Tag: nuclear power

Fuk-U-shima (via VA Shipbuilder)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

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

via VA Shipbuilder

9.1 – Nuclear Energy Continued (via nimerd)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

There are a lot of questions that need to be asked about Congress’ decision to increas the United States’ reliance on nuclear power.

There’s no question in my mind that the power plants are going to built either with private money or private money guaranteed by the treasury. The second course is the one chosen by the government.

Congress has acted to guarantee loans used to build these plants and indemnified the industry from damages over a certain point.

It doen not give one faith in the financial security of such an investment or the safety of the plants. But that’s how it’s going to be done.

The author is asking some important questions. Please read his post.

James Pilant

A few weeks back I blogged about the post-tsunami nuclear meltdown in Japan, and predicted it would impact the use of nuclear energy worldwide. However, a month after the event, this does not appear to be the case. An article from an investment article I read today cited several prominent nuclear energy companies in several countries, including the US and Japan, that are saying they will continue to use nuclear energy as usual. Japan, which curre … Read More

via nimerd

Looming Uranium Disaster Complements Fukushima Meltdown (via memengineering)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Wow. I had no idea. I’m new to this field. I didn’t start blogging about nuclear energy on more than a casual level until the crisis began to unfold at Fukushima. It seems there a problems all over the world.

If the situation continues to worsen, I will write more about it but until then, I want to offer my thanks to memengineering for bringing it to my attention.

James Pilant

Looming Uranium Disaster Complements Fukushima Meltdown Looming Australian Uranium Disaster Complements Fukushima Meltdown As we know, the Fukushima nuclear plant was partly run on Australian uranium. The good news is that the resumption of high-grade uranium mining at ERA/Rio Tinto’s Ranger mine about 230 km south east of Darwin may be delayed for many more months if not years because of near-r … Read More

via memengineering

New Video From Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Shows Containment Vessel Dome Amid Debris (via EHS & Safety News America)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

The containment is not installed. It sits to one side where it was placed after it was removed for maintenance.

I’d like to you to watch the film. The building looks like it was direct hit by a half dozen bombs. It’s hard to see anything besides pipes, crushed concrete and steel reinforcement rods sticking out in every direction like match sticks.

James Pilant

My thanks to EHS & Safety News America.

The video was shot on Friday by an unmanned micro-helicopter, the Tarantula-Hawk, called the T-Hawk for short. The bright yellow dome of the steel containment vessel at Unit 4, Fukushima Daiishi nuclear power plant (FDI) is clearly visible amid the pulverized remains of the building in a new video released by the Tokyo Electric Power Company. The dome is first seen a … Read More

via EHS & Safety News America

Fukushima Gov. Slams TEPCO, Govt for ‘Betrayal’ (via TheResistance)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

Betrayed.

Exactly right. The people of Fukushima were told those plants were perfectly safe. They were told they were the way to economic success. They were told that the power plants would bring prosperity and jobs for decades.

And what they got was a nuclear dead zone. Most will never be able to return to their homes.

They were lied to. If the nuclear industry were honest and stopped telling us how many chest x-rays their latest disaster was equivalent to, we might have an idea of how much nuclear power we want to use and where. But they are not. They are wretched lying propagandists, readily assisted by hack writers beguiled by the opportunity of turning the nuclear industry’s talking points into quick gotcha articles to persecute the tree huggers.

It gets old after a while. You get tired of seeing the same old talking points over and over again while new radiation plagues the earth.

James Pilant

InfoWars The Yomiuri Shimbun April 10, 2011 Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato has expressed anger at the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying both “betrayed” the people of Fukushima Prefecture with repeated assurances about the safety of nuclear power plants. “We feel we were betrayed [by the central government and TEPCO,” Sato said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake a … Read More

via TheResistance

The anguish people in Fukushima prefecture have to face (via Aoumigamera)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This guy is measuring his radiation and deciding on the level of risk he finds acceptable. This is from someone on the ground in the area. I’m sure if you read Japanese, you can find hundreds, probably thousands of blogs from the area, but I only speak English. I imagine more than a few of you are in the same situation.

So, get a view from near the disaster from an independent soul with his own ideas.

James Pilant

I have often had nappa cabbage and lettuce harvested in Ibaraki prefecture, which is just next to Fukushima prefecture, in the last few weeks. Some of my friends knew this and they told me I was a reckless guy. I don’t care about that. They are quite cheap now, hehe. I’m not a vegetarian but I eat a lot of veges because I love them. If there’s no meat or fish for a couple of days, it’s no problem to me. If, however, there’s no veges in one meal, … Read More

via Aoumigamera

Japan Earthquake Tragedy and its Message (via A Fool’s Wish)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’m more convinced of the toughness and resilience of humanity than this author. Nevertheless he has an interesting point of view. It is always possible to look at humans at the top of the food chain or at the very bottom. It’s a matter of perspective.

Is the glass half empty or half full? (Is that the champion cliche or what?)

James Pilant

Having no access to outside world for a month due to the mandatory military training, it’s joyous to be back in front of my laptop and catch up what I’ve missed. Facebook, Gmail and ESPN are my natural stops every morning, but I surfed away from those sites rather quickly and sought for articles on Japan Earthquake. It is extremely surreal that I still do not realize to my senses how serious of a tragedy this natural phenomenon has been. As final … Read More

via A Fool’s Wish

Hanford evacuates … (via Homeless on the High Desert)

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Courtesy of Nuclearinfo.net

There appear to be regular problems like this at nuclear plants all over the United States. But since they are considered local news, they attract only limited attention. While the difficulties associated with nuclear power are in the news in a major way, we see the small incidents.

Could a regular airing of these continual problems make a person more uncomfortable choosing nuclear power over other choices?

Is the media doing its job of informing the public? Are we being properly informed about these critical issues or shall we look at more critical subjects like Fashion friendly sunglasses for all types of faces? Is that the kind of media we deserve?

James Pilant

Washington State Nuclear Plant Briefly Evacuated (Reuters) – Washington state’s only nuclear power plant briefly evacuated about 25 workers after a small amount of hydrogen sprang from a pipe and ignited in a six-inch (15.5 cm) flash, plant officials said on Friday. The incident at the Columbia Generating Station late on Thursday afternoon resulted in no injuries or equipment damage, they said. Workers are now back. “It was like a little flash, l … Read More

via Homeless on the High Desert

Fukushima Cleanup: 30 Years, $12 Billion (via Mostly Tech)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

How much alternative energy can you buy with 12 billion dollars over thirty years?

James Pilant

Fukushima Cleanup: 30 Years, $12 Billion “Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said. Four of the plant’s six reactors became useless when sea water was used to cool them after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out generators running its cooling systems. The reactors need to be decommissioned, Tepco Chairma … Read More

via Mostly Tech

Poll: Few confident US ready for nuclear emergency (AP) (via US General News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Most of America’s nuclear preparedness is based on obscene accumulations of pro nuclear propaganda and assurances that nothing bad can happen. That’s not enough.

There is simply too much profit, too many billions of dollars of influence and power to make any individual looking at the situation comfortable with the pronouncements of government and industry.

It is always the same.

We are told –
1. It can’t happen.
2. The situation is not serious.
3. Nothing like this has every happened before.
4. Radiation is not that big a deal – (at this point there must be discussion of chest x-rays)
5. The situation is under control.
6. The problem here is not the situation which is under control but the panicked response of a population not properly informed about the minimal danger of radiation.
7. That reactor was an obsolescent design.
8. Our new reactors have solved these problems.
9. Nuclear power is necessary. We cannot produce enough electricity without it.
10. Critics of nuclear power are alarmists, misinformed, treehuggers, radicals, rabble rousers, anti-industry, anti-corporate activists, etc.
11. What do you want us to do? Go back to living in the stone age!!

If you want to add some more, please do.

James Pilant

WASHINGTON – Most Americans doubt the U.S. government is prepared to respond to a nuclear emergency like the one in Japan, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. But it also shows few Americans believe such an emergency would occur. Nevertheless, the disaster has turned more Americans against new nuclear power plants. The poll found that 60 percent of Americans oppose building more nuclear power plants. That’s up from 48 percent who opposed it in … Read More

via US General News