Nuclear Power

[bigeasy]

Nuclear power taking quite a beating in Japan. A fire can be extinguished or simply burn out. Controlling a nuclear reaction under adverse conditions appears troublesome. The stories dealing with fallout and radiation injury will play out over years. All our facilities are quite old. I would not be surprised if there isn't a movement to shut them down.

Oil, gas, and coal just got more valuable. I love my woodburning stove--a fireplace insert--very toasty on a winters night. But remember to clean the chimney. Nothing is without risk.

[Anthony of the ARK]

the US goverment is not going to shut down what little nuclear power facilities that we have as a result of what happend in Japan. The situation the japanese face is terrible and extraordinary, and In most places in the US the risk of an earthquake and terrible tsunami is much lower than in japan. I feel U.S. goverment and public need to make a point that nuclear power is the way to go in many cases. There are 55 working nuclear power plants in Japan, 3 of which they are having problems with.

[gottaflylee]

Nuclear power taking quite a beating in Japan. A fire can be extinguished or simply burn out. Controlling a nuclear reaction under adverse conditions appears troublesome. The stories dealing with fallout and radiation injury will play out over years. All our facilities are quite old. I would not be surprised if there isn't a movement to shut them down.

Oil, gas, and coal just got more valuable. I love my woodburning stove--a fireplace insert--very toasty on a winters night. But remember to clean the chimney. Nothing is without risk.

Nothing is without risk says it better than anything thing. I for one don't have a problem with it, in fact, I live with in 10 miles as the crow flies of one along with the largest munitions dump on the east coast.

We have to have power and fuel and we have to be able to afford it. If the environmentalists don't get off some of their high high horse, we will be using leaves to wipe a$$es and walking to where we need to go.

I say to keep on building them, just put the very best safe guards in place and hang any one that is found making shortcuts.

[N2theBlue]

Our nukes have multiple layers of oversight and redundancy. There are still issues, but we get better every day. Even though most of thema re old, they have been upgraded many many times and have multiple redundant failsafes, with more being added all the time.

[JD5652]

Our nukes have multiple layers of oversight and redundancy. There are still issues, but we get better every day. Even though most of thema re old, they have been upgraded many many times and have multiple redundant failsafes, with more being added all the time.

N2B has it right....regardless of what happening in Japan, nuclear is STILL the safest, cleanest and has the best long term potential of any other form of electricity generation....not to mention the cheapest next to hydro.

Something you're NOT going to hear on the news nor read in the paper....... the initiating incident in Japan was NOT the earthquake.....the plant survived the earthquake and shut down....when a 30 foot tsunami hit the plant point blank, it did the damage....

Yes....they are in one hell of a fix right now....but when the dust settles it will be a huge financial loss for TEPCO......but NOT an environmental catastrophe... NOT a health catastrophe.... NOT even a significant loss of life ....if any.......

Take a look back at the film clips again.....everything around the plant was devastated.....but not the plant itself......

[Robja]

Nothing is without risk says it better than anything thing. I for one don't have a problem with it, in fact, I live with in 10 miles as the crow flies of one along with the largest munitions dump on the east coast.

We have to have power and fuel and we have to be able to afford it. If the environmentalists don't get off some of their high high horse, we will be using leaves to wipe a$$es and walking to where we need to go.

I say to keep on building them, just put the very best safe guards in place and hang any one that is found making shortcuts.

I know all about those places lee. The nuke plant keeps the water warm in front of the beach house. If anything happened at either place southeastern NC would cease to exist on a map. You reminded me of the time in the spring of 2002 when I was at the Provision Co. and some Bald Head Island ites were bitchin that the realtor never told them there was a nuke plant at Southport as they were worried about terrorists. I told them that should be the least of their worries. They had no clue what Sunny Point was.

[clt_capt]

There are not many man made things that can survive a 9.0 Earthquake - but the nuke plant in Japan did just that - Unfortunately the following Tsunami took out the power for the cooling water pumps.

I would be willing to bet that there are engineers already looking at adding another layer of redundancy for future plants.

[Mako Bob]

The problem is that this plant will never come back online and replacement cost is north of $15B and that doesn't even cover the cost of decommissioning the old one. This was very unfortunate timing for Japan and may still get worse. I suspect we haven't heard how bad things really are yet. I hope I'm wrong.

[seapower]

Is to be at risk. Frank

[Reel Sharp]

I don't know if it is the safest anymore. The Japanese reactors are going to affect Japan, Hawaii, West coast and who knows what else when it is in the wind. I would take a turbine or solar panel in my backyard any day over a reactor.
This stuff is going into peoples lungs, plants we grow for food and animals we eat. This is Radiation, not just some dust storm.