This Week's Solar Flare Illuminates the Grid's Vulnerability

[harvey007]

Source: New York Times

A massive burst of solar wind that erupted from the sun Tuesday is expected to deliver only a "glancing blow" to the Earth's vulnerable magnetic field, NASA officials said yesterday. But it will preview what some experts call a potentially existential threat to the power grids of the United States and other nations, and the populations that depend on them.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/06/09/09climatewire-this-weeks-solar-flare-illuminates-the-grids-63979.html

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. You mean the manmade grid is vulnerable to the star at the center of our planetary system?

Man, what a piece of shit that thing is.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. shaaaaazam!

:rofl:

[jberryhill]

3. It is a large unshielded nuclear reactor that needs to be shut down RIGHT NOW!

Obama is refusing to do anything about it.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. And in 2-3 billion years, it's going to kill us all.

[jberryhill]

6. We need to get rid of that thing. CALL CONGRESS RIGHT F'N NOW!!

[NickB79]

7. I say we bomb it, like we bombed the Moon.

[jberryhill]

8. That'll only make it angry

[Nihil]

12. Yeah, nuke it until it glows ...

... oh, wait ...

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Quit Being An Alarmist

That's not gonna happen for at least 3.2 billion years. :evilgrin:
GAC

[JackRiddler]

11. Hint: Kindergarden sophistry on unrelated thread doesn't put meltdowns back in the box.

Is this what the pro-nuclear reflex "science" brigade is left with?

Ha, ha, sun is a nuclear reactor! Does this mean you'll be happy to show how scientifically versed and fearless you are by moving into the Fukushima exclusion zone yourself?

Why don't you bring your mockery to threads about the latest radiation spike at Fukushima, or the latest revelations about TEPCO/Japan lies, or the radioactive particles from the disaster found on the West Coast, or the extension of the evacuation zone, or the debate about how much radiation Japanese schoolchildren can safely take? I guess those aren't suitable for self-praising humor? Is it easy to "win" and feel smart when you're all by yourself?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. read the second paragraph of this reply on Hartmann site...re: water pumps at nuclear freactors...

How responsible is it for our society to be generating this stuff (by the ton I assume).. When one ounce or one pound (I always thought it was a pound) could kill every human on the planet, and it takes longer than the human race has been on earth for it to become less poisonous? This is why people were so concerned when the Cassini (spelling) spacecraft with 70 some pounds of plutonium on board was going to use the earth for a slingshot effect to travel somewhere else.. Seems to me the conditions were right for 70+ pounds of this stuff to vaporize in the upper atmosphere (I very much doubt the so called indestructible cubes are really indestructible during re entry).. As usual the corporate media ignored the protests, so very few know of this danger..

It dawned on me today, that every time I posted somewhere on this topic, I remembered a new way a reactor could melt down. . And I am sure there are other ways no one has thought of yet.. terrorist attack.. Earth quake, tsunami, meteor/comet, solar flare (takes elec grid down, and ruins motors needed to pump water).. If a worker in a reactor goes postal, will we change the saying to going nuclear?

http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2011/03/was-it-ounce-or-pound-plutonium

[redwitch]

9. gmail won't open for me.

Sunspot related?

[Javaman]

10. One day we will get a direct hit.

it won't be pretty.