dolphiii:

I am an expert. I worked at Los Alamos for several years in the uranium isotope group. I’m reasonably familiar with how those machines work. So my histrionics is well placed. As events have shown, those reactors are still dangerous and failing. One has a containment breach and the other two need continuous seawater flushing to keep them from doing the same thing. Radiation levels around the plant are rising and already dangerous. And yet, despite your attempt to whitewash what’s happening, the reactors are still dangerous 3 days after they were shut down. 3 days! No other power plant system is dangerous 3 days after it’s been shut down. And the spent fuel is also dangerous, years after it’s no longer able to generate electricity. The fire in reactor number 4 was probably spent fuel which had become uncovered due to pump failures or even a leak in their spent fuel pond. Your unqualified support for nuclear energy tells me you have no idea what’s going on there. I, unfortunately, do and am deeply concerned.

You hope we learn our lesson. This time? Why should it be any different from Three Mile Island, from which we learned nothing. Why should it be any different from Chernobyl, from which we learned nothing. If he has eyes, let him see, but he is blind. If he has ears, let him hear, but he is deaf. We are all going to die, from lack of food, lack of water, lack of air; we will fight wars to the death to obtain these things, but it will not work.

The situation in Japan is doubly pitiable, I think.  First the US invented “nuclear
energy” in the form of bombs.  They dropped 2 on Japan, ostensibly to"end the
war” (as if the war could not be ended by simply stopping it) and next to “see
what would happen to real cities, not just wipe out Pacific islands with “only a
few people.” 

Those two bombs obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki and sent the rest of Jaan
halfway to hell.  No apologies, of course.  Then after the war US not only
continues developing nuclear weapons (along with Russia, distributing them
throughout the world) but also sold Japan (and other countries) on nuclear
energy because Japan (having no coal or oil, and little “empty” land except
mountains} was totally dependent on US for oil and wanted to become
independent.

If there was any justice in the forces of physics, the tsunami would have hit the
U.S. coast somewhere and wiped out 10 or 20 thousand people, swamped our
houses and disabled your electric grid and mine.

Since there is no justice in the forces of physics, it is necessary that human
beings guard and develop their own unique appreciation of the meaning of
fairness and get rid of the “me first” ethic that permeates America.

Japan has built one of the world’s best public transportation systems, almost
totally dependent upon electricity to keep the country (relatively densely
populated and “modernized”) up and running day after day. 

Developing geothermal from now on might be a better solution because of the
volcanic nature of the country.  No doubt that has its dangers, too.  Looks like
worldwide conservation and shared distribution is going to be a necessity.

The situation in Japan is doubly pitiable, I think.  First the US invented “nuclear
energy” in the form of bombs.  They dropped 2 on Japan, ostensibly to"end the
war” (as if the war could not be ended by simply stopping it) and next to “see
what would happen to real cities, not just wipe out Pacific islands with “only a
few people.” 

Those two bombs obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki and sent the rest of Jaan
halfway to hell.  No apologies, of course.  Then after the war US not only
continues developing nuclear weapons (along with Russia, distributing them
throughout the world) but also sold Japan (and other countries) on nuclear
energy because Japan (having no coal or oil, and little “empty” land except
mountains} was totally dependent on US for oil and wanted to become
independent.

If there was any justice in the forces of physics, the tsunami would have hit the
U.S. coast somewhere and wiped out 10 or 20 thousand people, swamped our
houses and disabled your electric grid and mine.

Since there is no justice in the forces of physics, it is necessary that human
beings guard and develop their own unique appreciation of the meaning of
fairness and get rid of the “me first” ethic that permeates America.

Japan has built one of the world’s best public transportation systems, almost
totally dependent upon electricity to keep the country (relatively densely
populated and “modernized”) up and running day after day. 

Developing geothermal from now on might be a better solution because of the
volcanic nature of the country.  No doubt that has its dangers, too.  Looks like
worldwide conservation and shared distribution is going to be a necessity.

Any source of power that requires an active and continuous source of electricity to keep it under control is inherently dangerous. Nuclear power is deadly for this very reason. Some will argue that these ‘old’ plants should be replaced by a newer, safer design but that is a lie. The basic weakness is still there. No amount of backup can overcome the simple truth that these plants need to always have power on and working. As we see in Japan, the earthquake did it’s damage and then the tsunami finished them off. They are now failing, one after another as the damaged backup systems fail. And the Japanese will once again pay the terrible price of a nuclear catastrophe. When will we learn?