Government sugarcoats dangerous reality of nuclear power plants

[kristopher]

Government sugarcoats dangerous reality of nuclear power plants
2011/06/26


The year 1986 was a veritable annus horribilis for science and technology. The U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in January. Then came the Chernobyl meltdown in April.

Back then, the probability of a Space Shuttle failure was believed to be 1-in-100,000. That meant just one failure in 300 years of daily launches.

This "safety myth" was debunked by the Rogers Commission, a presidential commission tasked with investigating the Challenger disaster. Richard Feynman (1918-1988), a Nobel laureate physicist and one of the best-known members of the commission, likened the risk inherent in shuttle launches to Russian roulette--a dangerous gamble in which the player closes his eyes to "inconvenient truth."

In Japan, the probability of a nuclear accident was said to be "1-in-5 billion, comparable to being hit by a meteor." I'd say this was more lie than myth.

An accident...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106250142.html

[madokie]

1. When it comes to nuclear power its safety was always overstated

It was a pig in a poke and many bought into it but many of us didn't. What we're seeing in Japan today is exactly what many of us were afraid of what would or could happen when the right circumstances presented themselves. I'm not so sure that this in Japan is as bad as it can get either. We've got a lot of nuclear power plants and most of them are sited near large population areas and when we have a similar situation as is going on in Japan a lot of people are going to get high doses of radiation that will cut their life short. I really don't think we should be taking the chance with nuclear energy. I'm sure its going to be brought to my attention just how much I don't know here shortly but in this case there really isn't a whole lot to know to know that we shouldn't be messing with something that takes on a life of its own as what is going on in Japan shows us so plainly. How long has it been now and they still haven't got it even close to being under control. I doubt that anyone living today will ever actually see it brought under control, as what control is.
This is a pig we should have left in the poke is all I do know for sure.
We as a country need to get our asses in gear and start building alternates and getting them on line as quickly as we can and as we do start taking the more dangerous, ie older nuke plants out first with intention of shutting them all down as soon as is humanly possible.

[kristopher]

2. I agree with that completely.

Job #1 is to focus on deploying wind, solar and EVs.

[madokie]

3. Job 1 deploying wind, solar and EVs.

job 2 shut the nuke plants down
job 3 shut the coal plants down

In that order too.

[diane in sf]

4. Put efficiency at the head of that list and I'll agree 100%

[madokie]

5. My bad

Yes Efficiency should be at the head of that list