mea culpa,
mea culpa,
mea maxima culpa
For all you kiddies. That would be old school catholic for “my bad”.
I was so wrong about the safety of nuclear power. Maybe because the first Mr Bethany worked first on nuclear subs and then on nuclear power plants. Maybe because I like all things scientific. Maybe because my favorite physics professor in college had worked on the Manhattan project.
I was wrong. If the Japanese can not build secure nuclear power plants – no one can. Consider me nuclear free.
Everyone on the planet should thank those 50 souls who remain on the job at the Daiichi Plant.
I hear you but I wonder if the numbers work to power a nuclear free world. It is depressing that the Japanese reactors have fared so badly – they are very old but as you mention if they can’t do it safely, who will.
Newer designs such as Toshiba’s smaller reactors would be an improvement, but I assume the spent fuel problem is still pretty bad. Given we don’t have the political will to open Yucca Mountain and instead store spent fuel all over our country, the fact that a big part of the Japan crisis is with spent fuel as well as the active reactors doesn’t bode well.
Christian Science Monitor notes the other two countries with ring of fire nuclear sites are four in the US and one in Mexico.
Since spent fuel is the underwater part of the iceberg, I sure wish the Google guys could get this going:
Thorium: A Nuclear Waste Burning Liquid Salt Thorium Reactor VIDEO. (Google techtalk, 2009-07-20, Kirk Sorensen)
Sadly like most folks I really don’t have the science background to evaluate if something like this would work but one can dream.
Here’s hoping for the Japanese to get it all shut down safely.
Dave