I do want to present an article that explains in fairly easy terms what the status is of the damaged nuclear plants and also what could happen. As usual, the press is having a meltdown (ha ha) over the issue. Dwelling on the possible fallout (haha) of the problems with the nuclear plants rather than the real tragedy of thousands of dead. Typical of the press (and liberals in general) to make a big deal about unimportant minor or imaginary issues (global warming) rather than focus on real problems that are painful to solve and that don't further their agendas (global debt).
I shouldn't say that the problems with the reactors are unimportant. Clearly they are, but they pale compared to the real disaster that has already happened to Japan. Liberals will of course take the scare of a meltdown and radiation release as an opportunity to lock down any further nuclear development in the US. Development that, prior to the tsunami, was getting very close to finally moving ahead after being shut down for decades after the phony (media-generated) scare over the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979. Interesting fact I heard the other day (though I don't have the reference): there hasn't been one case of cancer or death proven to be associated with the Three Mile Island disaster. The cancer rates of the fallout zone show no anomolies compared to other parts of the country.
Be armed with some facts from this Wall Street Journal article. The problems with the reactors in Japan are serious, but not nearly as bad as they are being blown up (haha) to be.
Here are a couple of quotes to get you going:
The Liberal Scare:
Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), a longtime opponent of nuclear power, has warned of "another Chernobyl" and predicted "the same thing could happen here." In response, he has called for an immediate suspension of licensing procedures for the Westinghouse AP1000, a "Generation III" reactor that has been laboring through design review at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for seven years.The rational presentation of facts:
The core of a nuclear reactor operates at about 550 degrees Fahrenheit, well below the temperature of a coal furnace and only slightly hotter than a kitchen oven. If anything unusual occurs, the control rods immediately drop, shutting off the nuclear reaction. You can't have a "runaway reactor," nor can a reactor explode like a nuclear bomb. A commercial reactor is to a bomb what Vaseline is to napalm. Although both are made from petroleum jelly, only one of them has potentially explosive material.Read the whole thing.
On the other hand, if there is a meltdown through the casing and a significant leak into the atmosphere, then I stand ready to agree that maybe we need more review and work before we're ready for nuke power, and we better start really ramping up the drilling and mining of fossil fuels.
ReplyDeleteI will check the article out later when I have time. I have noticed that talk of a meltdown has been in the news and the fact that this will be used to prevent the expansion of nuclear power here in the states. The way in which the Japanese are handling the situation has been noted in some articles I have read: they aren't looting as people did here in welfare state La.
ReplyDeleteI read a yahoo news article stating that the earth quake shifted the earth's axis of rotation and shortened the day by a millionth of a second. It was the 5th biggest one on record.
Another interesting aspect of disasters like this is the financial impact and the fact that America and the world won't be able to handle disasters like this due to its financial situation.
All of Japan isn't a waste land. There are parts that weren't really affected.
It is interesting that Markey the Cap and Trade guy is blowing the situation out of hand. I sure he doesn't have any agenda.
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