toldailytopic: Nuclear power: have the events in Japan changed your opinion of it?

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Nick M

Plymouth Colonist
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NPR is keeping track of the situation. That makes me feel good.
 

gsweet

New member
Is there any place on Earth where a quake can't happen?

On what time scale? :D No where is immune from exposure to earthquakes (as they can be caused by different geological phenomena), but some areas (i.e. major active plate boundaries) are more susceptible than others. Unfortunately a large percentage of earth's population lives in very close proximity to these areas, making the subject of local nuclear power a real problem.

Personally, I see the nuclear power issue as a secondary (or supplementary) solution. I think the best answer would be to revamp our energy infrastructure such that power could be stored and/or transported long distances much more efficiently. That would enable us to be much more flexible in our placement of potentially dangerous power generation methods, as well as harness any other alternative energy methods more readily (i.e. wind in the Midwest/prairies, solar in the southwest, etc.). As well, with all our (the US's) solar/wind/hydro power generating potential, vastly increased storage/transport capacity would allow us to export energy (i.e. swing ourselves back towards an export based economy with regards to natural resources).

Just my couple of pennies...
 

Aletheia

New member
If I believed God was pouring out His wrath as He did prior to Christ I'd think Japan was worse than Sodom.
 

Paulos

New member
If I believed God was pouring out His wrath as He did prior to Christ I'd think Japan was worse than Sodom.

What would make you think that? Japan was not totally, 100% destroyed as was Sodom. By contrast, I'm sure the Japanese will recover from this earthquake in relatively short order.
 
One(actually, several) easy answer(s) was quashed on purpose for almost 100 years now.
(because of greed, pure and simple).
Of course, so many people now make money for or from the 'industry', you won't get too much effort to make things better, eh?
and
so many on tol don't bother to think apart from the hive, it's practically no use to make it known..... too much opposition and strife.
but,
if you bother to look, you will find it. (elsewhere)
Can you be more specific? I have to assume you're talking about something other than nuclear power, since the neutron was only discovered 79 years ago, and the first conceptualization of fission to provide power was only 70 years ago, in the MAUD Committee 'Use of Uranium as a Source of Power' summary report. The first nuclear reactor to provide energy, the small Experimental Breeder reactor in Idaho, was fired up only 60 years ago in December 1951.

PL
 

fool

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So to recap;
Two hydrogen explosions have remodeled two containment buildings, a third reactor is having a "partial meltdown" and the US Navy detected enough radiation 100 miles offshore that they pulled back.
 

fool

Well-known member
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Can you be more specific? I have to assume you're talking about something other than nuclear power, since the neutron was only discovered 79 years ago, and the first conceptualization of fission to provide power was only 70 years ago, in the MAUD Committee 'Use of Uranium as a Source of Power' summary report. The first nuclear reactor to provide energy, the small Experimental Breeder reactor in Idaho, was fired up only 60 years ago in December 1951.

PL

Idaho blowed up as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1
 

fool

Well-known member
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So to recap;
Two hydrogen explosions have remodeled two containment buildings, a third reactor is having a "partial meltdown" and the US Navy detected enough radiation 100 miles offshore that they pulled back.

OK so that wasn't correct, the Navy had a bunch of guys come back from the mainland with high levels of radiation, worth about 1 months background. They did move the ships though.
We'd prolly have better coverage if Lindsey Lohan shaved her head.
 

CabinetMaker

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Nope. We are still going to need to develop nuclear power. Sooner rather than later. Just don't build them in CA.
 

CabinetMaker

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I seems a lot of poeple want nuclear power but then they scream "NIMBY!"
I live in CO which is much more seismically stable that CA. CO also some advantages in terms of its location relative to waste storage sites and fuel sources so I would not mind if some reactors were built here.
 

The Berean

Well-known member
I live in CO which is much more seismically stable that CA. CO also some advantages in terms of its location relative to waste storage sites and fuel sources so I would not mind if some reactors were built here.

Good to see you are anti-NIMBY, CabinMaker. :up:
 

fool

Well-known member
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I live in CO which is much more seismically stable that CA. CO also some advantages in terms of its location relative to waste storage sites and fuel sources so I would not mind if some reactors were built here.

But if you have a meltdown it'll pollute the bread basket of America.
They used to ship x-ray film between pieces of rice paper, after our love affair with above ground nuclear testing they had to get rice paper form Europe because ours would cloud the film.
 
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