Once again,I,Secret Squirrel, have turned my thoughts to the problem public personal transportation,with a view to vastly reduced carbon emissions, and hence forth as well reducing, even yet eliminating ,the necessity for rather messy and ever increasingly expensive petrol,by removing the engine, to commence with,by replacing it,utterly and entirely. Ah!But with what would I replace that engine?However would we drive,as in power,such a car? Well, as always, ever turning my thoughts to the ancients and the engineers that went before me,I,The Great Engineer, I,not they, have found a solution.
You see, this Italian,this Martini, (not related to the beverage which has his name),was a 14th Century Italian painter, who had been trained in engineering. He designed (on paper) a man-propelled carriage, mounted on four wheels. Each wheel was powered by a hand-turned capstan arrangement. Gearing was also provided to transmit the rotation of each capstan to the wheel below. It may have looked good on paper, but the four turners of the capstans couldn't have kept it up for long before they fell over with exhaustion.However,what with modern technological ideas,such as extensive use of gearing,this problem could be, and is, over come,and we could reduce this efficiently,and effectively,to one turner, turning a central capstan,and so gearing to each of the wheels,optional to front wheels or rear wheels,or all wheels drive as well, depending on the specific model of said design of vehicle.We would not drive,as in power, the car, they would, but we would steer.
Now, I mentioned THEY, they who would power the car.Well who would that be,who could that be?There is, of course, no shortage of manpower available for that means,indeed, round and about the world,as there was in the old days past, but perhaps the modern Africans will not permit theirs to work as chauffeurs as it were according to modernized trains of thought.Sadly, t'is what happens with increasing modernizations.But we do have available those on the dole,effectively providing them with jobs,but they may not take kindly to work, certainly not working for their dole, for that would be work you see. We could,perhaps, take a page from the way the Royal Navy ran in the old days of sail, and so we could offer British citizenship to those of other lands, in exchange for a few years of work as said required chauffeurs,chauffeurs being those who would power the car,on a sort of live in basis,a form of au pair,with or without salary. The concept so obviously and effectively, works on paper,physically,mechanically, and in terms of engineering, and we'd have personal transport,and at the same time solved the problems of ever increasing gasoline costs, reducing the need for gasoline,and so reducing global warming as well.We'd be in the catbird seat as it were, the drivers seat once more,except,of course,for those travailing to power the car.Ever onwards, solving our problems in retrospect as it were, looking back as it were, applying the ideas of the older,ancient times,and so by turning,and we're ever proceeding with, our backsides to the future.
Secret Squirrel,
MRL, (MP,Dunny On The Wold),
Minister For Re-Deranged Re-Engineering.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Secret Squirrel Examines The Nuclear Lie.
Secret Squirrel asks, "Are you told nuclear energy is safe?"Yes.You're told that, but is nuclear energy actually safe?..................No.We know so.We are lied to, constantly,by government, whenever it is convenient for it to carry out it's agenda and defend and protect itself,from truth honesty and justice, which, face it, occurs much more often than not,especially with respect to nuclear energy.It lies, government lies.
Yet another of the nuclear industry's dirty little secrets is now out. Spent nuclear fuel pools are for more lethal than the reactor core or a nuclear bomb and they do not have any containment what so ever.The government's say they're safe, and have been safe,but Japan is proving they are not,certainly and most decidedly not.Both the reactor and the fuel pond, are highly unstable,vulnerable,and seemingly unaccountably uncontrollable.The Japanese plant at present is generating a three year dose of radiation per /hour at the gate.
Here from the German, Speigel Online..."After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan followed by the ever-worsening stream of terrible news relating to the country's nuclear power facilities, even the last remaining advocates of the technology must realize that we can't go on like this. It is over. Done. Finished. Nuclear energy cannot be controlled by humans, no matter how good the arguments might be in its favour. The danger of disaster is real, and it can happen at any time – even in a super high-tech country such as Japan. And it could also happen here( in Germany). A sense of security when it comes to atomic reactors is no longer possible. Not anywhere."On December 12, 1952, the NRX reactor,Chalk River,Ottawa,Canada, suffered a partial meltdown,due to operator and mechanical error.
Ridiculously serious nuclear "accidents" occurred at Windscale in 1957, at Three Mile Island(mechanical and operator error) in 1979,and at Chernobyl(operator error) in 1986 are well known.Some remain to be described. Others such as the releases from the Hanford site in Washington State where eight reactors were built to produce military plutonium between 1943 and 1971 have been disclosed in the United States using Freedom of Information Act provisions.
In February 1986, 19,000 pages of documents were
released on the application of the Hanford Education Action League. They learned that clouds of radioactive iodine, ruthenium, caesium and other elements were released into the atmosphere contaminating people, animals, water and crops for hundreds of miles. Between 1944 and 1956, 530,000 curies of radioactive iodine was released. The Colombia River became grossly contaminated. In 1954, with six reactors on line, 8,000 curies of radioactive material was dumped into the river each day. By comparison, the radioactivity released at Three Mile Island was 15-24 curies of radioactive iodine. From Chernobyl 3 million curies of caesium 137 was released – a total comparable with the fallout from all nuclear weapons
tests to date. The estimate of all radionuclides released from Chernobyl is 50 million curies.During the Sizewell Public Inquiry it Other incidents, especially those that occurred during the Cold War, were not then made known to the public. Some remain to be described.
We were,and indeed we are, being lied to.Imagine, an explosion at a nuclear plant, by operator error, Chernobyl, explosion, radiation,cities,Chernobyl,Prypyat, evacuated, two cities populations irradiated,heavily,with nuclear radiation.Prypyat,the closest city was 3 kilometers away,none of the cities was evacuated immediately,and the cities still remain abandoned today as unsafe,25 years later.Soviet scientists reported that the Chernobyl Unit 4 reactor contained about 180–190 metric tons of uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. Estimates of the amount of this material that escaped range from 5 to 30 percent, but some liquidators, who have actually been inside the sarcophagus and the reactor
shell itself — e.g. Mr. Usatenko and Dr. Karpan — state that not more than 5–10% of the fuel remains inside; indeed, photographs of the reactor shell show that it is completely empty. Because of the intense heat of the fire, much of the ejected fuel was lofted high into the atmosphere (with no containment building to stop it), where it spread.Contamination from the Chernobyl disaster was not evenly spread across the surrounding countryside, but scattered irregularly depending on weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and Western scientists indicate that Belarus received about 60% of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union.
A large area in Russia south of Bryansk was also contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine.The explosion at the power station and subsequent fires inside the remains of the reactor provoked a radioactive cloud which drifted not only over Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, but also over the European part of Turkey, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, France (including Corsica, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK).The plume of radioactive debris has been said to be equal to the contamination of 400 Hiroshima bombs.That from the explosion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant,a nuclear plant explosion and meltdown, whose radiation was detected as far away as Sweden.
So nuclear energy is safe? That's what they tell us. Look at it all and what can and does happen.Look at Japan.A nuclear power plant is most certainly not safe.
Cables obtained by Wikileaks show warning to Japan of danger posed by powerful quakes, official negligence, and accusations of nuclear accident cover-ups.Taro Kono, a high-profile member of Japan's lower house, told U.S. diplomats in October 2008 that the government was "covering up" nuclear accidents and ignoring alternatives.Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.And now the United States on Wednesday advised Americans in Japan to evacuate to a greater distance from a damaged nuclear power plant than the Japanese government is advising. White House officials warn that the situation in Japan is deteriorating.U.S. authorities are recommending that Americans stay 80 kilometers away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was badly damaged in last week’s earthquake and tsunami.
Japanese officials have advised people to move 32 kilometers away from the facility.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that the advice comes from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whose chairman met with President Barack Obama earlier in the day. "Advice the Japanese government is giving, based on the information it has, is different from the advice that we would be giving, if this incident were happening in the United States of America," he said.
Japan has had other accidents,basically glossed over......Tokaimura was the site of Japan's worst nuclear plant incident in 1997, when 35 workers were contaminated by radiation after a fire at a processing plant was not extinguished properly and caused an explosion.
A series of incidents at Japanese nuclear power stations in recent years has undermined confidence in the safety of this form of energy production, says BBC Tokyo correspondent Juliet Hindell.In July, cooling water leaked from a pipe in the building that houses the reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in northern Japan It took Japan Atomic Power, the company that operates the plant, 14 hours to shut down operations after the leak was discovered.Executives in charge of the reactor said radiation from the leak was 11,500 times the safety limit.The earlier figure given was 250 times the limit, and the change has sparked accusations of a cover-up.
Nuclear energy is safe?So THEY say, but t'is a lie, says I. One is reminded of Sir Walter Ralegh's poem on lies, appropriately entitled.......
The Lie.
Sir Walter Ralegh
c. 1592
Go, soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.
Say to the court it glows
And shines like rotten wood,
Say to the church it shows
What's good, and doth no good:
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.
Tell potentates, they live
Acting, by others' action;
Not lov'd unless they give;
Not strong, but by affection.
If potentates reply,
Give potentates the lie.
Tell men of high condition,
That manage the estate,
Their purpose is ambition;
Their practice only hate.
And if they once reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell them that brave it most,
They beg for more by spending,
Who in their greatest cost
Like nothing but commending.
And if they make reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell zeal it wants devotion;
Tell love it is but lust;
Tell time it meets but motion;
Tell flesh it is but dust:
And wish them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.
Tell age it daily wasteth;
Tell honour how it alters;
Tell beauty how she blasteth;
Tell favour how it falters:
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.
Tell wit how much it wrangles
In fickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in over-wiseness:
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.
Tell physic of her boldness;
Tell skill it is prevention;
Tell charity of coldness;
Tell law it is contention:
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.
Tell fortune of her blindness;
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindness;
Tell justice of delay:
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming.
If arts and schools reply,
Give arts and schools the lie.
Tell faith it's fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell manhood, shakes off pity;
Tell virtue, least preferred.
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.
So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing;
Because to give the lie
Deserves no less than stabbing:
Stab at thee, he that will,
No stab thy soul can kill!
Yet another of the nuclear industry's dirty little secrets is now out. Spent nuclear fuel pools are for more lethal than the reactor core or a nuclear bomb and they do not have any containment what so ever.The government's say they're safe, and have been safe,but Japan is proving they are not,certainly and most decidedly not.Both the reactor and the fuel pond, are highly unstable,vulnerable,and seemingly unaccountably uncontrollable.The Japanese plant at present is generating a three year dose of radiation per /hour at the gate.
Here from the German, Speigel Online..."After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan followed by the ever-worsening stream of terrible news relating to the country's nuclear power facilities, even the last remaining advocates of the technology must realize that we can't go on like this. It is over. Done. Finished. Nuclear energy cannot be controlled by humans, no matter how good the arguments might be in its favour. The danger of disaster is real, and it can happen at any time – even in a super high-tech country such as Japan. And it could also happen here( in Germany). A sense of security when it comes to atomic reactors is no longer possible. Not anywhere."On December 12, 1952, the NRX reactor,Chalk River,Ottawa,Canada, suffered a partial meltdown,due to operator and mechanical error.
Ridiculously serious nuclear "accidents" occurred at Windscale in 1957, at Three Mile Island(mechanical and operator error) in 1979,and at Chernobyl(operator error) in 1986 are well known.Some remain to be described. Others such as the releases from the Hanford site in Washington State where eight reactors were built to produce military plutonium between 1943 and 1971 have been disclosed in the United States using Freedom of Information Act provisions.
In February 1986, 19,000 pages of documents were
released on the application of the Hanford Education Action League. They learned that clouds of radioactive iodine, ruthenium, caesium and other elements were released into the atmosphere contaminating people, animals, water and crops for hundreds of miles. Between 1944 and 1956, 530,000 curies of radioactive iodine was released. The Colombia River became grossly contaminated. In 1954, with six reactors on line, 8,000 curies of radioactive material was dumped into the river each day. By comparison, the radioactivity released at Three Mile Island was 15-24 curies of radioactive iodine. From Chernobyl 3 million curies of caesium 137 was released – a total comparable with the fallout from all nuclear weapons
tests to date. The estimate of all radionuclides released from Chernobyl is 50 million curies.During the Sizewell Public Inquiry it Other incidents, especially those that occurred during the Cold War, were not then made known to the public. Some remain to be described.
We were,and indeed we are, being lied to.Imagine, an explosion at a nuclear plant, by operator error, Chernobyl, explosion, radiation,cities,Chernobyl,Prypyat, evacuated, two cities populations irradiated,heavily,with nuclear radiation.Prypyat,the closest city was 3 kilometers away,none of the cities was evacuated immediately,and the cities still remain abandoned today as unsafe,25 years later.Soviet scientists reported that the Chernobyl Unit 4 reactor contained about 180–190 metric tons of uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. Estimates of the amount of this material that escaped range from 5 to 30 percent, but some liquidators, who have actually been inside the sarcophagus and the reactor
shell itself — e.g. Mr. Usatenko and Dr. Karpan — state that not more than 5–10% of the fuel remains inside; indeed, photographs of the reactor shell show that it is completely empty. Because of the intense heat of the fire, much of the ejected fuel was lofted high into the atmosphere (with no containment building to stop it), where it spread.Contamination from the Chernobyl disaster was not evenly spread across the surrounding countryside, but scattered irregularly depending on weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and Western scientists indicate that Belarus received about 60% of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union.
A large area in Russia south of Bryansk was also contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine.The explosion at the power station and subsequent fires inside the remains of the reactor provoked a radioactive cloud which drifted not only over Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, but also over the European part of Turkey, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, France (including Corsica, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK).The plume of radioactive debris has been said to be equal to the contamination of 400 Hiroshima bombs.That from the explosion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant,a nuclear plant explosion and meltdown, whose radiation was detected as far away as Sweden.
So nuclear energy is safe? That's what they tell us. Look at it all and what can and does happen.Look at Japan.A nuclear power plant is most certainly not safe.
Cables obtained by Wikileaks show warning to Japan of danger posed by powerful quakes, official negligence, and accusations of nuclear accident cover-ups.Taro Kono, a high-profile member of Japan's lower house, told U.S. diplomats in October 2008 that the government was "covering up" nuclear accidents and ignoring alternatives.Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.And now the United States on Wednesday advised Americans in Japan to evacuate to a greater distance from a damaged nuclear power plant than the Japanese government is advising. White House officials warn that the situation in Japan is deteriorating.U.S. authorities are recommending that Americans stay 80 kilometers away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was badly damaged in last week’s earthquake and tsunami.
Japanese officials have advised people to move 32 kilometers away from the facility.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that the advice comes from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whose chairman met with President Barack Obama earlier in the day. "Advice the Japanese government is giving, based on the information it has, is different from the advice that we would be giving, if this incident were happening in the United States of America," he said.
Japan has had other accidents,basically glossed over......Tokaimura was the site of Japan's worst nuclear plant incident in 1997, when 35 workers were contaminated by radiation after a fire at a processing plant was not extinguished properly and caused an explosion.
A series of incidents at Japanese nuclear power stations in recent years has undermined confidence in the safety of this form of energy production, says BBC Tokyo correspondent Juliet Hindell.In July, cooling water leaked from a pipe in the building that houses the reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in northern Japan It took Japan Atomic Power, the company that operates the plant, 14 hours to shut down operations after the leak was discovered.Executives in charge of the reactor said radiation from the leak was 11,500 times the safety limit.The earlier figure given was 250 times the limit, and the change has sparked accusations of a cover-up.
Nuclear energy is safe?So THEY say, but t'is a lie, says I. One is reminded of Sir Walter Ralegh's poem on lies, appropriately entitled.......
The Lie.
Sir Walter Ralegh
c. 1592
Go, soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.
Say to the court it glows
And shines like rotten wood,
Say to the church it shows
What's good, and doth no good:
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.
Tell potentates, they live
Acting, by others' action;
Not lov'd unless they give;
Not strong, but by affection.
If potentates reply,
Give potentates the lie.
Tell men of high condition,
That manage the estate,
Their purpose is ambition;
Their practice only hate.
And if they once reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell them that brave it most,
They beg for more by spending,
Who in their greatest cost
Like nothing but commending.
And if they make reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell zeal it wants devotion;
Tell love it is but lust;
Tell time it meets but motion;
Tell flesh it is but dust:
And wish them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.
Tell age it daily wasteth;
Tell honour how it alters;
Tell beauty how she blasteth;
Tell favour how it falters:
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.
Tell wit how much it wrangles
In fickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in over-wiseness:
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.
Tell physic of her boldness;
Tell skill it is prevention;
Tell charity of coldness;
Tell law it is contention:
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.
Tell fortune of her blindness;
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindness;
Tell justice of delay:
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming.
If arts and schools reply,
Give arts and schools the lie.
Tell faith it's fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell manhood, shakes off pity;
Tell virtue, least preferred.
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.
So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing;
Because to give the lie
Deserves no less than stabbing:
Stab at thee, he that will,
No stab thy soul can kill!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Secret Squirrel On Japan's Emerging Nuclear Emergency.
Secret Squirrel has noticed the massive problems in Japan caused by the earthquakes which have severely damaged several of Japan's nuclear plants.Is nuclear energy safe? Well, There is, or was, Chernobyl\Prypat,Three Mile Island, and others, and,yes, there is Japan. Should Japan have and keep nuclear plants,sitting as it is
on many shifting tectonic plates? Japan is in disaster, it is a natural disaster, it staggers from disaster to disaster,periodically,decades in between, due to the earthquakes.Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, perched on top of several converging tectonic plates.Geological instability causes around 1,000 tremors in the country each year, although many of these go undetected by the public.Every time they do strike they are a reminder that it is long overdue "a Big One",and now, they've had one,and will have yet more, as earthquakes are known to bring many happy returns.Japan falls in Seismic Zone V, the very high-risk zone for seismic activity and generated tsunamis they create(Japan's earthquakes occur at the coast and under the sea).
Now, with what has happened in Japan nobody can say that nuclear power is safe and clean. Look at Japan's "safely built" reactors at present.........not so safe it seems. Could they be built safer? No, not in light of what has occurred. Should the reactors be decommissioned, the damaged ones? Yes. Should the others also be decommissioned,?Yes. Indeed they supply 30% of Japan's energy needs, but that 30% must be filled in another manner.As it was,before 1968, that figure was at 0%,and there were no worries about each being a Chernobyl,no worries of radiation caused sickness,offspring deformed oddities etc due to radiation leakages from malfunctioning or exploding, or exploded,nuclear plants.Sadly, extremely unwisely, Japan placed it's energy requirement fulfillment on nuclear energy, most definitely, as now with most of it's nuclear plants shut down, it must go in to rolling black out mode, seemingly not being able to generate enough electrical energy to meet the demands
of Japan, needs which before the advent and now evident dependency on nuclear energy, were filled by other means, such as thermal.Did you know all a nuclear reactor does(besides emit massive quantities of radiation, and explode),is,quite simply, to heat,as in boil,water, converting it to steam, that in turning, turning a steam turbine which drives a generator, to generate electricity.It's a highly dangerous way of ridiculously simply boiling water. There are alternatives to the nuclear problem now revealed, improved thermal plants, geothermal plants(Japan sits on a vast resource of volcanic activity),improved pump storage electrical generation facilities,for example.But Japan unwisely started to go with a dependency on the unstable,unwise, nuclear alternative.
Presently Japanese efforts to prevent a nuclear meltdown by flooding reactors with seawater are a last-ditch attempt,to prevent meltdown, but authorities claim that does not mean that a nuclear tragedy is imminent even though cooling pumps and systems are failing and not working,radioactive vapours being vented,and containment facilities exploding and such, experts said Sunday.
At the Daiichi plant in Fukushima,at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, all of the three reactors -- Nos. 1,2 and 3 -- are at risk for meltdown because of the powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck on Friday.An explosion caused by hydrogen buildup Saturday blew the roof off a concrete building housing the plant's No. 1 reactor, but the reactor and its containment system were not damaged in the explosion. Officials said the No. 3 reactor would also likely withstand a similar blast, noting that workers had already released gas from the building to try to prevent an explosion,it didn't work,it did the same thing, and was then followed by number 2 as well.At the Tokai reactors, the number 2 reactor
suffered a stopped cooling pump.Meanwhile, a state of emergency has been declared at Onagawa plant, where Japanese authorities say radioactivity readings have gone over allowed levels.
Reactors are having saltwater and boron(Boric Acid),being pumped in in efforts to cool them,there have been partial meltdowns.US nuclear experts have warned that pumping seawater to cool a quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactor is an “act of desperation” that could foreshadow a Chernobyl-like disaster, referring to the 1986 accident in Ukraine."If they are (using seawater), it's because they have no other choice," said James Walsh, a research associate at the security studies program at MIT. "The last thing you want to do is pump seawater and boron into a reactor."
The salt and boron will corrode the reactor, he said."Essentially, they are saving the white flag and saying, 'This plant is done,' " Walsh said. "This is a last-ditch mechanism to try to prevent overheating and to prevent a partial or full meltdown."Physicist Ken Bergeron said if the core melted through the reactor vessel it could flow onto the floor of the containment building. If that happens, the structure would likely fail.“ The containment building at this plant is certainly stronger than that at Chernobyl but a lot less strong than at Three Mile Island, so time will tell,” he said.At a another plant, in Onogawa, excessive radiation levels also were recorded.
Fifty six plants exist in Japan, and approximately 15 to be built,supposedly built for disasters such as occurred, but obviously, so very not.It's also obvious that it is unwise for Japan to have nuclear reactors,period, as Japan is,was, and always has been,very heavily earthquake prone,and they will bring Japan very many, happy returns.Anyone still favour nuclear options?
on many shifting tectonic plates? Japan is in disaster, it is a natural disaster, it staggers from disaster to disaster,periodically,decades in between, due to the earthquakes.Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, perched on top of several converging tectonic plates.Geological instability causes around 1,000 tremors in the country each year, although many of these go undetected by the public.Every time they do strike they are a reminder that it is long overdue "a Big One",and now, they've had one,and will have yet more, as earthquakes are known to bring many happy returns.Japan falls in Seismic Zone V, the very high-risk zone for seismic activity and generated tsunamis they create(Japan's earthquakes occur at the coast and under the sea).
Now, with what has happened in Japan nobody can say that nuclear power is safe and clean. Look at Japan's "safely built" reactors at present.........not so safe it seems. Could they be built safer? No, not in light of what has occurred. Should the reactors be decommissioned, the damaged ones? Yes. Should the others also be decommissioned,?Yes. Indeed they supply 30% of Japan's energy needs, but that 30% must be filled in another manner.As it was,before 1968, that figure was at 0%,and there were no worries about each being a Chernobyl,no worries of radiation caused sickness,offspring deformed oddities etc due to radiation leakages from malfunctioning or exploding, or exploded,nuclear plants.Sadly, extremely unwisely, Japan placed it's energy requirement fulfillment on nuclear energy, most definitely, as now with most of it's nuclear plants shut down, it must go in to rolling black out mode, seemingly not being able to generate enough electrical energy to meet the demands
of Japan, needs which before the advent and now evident dependency on nuclear energy, were filled by other means, such as thermal.Did you know all a nuclear reactor does(besides emit massive quantities of radiation, and explode),is,quite simply, to heat,as in boil,water, converting it to steam, that in turning, turning a steam turbine which drives a generator, to generate electricity.It's a highly dangerous way of ridiculously simply boiling water. There are alternatives to the nuclear problem now revealed, improved thermal plants, geothermal plants(Japan sits on a vast resource of volcanic activity),improved pump storage electrical generation facilities,for example.But Japan unwisely started to go with a dependency on the unstable,unwise, nuclear alternative.
Presently Japanese efforts to prevent a nuclear meltdown by flooding reactors with seawater are a last-ditch attempt,to prevent meltdown, but authorities claim that does not mean that a nuclear tragedy is imminent even though cooling pumps and systems are failing and not working,radioactive vapours being vented,and containment facilities exploding and such, experts said Sunday.
At the Daiichi plant in Fukushima,at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, all of the three reactors -- Nos. 1,2 and 3 -- are at risk for meltdown because of the powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck on Friday.An explosion caused by hydrogen buildup Saturday blew the roof off a concrete building housing the plant's No. 1 reactor, but the reactor and its containment system were not damaged in the explosion. Officials said the No. 3 reactor would also likely withstand a similar blast, noting that workers had already released gas from the building to try to prevent an explosion,it didn't work,it did the same thing, and was then followed by number 2 as well.At the Tokai reactors, the number 2 reactor
suffered a stopped cooling pump.Meanwhile, a state of emergency has been declared at Onagawa plant, where Japanese authorities say radioactivity readings have gone over allowed levels.
Reactors are having saltwater and boron(Boric Acid),being pumped in in efforts to cool them,there have been partial meltdowns.US nuclear experts have warned that pumping seawater to cool a quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactor is an “act of desperation” that could foreshadow a Chernobyl-like disaster, referring to the 1986 accident in Ukraine."If they are (using seawater), it's because they have no other choice," said James Walsh, a research associate at the security studies program at MIT. "The last thing you want to do is pump seawater and boron into a reactor."
The salt and boron will corrode the reactor, he said."Essentially, they are saving the white flag and saying, 'This plant is done,' " Walsh said. "This is a last-ditch mechanism to try to prevent overheating and to prevent a partial or full meltdown."Physicist Ken Bergeron said if the core melted through the reactor vessel it could flow onto the floor of the containment building. If that happens, the structure would likely fail.“ The containment building at this plant is certainly stronger than that at Chernobyl but a lot less strong than at Three Mile Island, so time will tell,” he said.At a another plant, in Onogawa, excessive radiation levels also were recorded.
Fifty six plants exist in Japan, and approximately 15 to be built,supposedly built for disasters such as occurred, but obviously, so very not.It's also obvious that it is unwise for Japan to have nuclear reactors,period, as Japan is,was, and always has been,very heavily earthquake prone,and they will bring Japan very many, happy returns.Anyone still favour nuclear options?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)