APOCALYPSE NOW?
By David Vance On March 16th, 2011“The chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that all the water is gone from one of the spent fuel pools at Japan’s most troubled nuclear plant, but Japanese officials denied it. If NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko is correct, this would mean there’s nothing to stop the fuel rods from getting hotter and ultimately melting down. The outer shell of the rods could also ignite with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area.”
Tick tock – is it about to become apocalypse now?
Don’t hear you calling for nuclear power now. Weren’t you at the forefront of wanting nuclear energy, along with Sammy Wilson. They ought to close Sellafield, at least wind farms won’t cause havoc like this.
Is he right? Who knows. He’s a government man so you can assume he lies.
The MSM gives no clarity. All yesterday the Telegraph lead with meltdown, all yesterday the BBC lead with radiation levels falling. Getting any sense of what’s happenening from all of the media and government is a hopeless task. There’s too much speculation and too many contradictory pieces.
We saw the markets dive today when a Eurocrat stated it’s meltdown. An hour later he was rowing back from the statement. Maybe governments should run announcements past Goldman Sachs first.
They do know more than they’re letting on because right now outer space must be a mosh pit of satellites with mega infra-red capability. If there’s real heat coming out it’ll show.
When Obama goes to the Falklands to practice his swing we’ll know it’s really bad.
Kateyo -
They ought to close Sellafield, at least wind farms won’t cause havoc like this.
That’s right.
With windfarms there will be no devastation because there’ll be nothing to devastate. Why spend money on a brick home when radiators and coal are a thing of the past?
Since the plant is 40 years old, suffered multiple severe earthquakes including the seventh most powerful ever recorded, a 30-foot tsunami travelling at 500 mph and we don’t know yet if its integrity has been undermined, I’d suggest that nuclear power is pretty safe.
Pete
Kateyo is hoping hot air can provide alternative energy. I’m 100% in favour of clean nuclear energy – suggest plants are not built on tectonic plate interface. Simple really….
Build in Donacloney now won’t you.
Lets see how many people are in favour of a reactor in Upper Bann….:)
I favoured Londonderry – city side. Still, when the lights go out, buy a windmill….
I’d suggest that nuclear power is pretty safe.
Yes, except when it’s not. This is a setback for nuclear power, even if another Chernobyl is avoided. All of Japan is an earthquake zone. At a minimum, they will have to review all of their nuclear stations after this, and probably have to re-engineer many of them. Trouble is they rely on nuclear for 33% of their electricity, so they could be facing years of supply problems.
City side in Derry, the further away from you the better eh? Thats confidence.
Scary stuff in any event, the capital’s population potentially in peril.
Those poor people its awful. It’s like watching a sci-fi movie, something unreal.
Peter -
Yes, but as David says, we’re talking about a known and severe tectonic faults with Japan.
Given that (say) Sellafield is of a safety interest more to NI and the RoI than much of England, if you’re worried about how it would stand up to a 30-foot tsunami travelling at 500 mph, you probably wouldn’t be around for the outcome.
While we want the most robust constructions, it’s fair to say what’s done for Fukushima won’t be happening in Cumbria.
nuclear power is safe, however there won’t be a new one in the US now for another 30yrs, but in reality there is no need.
We have enough coal and oil for atleast another 300 years, and when you consider the advances made by science from 1901-2001 imagine what there will be by 2301
Yes I hear science may be able to transplant a brain into a Republican by then.
Troll
Yes, I think it’s inevitable that the USA will start to exploit its remaining untapped fossil fuels, at least for the next few decades until clean renewables have become both dependable and cost effective.
Unfortunately, we don’t have that option and you won’t be selling your oil to us or anyone else. So we will have to push harder towards a mix of nuclear and renewables. The upside for us is that we have more incentive to make the technological advances which we can then sell to USA
bull we always take care of our cousins across the pond
don’t hold your breath, but who knows maybe they can transplant a backbone into any politician in the next century