why do people suddenly fear nuclear power plants?

[Ulvai]

I'm not saying "SHUT THEM DOWN NOW! ", but the situation in Japan should be seen as a reminder why nuclear power generation should be phased out as soon as possible.

IMO situation in Japan should be a reminder not to build NPPs on a piece of land constantly shaking like it's hooked up do 10000 v.

 

[Phishfood]

I find it funny that people are so insistent about the "alleged" safety of NPP's, when humanity MAY be facing the greates nuclear desaster of all time.

Yes, it MAY turn out to be controlable.

Yes, it MAY not turn an entire nation uninhabitable.

But the fact that the situation is comming very close to the worst case scenario, shows that the risks of nuclear power can be fatal for an entire nation.

I'm not saying "SHUT THEM DOWN NOW! ", but the situation in Japan should be seen as a reminder why nuclear power generation should be phased out as soon as possible.

In what way are they REMOTELY close to polluting an entire nation?

Even IF the 40-year-old-soon-to-be-decomissioned-anyway reactor suffers complete meltdown, its stuck inside a 4 foot concrete shell and going NOWHERE.

 

[floppylobster]

Let's do math.

(deaths caused by mining accidents per year + deaths precipitated by pollution per year) /
nuclear-related deaths per PAST FORTY YEARS
= UNDEFINED BECAUSE THE DENOMINATOR IS ZERO

HOW TO

Coal:
1. Rape land to get coal. Miners die.
2. Spend a shitload of money to transport massive shitloads of the shit.
3. Rape air to burn coal. Everyone is now sick.

Nuclear:
1. You already have the uranium.
2. Pay to have it mailed.
3. POWER EVERYTHING FOR EVER
4. Earth cries radioactive tears of joy.

RISKS

Nuclear:
1. Nuclear waste. Actually it's fine, shut up.
2. Meltdown. Thousands die. Pff, if you're TERRIBLE. Also nuclear power is discredited for decades.

Water:
1. Dam bursts. Thousands die. This is known as a "whoopsie". Nobody cares.

Wind:
1. Actually manages to kill people by, like, losing blades and throwing ice and shit. It's like 300 people ever.

Coal:
HA HA HA OH MAN

There is one major thing youve forgot to take into consideration: The fear regarding THE WAY you die. To slowly die of radiation poisoning makes people go "oh noes!" compared to coal and water. Slowly dying of lung cancer, getting crushed to death and drowning are actually a lot less frightening than radiation poisoning for people, because, well, we see it on a daily basis.

Irrational fear is what keeps nuclear power from taking over. And untill radiation poisoning becomes easily curable or something we read about in the news every day, nuclear power will just be a side project.

or we get a leader who is not a pussy and says "were doing this now , protesters were ignoring you now, either turn off your power or STFU"

Sounds like you want to live in Russia then -


"- India announced a review of all nuclear reactors in the country in view of the Japanese radiation leak. India has 20 nuclear power plants, mostly located along the coast.

- Germany's coalition government has suspended an agreement prolonging the life of the nation's nuclear power stations, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

- The Swiss government suspended plans to replace and build new nuclear plants pending a review of the two hydrogen explosions at Japanese plants.

- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia would not change ambitious plans to build dozens of nuclear power stations in coming decades."

Hitler built highways does that mean that highways are bad? in addition to just being a ruthless dictator Putin is showing the difference between courage and cowardness in the face of Adversity, here food for though THE JAPANESE are already talking about rebuilding their plants and i hear literally not one single person over their complaining about it.

Putin is the Prime Minister and was President of Russia, why are you calling him a dictator? I was only saying, if you want a leader who's 'not a pussy and says "were doing this now, protesters were ignoring you now, either turn off your power or STFU (sic)' then you should live in Russia. Because that's what they've got. You seem to be offended by that suggestion. Have you ever been to Russia?

 

[Evil Tim]

Yes, it MAY not turn an entire nation uninhabitable.

It MAY also not cause the Death Star to destroy the planet Earth. But omg it is a remote possibilities that is like a certainty only not. come Escapist forum members let us make our last moments special



Damn.

 

[keinechance]

Yes, it MAY not turn an entire nation uninhabitable.

It MAY also not cause the Death Star to destroy the planet Earth. But omg it is a remote possibilities that is like a certainty only not. come Escapist forum members let us make our last moments special



Damn.

You do watch the news right?

Death Star in earth's orbit? No

Nuclear meltdown in japan? Yes

 

[keinechance]

I find it funny that people are so insistent about the "alleged" safety of NPP's, when humanity MAY be facing the greates nuclear desaster of all time.

Yes, it MAY turn out to be controlable.

Yes, it MAY not turn an entire nation uninhabitable.

But the fact that the situation is comming very close to the worst case scenario, shows that the risks of nuclear power can be fatal for an entire nation.

I'm not saying "SHUT THEM DOWN NOW! ", but the situation in Japan should be seen as a reminder why nuclear power generation should be phased out as soon as possible.

In what way are they REMOTELY close to polluting an entire nation?

Even IF the 40-year-old-soon-to-be-decomissioned-anyway reactor suffers complete meltdown, its stuck inside a 4 foot concrete shell and going NOWHERE.

The concrete shell that was destroyed by the explosion caused by the hydrogen gas?

 

[Evil Tim]

Death Star in earth's orbit? No

Nuclear meltdown in japan? Yes

It's cloaked, you're clearly buying into the Empire's lies.

And it's less impossible for the Death Star to be in orbit than it is for a nuclear reactor to render a whole country uninhabitable, FYI.

 

[Phishfood]

The concrete shell that was destroyed by the explosion caused by the hydrogen gas?

Nope, the concrete shell inside that. The bit that was "destroyed" was just a regular building to keep the weather out so the workers don't complain.

The massive concrete containment shell is perfectly fine inside the building. Its 4' of concrete. A puny buildup of Hydrogen won't hurt it.

 

[keinechance]

Death Star in earth's orbit? No

Nuclear meltdown in japan? Yes

It's cloaked, you're clearly buying into the Empire's lies.

And it's less impossible for the Death Star to be in orbit than it is for a nuclear reactor to render a whole country uninhabitable, FYI.

Because the propability of this is just as low as, for example, the propability of a japanese NPP being hit by a 8.9 earthquacke, a 10 meter flood wave and a complete power failure at the same time?

 

[SpAc3man]

Because shit can happen. As we have seen with Japan, even being the most earthquake prepared country ever, they are on the brink of having a meltdown because of one. Anyone can say the chances of a Bad Thing happening with a nuke plant are tiny, but then you are ignoring the fact that shit CAN STILL happen. There are many safer clean alternatives such as hydro, geothermal, wind and solar which is where the world should be and will be heading.

 

[Double A]

Yeah, but if something DOES go wrong, stuff goes, very, horribly wrong.
See: Chernobyl outskirts.

Chernobyl. Was. An. Anomaly. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.241623-Probing-The-Inaccuracies-Nuclear-Power]

Stop using it as an example.

That. Makes. No. Difference.

It was still a nuclear plant that exploded. It showed us all the effects of what can happen, and why we can't take chances with nuclear power.

I suppose you don't drive because of all the car accidents that happen ever year, or go to banks because it could get robbed, or even go outside of your fallout shelter because you could get caught in a nuclear war? Nuclear plants are less dangerous than your stairs.

 

[keinechance]

The concrete shell that was destroyed by the explosion caused by the hydrogen gas?

Nope, the concrete shell inside that. The bit that was "destroyed" was just a regular building to keep the weather out so the workers don't complain.

The massive concrete containment shell is perfectly fine inside the building. Its 4' of concrete. A puny buildup of Hydrogen won't hurt it.

As far as I saw in the news, the fukushima NPP's n.1 reactor now only has the metal containment around the reactor core left. If I'm wrong about that, then I apologize.

 

[Discrodia]

The reason nuclear plants are suddenly scary is the same reason no one wanted to get in an airplane after 9/11. The mere possibility that it COULD meltdown/be hijacked overrides the fact that these events are both exceedingly rare and the things in question are actually some of the safest / most efficient ways of getting power or travelling.

 

[Evil Tim]

Because the propability of this is just as low as, for example, the propability of a japanese NPP being hit by a 8.9 earthquacke, a 10 meter flood wave and a complete power failure at the same time?

No, it's physically impossible. There simply isn't enough fuel in a reactor to cover a whole country with any meaningful level of radiation. Unless magical atomic elves are currently loading hundreds of tons of additional fuel into the reactors without anyone noticing, it can't happen at all.

 

[sleeky01]

My question is: If you ban nuclear power, what's the alternative? Around here it's coal. And people don't want that either.

But everyone has the AC turned on to full in the middle of summer and wonder become angry when their are rolling brownouts. :/

 

[keinechance]

Because the propability of this is just as low as, for example, the propability of a japanese NPP being hit by a 8.9 earthquacke, a 10 meter flood wave and a complete power failure at the same time?

No, it's physically impossible. There simply isn't enough fuel in a reactor to cover a whole country with any meaningful level of radiation. Unless magical atomic elves are currently loading hundreds of tons of additional fuel into the reactors without anyone noticing, it can't happen at all.

Since it's not only one but several reactor's that are in danger, I will wait for the odds on betting about this.

Although I really hope that you are right and I am wrong.

Edit: And even if it is only happens to be a 10km radius of high radiation, if by some cruel twist of fate this happens to come down in the middle of tokyo, then several million people, and japan as a whole, will have A LOT of problems

 

[PhiMed]

Because they are hippies who fear an alternative energy that might actually work, and they listen to horror stories about things like Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island, ignoring that fact that neither of those are possible with a well-designed, safely implemented reactor. Things like a nuclear plant going critical is only possible if the plant was designed by a drunken idiot, and staffed by retarded turtles; neither of those is the case with the reactors in Japan, which are fine.

And they get scared by radiation, because they can't understand it, even though you get hit by more radiation watching TV than you do walking around a nuclear power plant.

EDIT: A friend posted this article on Facebook, makes sense to me.
http://theenergycollective.com/barrybrook/53461/fukushima-nuclear-accident-simple-and-accurate-explanation

Actually, Three-Mile Island is a shining example of well-designed controls. It has attained the status of "disaster" primarily because of a bad Jane Fonda anti-nuclear propaganda movie called The China Syndrome.

The core went critical, but due to controls and safety measures, there wasn't a single death or even injury. The workers inside the plants were exposed to an amount of radiation approximately equal to ONE x-ray. So, obviously it was a HUGE disaster.

 

[darkstarangel]

The problem is'nt so much the plants themselves but the human error that allows for a perfectly designed system to fowl up. Chernobyl blew because two russian idiots were spending the weekend testing to see what will happen to the plutonium rods if half immersed in the cooling tank. Because they were'nt fully immersed & instantly cooled the water actually heated & rupture the tank leaving the rods exposed & eventually blew up.

In Japan the recent issue with their power plant is that someone accidently turned a pressure valve off leaving the rod exposed. Human error can overcome any well designed safety measure.

 

[LandoCristo]

Because they are hippies who fear an alternative energy that might actually work, and they listen to horror stories about things like Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island, ignoring that fact that neither of those are possible with a well-designed, safely implemented reactor. Things like a nuclear plant going critical is only possible if the plant was designed by a drunken idiot, and staffed by retarded turtles; neither of those is the case with the reactors in Japan, which are fine.

And they get scared by radiation, because they can't understand it, even though you get hit by more radiation watching TV than you do walking around a nuclear power plant.

EDIT: A friend posted this article on Facebook, makes sense to me.
http://theenergycollective.com/barrybrook/53461/fukushima-nuclear-accident-simple-and-accurate-explanation

Actually, Three-Mile Island is a shining example of well-designed controls. It has attained the status of "disaster" primarily because of a bad Jane Fonda anti-nuclear propaganda movie called The China Syndrome.

The core went critical, but due to controls and safety measures, there wasn't a single death or even injury. The workers inside the plants were exposed to an amount of radiation approximately equal to ONE x-ray. So, obviously it was a HUGE disaster.

That's exactly my point. When something goes wrong just a little at a nuke plant, even if it's harmless, people will compare it to big disasters. But when a oil-fired plant has a few accidents, the entire thing is much more likely to burn to the ground, simply because there's fewer redundant safety features.

And radiation is the big evil of the world. The thing that gets me is that you'll get more radiation going to get an X-ray than being near a nuclear plant, even when it's going critical. People just assume that because the X-ray techs wear lead that radiation is dangerous, and they don't understand it at all.
I suppose it's better than having a bunch of idiots being flippant about safety, especially around something that could be actually dangerous "Oh, radiation's harmless, we don't need to spend that money on the required shielding for the core, let's go buy hookers!".

 

[RevRaptor]

Although one can argue that it is reckless to put nuclear plants in such a earthquake prone zone. The fact remains that the Japanese plants are extremely safe. If the rods do melt down it will make the plant inoperable but that's all it will do. They are designed with a big concrete housing to contain such an event. the rods will just melt their way to the bottom of the plant and sit there. yes cleaning that up will be a major pain in the arse but they have planed for such an event.