Lafayette:  Why do you do this kind of minimizing:  ... “...deaths in Japan, only a
few of which can be directly attributed to the explosions at the Japanese
nuclear plants.’”???

You must know very well that nuclear damage to human bodies most
frequently does not appear until some indefinite future time, and then very
often in symptoms that cannot be meticulously ascribed to damage by
radiation.  We will never know how many subsequent deaths were due, partially
or entirely, to the Fukushima explosions.  Perhaps the most dangerous aspect
of nuclear exposure is what we do NOT know about it.  Nevertheless, what we
do know for sure makes nuclear exposure of any amount at any time highly
suspect.  It is only used because so far nothing better offers itself,  either in
medicine or in energy production. 

The problems with using it for energy are often minimized for the sake of
profit-making and avoiding the onerous obligation of getting spoiled people to
cut back on the amount of energy they have become accustomed to using.

From my limited personal observations, my guess is that the Japanese are far
better at managing technologies meticulously than Americans, who are much
more apt to be careless.  Japanese have a somewhat higher ethic of public
responsibility, due to the remnants of clan/family type governance.

Possibly nothing could have avoided this disaster except not to have the plant
in range of earthquakes—which constantly worries Japanese people in
general—but they too are energy-dependent (far more so than the US!) and
the US set them up for it after WWIi— (Westinghouse being the culprit, as I
remember). Then there’s the world filling up with nuclear waste materials and
no safe disposal in sight.

Drastic energy conservation plus rapid worldwide development of solar, wind
and geothermal may be the only answers.  The physicists at Los Alamos in the
very earliest days of nuclear developments sensed that they were playing with a
kind of fire that is beyond the feeble controls of humanity. Fukushima is
another pretty loud blowing of another pretty big whistle.

****************

I cannot find what I am looking for and that is, will a meltdown
of a nuclear reactor reach a critical mass and explode?
Subsequence searches say ‘no’ as the fuel it too diluted, that
sounds reasonable.

But IF a reactor totally melts, will the mass sustain a high enough
temperature to melt a hole as deep as the liquid molten part of
earth’s mantle? In a sense create a sort of ‘new’ volcano?

Seems that would not even happen as the depth would be just
too deep and the heat would not be sustainable to create such a
hole.

On the 9.0 earthquake in Japan and 1600 people killed 9,500 missing, 4 nuclear power plant at or near stage 5 of the disaster vis-a-vis 3 mile Island and fear of a meltdown, was there any Hydraulic Fracture drilling along fault line before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan? as there was reported in Haiti 7.0 earthquake (500 times less powerful than Japan’s 9.0) that killed 330,000 people?  and HARRP technologies that engineered the earthquake to hide a USAID military bloodbath of its population.

I must say on the International, socio-political, economics raison d’être’ vis-a-vis the war in Afghanistan—Pakistan…escalating to Kashmir, India and possibly to nuclear war and WWIII, I can see the geo-political fears vis-a-vis Japan (population control), the Earthquake is certainly a “protection envelope” or equation, on the US, NSA, TRILATERALIST COMMISSION, for future wars and perhaps WWIII IN Kashmir, India, and the US hit by nuclear missiles

Dozens of people have already tested positive for radiation exposure, and the leaked radiation has been detected 100 miles away from the reactor.  Nuclear is disease nuclear is anti-democratic, nuclear creates carbon, requires massive mining projects that poison workers, clear forests, and contributes to global warming as well creating tons of nuclear waste with nowhere to go except the backyards of poor people who don’t have the power or knowledge to object to the cancers they will form. 

Solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal power are already 100% ready to power our planet in a decentralized, non-corporate way, with no hiroshimas possible and a much smaller footprint on our ecosystem which needs a downscaled human civilization.  They don’t take 20 year to bring online.  Those under the sway of the corporate nuclear industry’s PR are of course going to remain deluded until the end. But I will not be censored by pretentious astroturfers.  And this is not hyperbole by me, since ironically it is Tokyo Electric who is contracted to build two new reactors that Obama wants subsidies for, and which will be placed on the already devastated Gulf coast.

Greg Palast wrote a great article today about this:

http://www.gregpalast.com/

“CNN is only interested in body counts, how many workers burnt by radiation, swept away or lost in the explosion.  These plants are now releasing radioactive steam into the atmosphere. Be skeptical about the statements that the “levels are not dangerous.”  These are the same people who said these meltdowns could never happen.  Over years, not days, there may be a thousand people, two thousand, ten thousand who will suffer from cancers induced by this radiation.”

DUMBER THAN DUMB

Conden: There isn’t a damn thing that is safe about nuclear energy, it’s waste products, mining projects, or daily operation.

Wrong, wrong, wrong and dumber than dumb.

Nuclear Energy is THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE to our imprisonment by the carbon molecule (Oil, Gas and Coal). These fossil fuels have done more damage to both human beings and the environment than any other source of energy known to mankind.

Scaremongering of this type is profiting from the hyper-emotion being generated by the numbers of deaths in Japan, only a few of which can be attributed directly to the explosions at the nuclear energy plants.

One of the worst mistakes in America’s Energy Policy was to condemn Nuclear Energy to oblivion subsequent to the accident at Three-Mile Island. We should have forged ahead and today America would have a much safer Nuclear Energy technology in place that would be providing a constant energy source to large population centers.

What we have is worse, in terms of polluting the planet with CO2 - and that is a fact.

The first thing Lead-head’s administration did was to conduct (Cheney’s) Energy Policy Review that was so partisan towards “his industry” that he had to keep the minutes of the meeting secret. Why? Because the Review had not taken into account a single renewable energy source or the nuclear energy option. (And we want trust these BigBusiness numskulls with the future of our nation? Then we deserve what happens.)

We should have been building third-generation nuclear energy plants a decade ago. These newer, safer plants are now being constructed around the world and America’s primary contractor in the matter of nuclear energy production is picking up the crumbs off the table.

The Sendai Catastrophe is unfortunate, yes, but it should not deter us from a sane Nuclear Energy Option, because such is the Only Option capable of producing the amounts of energy that large population centers consume each and every day.

We can certainly embark upon an ambitious alternative energy source, but these sources will not ever have the capacity to replace the current electricity production by existing fossil-fuels. Never.

MY POINT

See the facts (from the Energy Information Administration) of energy source by type here . Fossil-fuels are predicted to continue providing as much as 47% of all energy sources well into the future. Just because Uncle Sam sits on a pile of coal and gas.

Nuclear energy remains constant.

The Crude Oil is from elsewhere—so count on sending your sons and daughters to wars in Middle East (to assure these sources) for some time to come.

There isn’t a damn thing that is safe about nuclear energy, it’s waste products, mining projects, or daily operation.  It is inefficient, dirty energy.  I’m sure the Japanese authorities are going to cover up and downplay what happens as much as possible.  I feel sorry for the Japanese people that may begin to develop cancers or worse as a result of this.

We “invented” nuclear energy.
We blew Japan halfway to hell with two nuclear bombs.
We sold Japan (and other nations) nuclear technology.
We entered into a race with Russia accumulating nuclear bombs in storage, 
  and still drag our feet on reducing the numbers.
We have not prevented the spread of nuclear weapons to a number of other
  dangerous countries who may try them out at any moment.
We do not work hard worldwide to take care of these problems for which we are  
  both directly and indirectly responsible.
Add this to all the pre-empting, resource-grabbing wars, big and small, we have
engaged in against people weaker than ourselves, and you have a fairly ugly
picture of “The Ugly American,”  don’t you?

We “invented” nuclear energy.
We blew Japan halfway to hell with two nuclear bombs.
We sold Japan (and other nations) nuclear technology.
We entered into a race with Russia accumulating nuclear bombs in storage, 
  and still drag our feet on reducing the numbers.
We have not prevented the spread of nuclear weapons to a number of other
  dangerous countries who may try them out at any moment.
We do not work hard worldwide to take care of these problems for which we are  
  both directly and indirectly responsible.
Add this to all the pre-empting, resource-grabbing wars, big and small, we have
engaged in against people weaker than ourselves, and you have a fairly ugly
picture of “The Ugly American,”  don’t you?

http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=400

Obama is wrong.

A solar or wind generation station breaks it just stops working.