Down, kicked and getting worse; even the offline reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station are in trouble thanks the inability to pump cooling water to the fuel-storage areas. #4 was the scene of incredible heroism yesterday; it has been reported that after oil spilled from a pump into the storage tank caught fire, crews stayed and fought it, put it out, at the personal cost of considerable radiation exposure.
But troubles persist; according to the report linked above, every reactor in the complex has problems. For a rational discussion of just what those problems might be, this is the best site I have found.
Meanwhile, oldstream media in the US continues to trot out anti-nuclear activists as "nuclear experts"* and you'll find a guide to the players at Pajamas Media along with further thoughts about the mess. Remember, these guys will show up on your screen at home with graphics that say only "nuclear scientist" or suchlike, nary a word of their opposition to atomic power. --Other than the way they eagerly seize the chance to play up fear.
...And all that remains a sideshow to people huddled together in refugee shelters while snow falls, short on food and water, because of an earthquake and tsunami. (Remember those?) The reactor problems and the efforts to contain them may yet take lives; around 50 brave men fought the fire at #4 while spent -- but still hot and "hot" -- fuel rods were exposed; but the 10,000+ lost to dear, loving Mother Gaia are getting short shrift while the media shrilly shills the possible effects of what they're still calling "radiation release" from Fukushima Daiichi. Yeah, that matters a lot to the guy safely indoors in a shelter, wondering if any other member of his family survived; and what are ten thousand real deaths compared to, say, the 4000 statistcally-predicted shortened lives due to Chernobyl?
Not much, to the boob tube and its ailing ink-and-pulp appendages.
__________________________________________
* Many of them "expert" in power plant technology much the same way that Paul Helmke is an expert on firearms technology: not a bit.
Silly, silly RX. Everybody knows that earthquakes cause tsunamis cause core meltdowns cause glowing snow and death from a nukular 'splosion. I'll bet you could clear up your thinking by consulting Yoko Ono.
ReplyDeleteLeatherneck
Proof that the legacy media is merely editorializing interspersed with the odd half-truth for the sake of appearances.
ReplyDeleteJim
I suggest why the reactor get more air time. Seems radioactivity can travel and while death and disease due to housing and flooding loss are bad that stays there where radiation can come here. It's scare not facts of reporting.
ReplyDeleteThese guys knowingly forget that Japan likely knows more about radiation on the ground than any country. All of it is first hand!
Eck!
I watched several "news" loops this AM in a waiting room. Discounting ads, we had 40% reactor 30% earthquakes/tsunami and the balance was everything else.
ReplyDeleteThe reactor issues seem to be going from bad to worse, and the Japan nuke agency seems to have the transparency of the guys in charge when Chernobyl was burning. That's not a good sign,
I'm sure we'll get through this with minimal loss of life, especially compared to the tsunami, but this has surpassed three-mile island at this point.
I just wonder if we're going to have the world-wide safety review that we should have had after Katrina. With 10,000+ dead, can we really afford to pack so many people so close to natural harbors? Especially when the harbors can magnify the effect of a tsunamis?
Oh, and we also seem to need backup generators located in tsunami proof bunkers located on higher ground. maybe we need to take some of the "waste" out of the storage pools and build some tsunami proof radioisotope thermoelectric generators?
The sheer determination of people to panic over all this is driving me up the walls.
ReplyDeleteI mean, seriously, don't these people have anything closer to home to tremble fearfully over? Alar, perhaps? Autism from vaccinations?
The world demands mind-boggling amounts of power, and there are only so many ways to get it. I'm not particularly for or against nuclear power, but the responsibility and possible repercussions are enormous. Mostly, I hope the guys at the top are smart enough, or at least lucky enough, to save lives.
ReplyDeleteNuclear power, or other power? All I know is that we can't squeeze the soil indefinitely.
Brady
Behind Bars - Motorcycles and Life
http://www.behindbarsmotorcycle.com/