This seems to be a day in which post after post has thoughtful comments. That makes it a good day. I appreciate thinking especially critical thinking.
This author has some thoughts and some questions. Should spent nuclear fuel rods be stored on top of currently operating reactors? I believe that is the practice in many countries including the United States.
However, I am not an expert on nuclear plants and if any of my kind readers would like to lend us a hand with this question, I will be happy to thank him and publish his thoughts.
James Pilant
Special thanks to VA Shipbuilder.
The nuclear industry (and to some extent, my small shipyard) is in the fight of its life. This assessment is true whethere you are for or against nuclear power in general. 40 years ago, a group of people made a decision that would have lasting impacts. For whatever reason, the Fukushima Dai Ichi plant was designed in such a way that the storage pools for spent fuel rods were placed directly above the reactor cores. I like to call this design … Read More
It is obvious these American findings were leaked by the experts because of the gravity of the threats. I’m not sure what the term, “mounting stresses” means, but I don’t like it. Once again, I am telling you I do not trust the Japanese utility, TEPCO, or the Japanese government. Their released information continually bears the imprint of corporate PR instead of useful information. I can’t help but think there are other problems not being discussed.
Another likely set of problems for the Fukushima plants. This write is angry and has a satirical edge. I thought the writing was wonderful and particularly enjoyed the literary allusions.
Good writing merits reading. Try this web site out.
James Pilant
The New York Times obtained a confidential Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC) document that reveals that the runaway nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan are more of a menace than the lobby is telling us: U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant By JAMES GLANZ and WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: April 5, … Read More
A brief and intelligent analysis of nuclear power. It’s too expensive.
James Pilant
Does it make any sense to keep expanding nuclear energy in South Florida. As a consumer you will end up paying for the accelerating costs of nuclear reactors, without doubt. Drawing on largely unknown public records, the paper reveals for the first time both absolute as well as yearly and specific reactor costs and their evolution over time. Its most significant finding is that even this most successful nuclear scale-up was characterized by a su … Read More
I like outrage. Much happens these days that produces legitimate anger but too many people divert themselves from the pain of reality by choosing vital moral topics like Charlie Sheen’s job prospects. This willful desire to escape the pain of national and international policy is not one I respect. As citizens we have a duty to our fellow man to act intelligently and at times forcefully to correct abusive policies and poor decision making.
This is some outrage, in fact, quite a bit of outrage. I enjoyed very much. I hope you do too.
James Pilant
Oldspeak: Yes! Brilliant way to deal with this monumental (and curiously underreported in corporate media) public heath and environmental disaster. Raise radiation limits and turn off radiation detectors! That’ll make it all better. 😐 With recent reports of IMMEASURABLE LEVELS of radiation at Fukishima, A meltdown at reactor #2, TEPCO dumping thousands of gallons of radioactive water into the sea, (that will end up in rain in the U.S.), radioac … Read More
There has been progress but I do not consider this an end to the crisis. There are many elements of the crisis that still continues and considering the truthfulness of the Japanese government and TEPCO, I have doubts about the success of the current efforts.
We have gone from contained to desperate and now we have arrived at the surreal. Maybe next they’ll try superglue or shopping carts. Neither will work but like the sawdust, they’ll give the impression that TEPCO, the Japanese utility, cares.
By the way, TEPCO’s shares are publicly traded. If you want to buy low, this is a good time.
James Pilant
Sawdust. It’s not the first thing most people would choose to put between themselves and highly contaminated radioactive water. But a mixture of sawdust — ogakuzu in Japanese — with chemicals and shredded newspaper is precisely what nuclear safety authorities and power plant officials turned to in trying to plug a 8-inch crack in a shaft near reactor 2 at the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima over the weekend.
Unfortunately, like the concrete they tried before it, the sawdust didn’t work, and as of Monday, the flow of irradiated water into the sea from the shaft continued unabated. “We have not succeeded yet,” Ken Morita, director of the international affairs office at Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), acknowledged to TIME on Monday morning. “We will try again today.”
What will they try next? For the past three weeks, that has been the question hovering in the irradiated air above Fukushima, where each passing day seems to bring a new and unprecedented challenge for the ebattled Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to shut down the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant safely.
Well, no more than usual. There’s a crisis every day. However, this might me one of the twice weekly large ones. Don’t get me wrong. I expect every four hours or so, something to go badly wrong. I hope against but expect a meltdown at some point.
But I thought I’d throw in somebody else’s idea of how this is working out.
James Pilant
My thanks to “flying cuttlefish picayune.”
The staff have been evacuated again because the radiation spiked in the plant. The NY Post says: “A possible breach in a reactor at Japan’s quake-crippled nuclear plant yesterday triggered an emergency evacuation of the facility, prompting fears of far worse radiation leaks than previously believed and causing a dire setback for workers scrambling to avert a full-scale global catastrophe.” And the US military is getting large amounts of fresh wa … Read More
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