who has actually operated nuclear reactors his statement stands out as fairly ridiculous. The graphite in the 'pebbles' has to do with neutron moderation, not with the prevention of the release of fission products.

[Revel]

More propaganda. To say chernobyl is not big deal is just propaganda.

Get the facts here:
Kidd of Speed

[WOSG]

PING - nuclear power - for reading

[quietolong]

Let me start off with that I’m pro-nuclear.

But this article is a pure load of BS!

To try to say it’s not that bad. is an injustice. The true magnitude of Chernobyl has yet to be stated.

I just happend to be reading this book now:

Voices from Chernobyl
http://www.centerforbookculture.org/dalkey/backlist/alexievich.html

It has some real horror stories in it.

One excerpt from a story told by a person drafted to aid in the clean up. He was the head of a chemical lab. So what did they have him do? They gave him a shovel. (bureaucrats
are the same everywhere) and was a worker striping off soil to be entomb. As he says;

They had protocols written that stated there was to be a geological survey, no ground water within 6 meters, not to deep and lined with polyethylene. But in real life it was
different. There was no survey, They’d point there finger and say “dig here” The excavator digs, “ how deep did you go?” “who the hell knows? I stopped when I hit water”


You just know that’s how it went. along with a number of other stories.

Nuclear energy along with these people. Need to be kept on a tight leash. A very tight leash.

There have been many close calls not to well known a few

Windscale Pile No. 1 at Sellafield north of Liverpool, England,

Chalk River, Canada

experimental SL-1 in Idaho Falls, Idaho,

Enrico Fermi 1 near Monroe, Michigan,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_accidents

To name a few

Elena's Motorcyle Ride through Chernobyl
http://www.kiddofspeed.com

Chernobyl info
http://www.chernobyl.info