So, Who Still Wants Nuclear Power??

[Dee Gee]

I'm anti-nuclear because of the storage life of the expended fuel rods which is leaving a problem for the future generations to solve.  With this said we stilll have permit them due to the needs of this wasteful nation / world.

[mtcookson]

Need more nuclear.

If everyone would quit shying away from it and constantly improve the technology, chances of horrible events like this would be much less likely to happen. Also, from recent reports I've heard, it sounds like what is happening was actually a known issue/design flaw since the plants were built and were never dealt with.

[Anmar]

Well,  what I'm hearing is that the plants were built by GE in the early 70's and they were only designed to last for 40 years.  GE also has built 25 of the same kind of plant here in the US, and some of them had their permits renewed despite being older than 40 years. 

Do we really want people running these plants to be the same people who believe in making a buck at any cost?  Do we really want to repeal regulations and cut funding to oversight for the plants?  And if you think nuclear is great, and we should be using it, what do you propose to do with the spent fuel?

[srkruzich]

I'm anti-nuclear because of the storage life of the expended fuel rods which is leaving a problem for the future generations to solve.  With this said we stilll have permit them due to the needs of this wasteful nation / world.

YOU do realize that you don't have to store spent fuel rods. THey can be redone to fuel different reactors.  THe ONLY REASON we are stuck with having to store them is because Jimmy carter killed that business.  He banned recyling them when he was in office to prevent reclaimation of plutonium.  By the time president reagan lifted the ban, the industry had died in this country. 
You can use and reuse the rods til there is virtually nothing left of them. And out of that that is left you can use the isotopes from it to supply medical and industrial use of isotopes.

[srkruzich]

Need more nuclear.

If everyone would quit shying away from it and constantly improve the technology, chances of horrible events like this would be much less likely to happen. Also, from recent reports I've heard, it sounds like what is happening was actually a known issue/design flaw since the plants were built and were never dealt with.

The plants were never designed to take a 9.0 earthquake then be hit with a tsunami.  I can bet ya that all plants in the next year that can be possibly hit with a tsunami are going to have electric lines run from a powersource that is dedicated to that plant.

IT does take events like this to show what something is capable of, and quite frankly the reactors held up pretty darn good considering.

The one question you gotta ask is how many people were killed by it!?  THen ask how many people were killed by the tsunami.  That ought to put it into perspective

[srkruzich]

BTW The answer for me is, we need to double or triple the reactors we have already, certify them for the 40 -50 years, then set them up on a program where they get redone after their lifespan.  Rotate out a third at a time.  Put x number of dollars into a fund from the profits of each plant to replace the plant, make sure it cannot be raided too.
If we ramped up our nuclear generation to produce 60% of our power from nuclear then we would win on the energy front. Right now only 20% of our power is generated from nuclear.

[sixdogsmom]

So Steve, we can put down as 'fer'?  Mark, you spoke about lost lives right now, but in the future? How many then? If they are so safe, why is some scumbag on Ebay making a mint selling iodine on line for beaucoups amount of money? Why is the US urging its' citizens to leave or remain indoors with sealed access? Thanks everybody for the reasonable discussion on this. It is important, easy to hit the panic button but there is that niggling little voice------? 

[mtcookson]

The plants were never designed to take a 9.0 earthquake then be hit with a tsunami.  I can bet ya that all plants in the next year that can be possibly hit with a tsunami are going to have electric lines run from a powersource that is dedicated to that plant.

So Steve, we can put down as 'fer'?  Mark, you spoke about lost lives right now, but in the future? How many then? If they are so safe, why is some scumbag on Ebay making a mint selling iodine on line for beaucoups amount of money? Why is the US urging its' citizens to leave or remain indoors with sealed access? Thanks everybody for the reasonable discussion on this. It is important, easy to hit the panic button but there is that niggling little voice------? 

What they are saying is the fail safes that were supposed to keep this from happening were a known issue and was brought up 30 something years ago. A couple scientists involved with them told GE that this very thing would happen and nothing was done about it.

I agree, a 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami following is a major disaster but the core issue of what is happening with the plants seems like it could have been for the most part avoided according to those scientists.

From what I've been reading, here in the U.S. we've had 2 deaths due to a partial meltdown. Chernobyl killed 28 with up to an estimated 4,000 that could have got fatal cancer and this was due to a poor design and operator failure. Not sure on the death toll in Japan due to the reactor yet but it also had a design flaw.

The deaths were horrible but with something that is considered so bad, the death toll is actually not that bad and the highest amounts were caused by design failures and operator failure.


In the U.S. the partial meltdowns occurred between 1954 and 1979. Our technologies have improved dramatically since then so these events should be even less likely to happen if they're made right. Still, the record for major nuclear disasters is pretty low. Heck, we've probably had many more deaths from mining than we've had from nuclear reactor disasters.

[srkruzich]

This girl rides through chernobyl quite often and documents the area.  She is the daughter of a nuclear physisist and is very knowlegable.

I would listen to her more than the experts as she has the cahones to go look for herself.

Interesting thing about that place, its repairing itself and recovering.  Wildlife has returned and is thriving.
Some people live in the area. Not recommended but they would rather risk it and live at home than anywhere else.

http://kiddofspeed.com/

Design flaws yes i agree, but in all reality it takes events like japan to show what is needed.  There will never be anything that is disaster proof.  shoot the second you try, a huge meteor will land on one.

[thatsMRSc2u]

http://www.oweakuinternational.org/Owe_Aku_IJP/Crying_Earth_files/EnvironmentaJusticePDF[1].pdf


this is for you Sixdogs and other interested parties. It's just information, I hope the link works. For some others I'm not putting it here to argue it, the woman who wrote it LIVES there.

This is the website if it doesnt......http://www.oweakuinternational.org  click on read Debra Whiteplumes article,

Crap...thought I fixed it but guess not......have to go the long way thru the website ....Sorry bout that