[quote=“headhonchoII”][quote=“yuli”][quote=“netuser”]This is just a post and not my opinion:-)
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Fear of Japan’s nuclear crisis far exceeds actual risks, say scientists
csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pac … scientists[/quote]
What those scientists with their blinkers on can’t understand is that the fear is much more the result of things like this:
“Lax oversight, ‘greed’ preceded Japan nuclear crisis”
csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pac … ear-crisis
People (not only in Japan) know that they can’t trust the alliance of politicians and industry. Nuclear energy systems require BIG MONEY, and wherever/ whenever BIG MONEY is involved you find deceit and fraud.
- sceptical appraisal of nuclear power, etc see above
Of course, I’m not holding my breath that anything will change soon. 
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Yuli, you don’t want nuclear power what do you want. Oil? Renewables that could supply 10-20% of world’s demand at most? You know what would happen with no nuclear power, wars!
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Well, thats a good counter example to the “OK, yeah, now that its actually happened (as opposed to the week before last when we said it could’nt, or last week when it was actually happening and we said it wasn’t) maybe nuclear power is a little bit unsafe in a tsunami zone, but its OK everywhere else” apology.
What about combat zones? You going to guarantee a war-free area we can put all our nuclear reactors? Switzerland?
There’d be a few bob in it for them. They might not want to keep the money in a Swiss bank though. Somewhere safer, where they could get at it in a hurry if “the unthinkable” (that is actually very easy to think about, because its so BLEEDING OBVIOUS, but we dont want to think about it) happened.
Oh, I forgot. Nuclear power guarantees peace and stability. (Note: THIS IS IRONY. Note to self: Remember your audience)
[quote=“headhonchoII”]
Anyway it’s chalk and cheese comparing an old faulty design with a newer one. [/quote]
No. It would be chalk and cheese comparing an old faulty design with a new, perfect, infallible one, but no such design is or will be, available. New designs, though doubtless better, are a product of, and more importantly, are regulated, by, the same system that allowed the blatantly unsafe old designs to be commissioned and remain in operation.
Less electricity, not no electricity. Any area that was habitable before it went on the grid would be inhabitable now. I never used domestic heating in Scotland, and I never use domestic air conditioning here, in Southern Taiwan. Its a hardship, but it hasn’t killed me. There are already famines all over the world and its likely they will be worse, with or without nuclear power. They are a product of overpopulation, agricultural resource depletion, and socioeconomic organisation. Electricity does not make those things go away.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]
I think the issue is ignorance, as in people overreacting to the situation. Yes nuclear power can be dangerous, but generally only when people make OBVIOUS mistakes like building reactors on a tsunami prone coastline with no passive cooling system!
The Japanese will be forced to examine why they accepted the risk and FACE the risk now, their mentality was the problem. [/quote]
:roflmao: The old ones are the best. Doesn’t matter how often I hear it, this kind of stuff still kills me. (Perhaps literally eventually).
“Nuclear power is safe as houses, its those PEOPLE who design and operate (they usually leave out regulate) it that are the problem… er, Generally.”
Ok, a couple of selected nuclear highlights:
Windscale UK 1954, perhaps, I’m sorry to say, the most blatant example available. An air-cooled!!! graphite - moderated!!! reactor, with a striking (and, as it turned out, not coincidental) resemblance to a pot-bellied stove. One lone engineer made a real pain in the arse of himself and insisted they install filter galleries at the top of the airshaft/chimney. Phew! And the fire brigade skooshed water in it, and the water didn’t explode. Phew again!
But what can you expect from the Brits, eh? Culture of official secrecy, always stopping for tea, trying to maintain past glory with their very own Cold War A-bomb programme.
And engineering? Morris Marina. Nuff said.
Chernobyll 1986 Well known story: Graphite-moderated water cooled reactor with control system, procedural and containment flaws. Blew up and fire was contained with much difficulty and heroism.
But what can you expect from the Ruski’s eh? Slavonic fatalism, culture of official secrecy and infallibility, always stopping for vodka, desparately trying to match US nuclear supremacy in the Cold War.
and engineering? Lada. Nuff said
So what we need is a culture and people to whom correct, meticulous procedure is almost a religion. A people with profound historical reasons to be suspicious of, and careful about, radiation and matters nuclear. A people so strongly opposed to militarism that they refused to have an army for a period, and still limit its operations to conform to its Self Defence Force title.
and engineering? Toyota. Nuff sai…oh, wait
Maybe we could get the Swiss involved after all? There’d be a few bob in it for them.