Two things to say.
1. They sold Japan on the concept the nuclear reactors are safe safe safe and foolproof. Didn't quite turn out that way. And a small nation like Japan can't afford to lose a 100 square miles of land and have it radioactive for 50,000 years.
2. Hopefully thorium type nuclear reactors may prove to be far far far safer, because U235 based rectors are very dangerous. Especially those in Japan that were outmoded before they were built.
wow...who crapped in your wheaties???... as if they weren't already.
High levels of cesium found at former nuclear lab outside L.A.
LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) -- High levels of radioactive cesium have been detected on the ground of a former nuclear facility in the suburbs of Los Angeles called the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, where an experimental nuclear reactor suffered fuel melting in 1959, according to U.S. government data obtained Thursday.
The data, provided to local residents in February as an interim report by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is examining the extent of contamination in the area, show that radioactive cesium measured up to about 7,300 becquerels per kilogram of soil, or nearly 1,000 times the benchmark used by the agency.
The area was decontaminated after the nuclear accident, and the U.S. Department of Energy, which was dealing with research there, declared in the 1980s that the land could now be used as farmland or for residential purposes.
The decision to conduct a detailed study was made in December 2010 after strong demands were lodged by local residents who have expressed health concerns for a long time.
The findings suggest that the Department of Energy had grossly underestimated the level of contamination in the area and have shown the difficulty of cleaning up soil contaminated with radioactive materials.
In Japan, which was hit by meltdowns at a nuclear power plant last March and the subsequent release of massive amounts of radioactive materials, rice cannot be grown in paddies if radioactive cesium detected there measures more than 5,000 becquerels per kg of soil.
The EPA sampled soil at 437 spots near the area where the troubled reactor used to be, and found higher levels of radioactive materials than normal at 75 of them. At seven spots, cesium measured over 100 times the standard, with the maximum reading of 957 times the standard.
The agency is expected to announce its results by the end of this year, with plans to finish decontamination work by 2017.
In the July 1959 accident, 13 of the 43 fuel rods partially melted after an experimental sodium coolant reactor suffered malfunctions. No one is believed to have died directly from the accident, which was the first fuel melting at a facility in the United States that provided electricity to the private sector.
The lab has also been known for its sloppy management of hazardous materials, having incinerated radioactive waste in an open yard at the site for two decades.
Accidents have periodically occurred at nuclear facilities in the United States, which has large nuclear weapons stockpiles and many nuclear reactors, but no accident or contamination as serious as the one at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory has occurred near a city as populous as Los Angeles, the second largest city in the country.
JedfiY may be wise to heed his own advice to Japan, because Israel is in similar danger. \
A Tusananami hits the Mediterranean region at least once per century, and wave heights have been estimated at up to 20 meters.
http://www.tsunami-alarm-system.com/...iterranean.htm
http://forward.com/articles/123497/
And biblical history is also full of earthquakes in Israel. With Israel's last major quake in 1927, leaves small earth movements to build up more and more stress. My concern is mainly the Israeli breeder reactor reactor at dismona, its containment dome is already cracked and could meltdown with the effect of another Chernobyl.
Chernobyl was in 1986, once every 25 years is not same as once in a lifetime.a once in a lifetime disaster makes people stupid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Problem is God used plagues and other natural disasters to help his chosen people the Jews......
Yet we are talking the Bible which it would appear you know very little about...same as your stance on the Palestinians....
Chernobyl was in 1986, once every 25 years is not same as once in a lifetime.
The way I see it, the nuclear industry had its chance. They fucked up and now they won't get a second chance. Thank goodness, because chances are they'd mess that one up too.
The nuclear industry didn't "fuck up". It was corporate-government corruption. Nothing else, at least in Japan's case.
This is absolutely stunning to me. Japan is about as high-tech a society as you'll find, and is now shutting down all nuke plants, and talking about phasing them out permanently. That's absolutely mind boggling.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46676913/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/
I understand why residents would be scared or wary of nuclear power, but to take a step backwards toward fossil fuels from existing nuclear power plants? That's crazy.
What are you talking about? The industry promised the reactors were safe, and they weren't. Yes, not being able to withstand a tsunami in Japan means unsafe.
What are you talking about? The industry promised the reactors were safe, and they weren't. Yes, not being able to withstand a tsunami in Japan means unsafe.
So since coal plants have had a much larger detrimental impact on health, lives, and the environment, does that mean they've had their chance, and we should just shut all of those down as well. Looks like the Amish have a current jump on technology.
When has a coal power plant melted down and released nuclear waste into the ground and oceans that will last for thousands of years? Low level pollution with detrimental effects spread out over space and time are very different from an accident poisoning the earth for millennia.
You can easily shut it down without external resources, you just cannot keep it cool after you do.
When has a coal power plant melted down and released nuclear waste into the ground and oceans that will last for thousands of years? Low level pollution with detrimental effects spread out over space and time are very different from an accident poisoning the earth for millennia.
Coal plants are constantly releasing radioactive material into the environment. This is in addition to mercury and several pollutant gases that spread out and affect the environment for hundreds of miles around the plant. And that is just in the burning process. Now take into account the process of mining the coal with all of the deaths, injuries, cancers and other health issues that have occurred as a result, and the total impacts far outweigh those caused by the nuclear industry. As was pointed out earlier in the thread, these are simply tolerated because the casualties are smaller incidents spread out over time, but with a much larger total impact.
Given time, they will get over it. Especially if that time includes some hot summer days without AC.
Say what you will about those people but they do know how to take a sacrifice for their country.