Home » Why is so much attention being paid to the nuclear reactor?

Comments

Why is so much attention being paid to the nuclear reactor? — 38 Comments

  1. To eliminate the problem of meltdown completely, the transition to Generation IV reactors is needed, that is, those that use molten salts, not water, as coolant. The fuel also must be liquid, dissolved in this salts. When there is nothing to melt, all already melted, reliability drastically improves. Lithium fluoride thorium reactors would be almost completely safe.

  2. I recall that after the BP spill the lefties were telling us that the Gulf of Mexico was going to be destroyed. As a friend used to say, don’t count your dead chickens before they stink.

  3. This also reminds me of “sludge,” the cadmium-laced residual created in abundance when the Clean Water Act bound local industries to secondary treatment plants that generated the stuff. A big component in justifying the absurdly RCRA bill was cleaning up this sludge.

    Just a reminder about the intrinsic problem with Big Green – or Big Anything, for that matter. When you get problems defined on such a scale that all measurement and efficacy is chained to the realm of conjecture, you have a situation that wants devolution. I did a study of the EPA in grad school a few years ago, and I found it impossible to answer the basic question, “Does the EPA do more good than harm?” with empirical evidence (I of course have evidence I like, and for theoretical Madisonian reasons I think the EPA is a disaster, but none of that is dispositive for an audience). And that problem, I submitted, arose because the problems set by the EPA were intrinsically nebulous, and hence measuring them and the attempts to address them was somewhat like trying to measure how much fairy dust is required to make unicorns stop pooping in the street.

    Nebulousness always serves Power. Power hates non-centralization because immediate problems facing people immediately are harder to obfuscate, making propaganda harder to jam through the cracks in human reason.

    But here we are (we = journalists and those influenced by them), looking at a country on the other side of the earth, with an industry we hardly understand, facing something in that industry that very few have any clue about, talking confidently about The Problem and The Solution.

    It’s easy to forget that the ignorance is pervasive, and the only thing clear in all of that haze is that there is an Agenda and the whole narrative serves it. Power, in short, is just doing what it does – stoking the fires of ignorance to generate a saturating fog, and then defining the fog in such a way that only Power can dispel it.

    Sorry, I’m cranky today, and frankly I’m sick of seeing that damn reactor explode – pretty soon even I’ll start believing that it was a “nuclear explosion.” To quote SteveH from yesterday’s thread, “I’m sick of their sh*t.”

  4. Mr. Frank: yes, the BP spill is another excellent example. It was used by the left and Obama to stop drilling.

  5. Sergey,

    I agree, MSR type reactors are the way of the future and there is a lot of thorium on the planet. Beyond the advantages you mention there is the scale of size advantage; small reactors can be built to provide power to a city 100,000 or a series of spaced out small reactors could power a single state’s grid.

    Neo,

    In this particular case the boogie man fear of all things radioactive-radiation (most of the public thinks atomic bomb) is especially appealing to the media. They get to beat up on the liberal/green hatred of nuclear technology. “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”

    People, liberals in particular, desperately want to believe a risk free world is possible if only government regulates enough and spends enough money. They rarely stop to think about the fact that life is full of risks and that as individuals and as a society we have to find the balance between risk and reward.

  6. Why is so much attention being paid to the nuclear reactor?

    Radioactivity is scary because it’s invisible, and because most people know absolutely nothing about it. It’s bad juju.

    Magnets have some similar characteristics – invisible lines of force, action at a distance – but are considered good juju. Calculations of the electronic Zeeman energy (i.e., energy changes induced by the magnetic field) somehow just don’t capture all that good mystical healing power, that’s all. Ask Shirley Maclaine.

    Electromagnetic fields generally are of mostly bad juju. Those 60 Hz emissions from transmission towers induce (pun intended) all sorts of maladies in hypochondriacs and other neurotics, as do the evil emanations from cell phones. And when someone characterizes those emissions and emanations as “radiation,” we’re definitely talking bad juju.

    And we make fun of the natives in Borneo. We can talk.

  7. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7638
    Perhaps more detail than you want, but what is more important here is that the reactors that might be ruined produce in total six percent of Japans electricity. When added to the oil fires at various refinaries I think we are about to see years of power issues for Japan, unless they can find ways to conserve and rapidly shift to battery extension and other power saving technologies. It will take years to build the grid back up to previous capacity.

  8. I’m glad some people here like thorium.

    Thorium, eventually moving to fusion and flexible solar panels is my vision of the future. Odds are though this won’t happen because of our
    A. Capital systems short sightedness
    B. The mob mentality concerning nuclear power and even the slightest doses of radiation.

  9. Why is so much attention being paid to the nuclear reactor?

    What Occam’s Beard said, plus:
    It’s Japan!

    What’s the first thing most college kids (of all ages) think of when they hear Japan, unless they like sushi? Godzilla. Hiroshima. Monster movies.

    If they weren’t having nuke problems, they’d be focusing on “what effect will this have on Japan’s sushi supply” or something like that. (rice supply hurt, bunch of boats hurt, possible need to re-map places before you can take a boat through)

    For crying out loud, some blankers’ first response was to think about Pearl Harbor and those moron Whale warrior asses. It’s word association that’s then used to promote the reporters’ worldview.

  10. Radiophobia is certainly a legacy of cold war and all these fallout shelters hysteria of 60-s. Before WWII radiation was cool. Nobody feared it, and glowing clock faces were trendy. And they contained radium salts in such quantities that induced skin cancer! It is amazing how little attention people paid to radiation in 50-s. Rather trivial ilnesses almost automatically led to X-ray examination, and shoe shops were endowed by X-ray machines, so customers could see their bones when trying on shoes. Several pairs in a row, some times! Only Hiroshima put an end to it. And before Chernobyl everybody believed that nuclear power plants were safe.

  11. Invisibility and harmfulness contribute to mass hysteria, but in themselves are not enough. Bacteria and viruses are also invisible and often deadly, but if a person washes hands every ten minutes and constantly worries about get infected, we rightfully call him neurotic. Nozophobia occures, but it is not a social norm or even common pathology. And radiophobia is almost universal and amounts to what Freud described as universal neurosis. In our times, at least.

  12. Sergey –
    it’s got to be unusual, too. See: swine flu, etc.

    The French don’t seem to have it, and the Japanese at least have a dang good reason….

  13. “Radiophobia is certainly a legacy of cold war and all these fallout shelters hysteria of 60-s.”

    No.

    It is the result of ignorance. A product of our education system has in spades.

  14. Here’s a good link to the structure of containment built into the reactor:

    http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fukushima-simple-explanation/

    The entire scenario certainly plays right into the left/econuts agenda. They’ve been on the antinuke bandwagon since the 70’s. General radiophobia can probably be traced to lie mainly within the Boomer generation. I remember as a kid hearing about the threat of nuclear war, hiding under school desks, watching bad scifi on TV…. all could contribute to a paraniod outlook with respect to nukes. Despite the fact that such fear is totally non-rational, it does seem widespread among my comtemporaries.

    I worry much more about my older daughter’s newly minted dirver’s license and the threat it brings to her existence than the nuke plane 25 miles from our house.

  15. Oops…. nuke PLANT (though I know at one time there were plans for a nuke plane also)

  16. The Germans are superprimed for hysteria over anything nuclear. Every disturbance at a power plant makes the news, even if it is only a circuit breaker kicking on in a lunchroom.

    I was here in the south during the Chernobyl explosion, and the area around us had lots of produce farms that had to have all their vegies tested. The manager of a local castle used as a hunting lodge by its owner was planning for a hunting party for the owner’s noble friends. He called the university to ask whether they would test some truffles they were planning to serve and how many they would need for a sample. The guy handling the testing was a bit more worried about the local farmers, so he said he would need a kilo. There was no follow up from the castle. I have often wondered whether those guys still glow in the dark.

    BTW, Merkel is suspending the operating extensions for the older reactors for 3 months during which their safety will be re-evaluated. This should get her over the current hysteria (as opposed to reasoned concern) and past the Chernobyl anniversary memorials (or celebrations if you are a Green looking at the next local election). Meanwhile I am avoiding certain friends because I just can’t bear hearing them talk about this.

  17. The guy handling the testing was a bit more worried about the local farmers, so he said he would need a kilo.

    Think all those truffles found their way to the testing lab? Or have I become too cynical in my dotage?

    You know, the caviar might be hot, too. Also the champagne. A couple of cases should just about suffice for testing.

    Ooh. And lobsters too. They really concentrate radioisotopes. Gotta test them. Just for safety’s sake.

  18. No truffles were submitted for testing. I assumed they didn’t need candles to light the dinner table.

  19. The steam could have been vented through the turbine circuit. There never was an overriding need to vent it to the world.

    During normal operations the high pressure steam falls all the way down to a soft vacuum in the condensers. That stuff is still there.

    Even if it can’t spin — the need is to vent but a trickle of steam.

    The last thing you can permit is so much back pressure that new coolant can’t come in.

    Yet that’s exactly what these Homer Simpsons have done.

    Amazing.

  20. I have a friend that grew up near Hanford, WA in the 50s. He had a pencil he’d kept from one of the gas stations. It has a small plastic piece up by the eraser that was purported to contain nuclear material. Now, it’s unlikely it was radioactive, but still…

  21. No wonder Japan is having issues with their reactors… all the Nuclear engineers are on these blogs when they should be in Japan helping them.

  22. Things seem to have taken a turn for the worst with a third explosion. Can someone tell us what is happening?

  23. Y’know, all joking aside, slightly radioactive isn’t exactly a death sentence.

    I grew up in a home where the fireplace had several rocks from a uranium mine built into it, because they were pretty; my dad grew up in the same house and helped build that fireplace as a child.

    Slight contamination of truffles is probably an outstanding example of “dumb rich guy wasting valuable resources.” (Probably the reason the story was told originally– it’s a classic pattern.)

  24. Aside from low actual amounts of radiation release / exposure from all this… I’ve also read that the stuff that might be released has a short half life (as in weeks or a couple months)… This really is a MSM circus.

  25. 1. Foxfier Says:

    “I grew up in a home where the fireplace had several rocks from a uranium mine built into it, because they were pretty; my dad grew up in the same house and helped build that fireplace as a child.”

    They don’t have to be from a uranium mine. Hold a Geiger counter up a red brick wall sometime.

    The worst ‘everyday’ thing the average person could do radiation exposure wise, imo, is probably smoking cigarettes. Has radioactive particles that lodge in the lungs and can not be cleaned out by the body… and a long half life (I think 20 years for the particles in question).

  26. *grin* Yeah, but folks freak when they hear the word “uranium.”

    Granite is radioactive, too, isn’t it?

    Altitudes, especially flying… local radiation levels… getting regular dental work….

  27. The Japanese government a couple of hours ago announced radiation levels at the Daiichi site were 400,000 microsieverts, significantly higher than the 1,000 microsieverts announced yesterday. The workers on site trying to cool down the core are true heroes. Wish them success if for nothing else than their brave determination.

  28. Incredible uncut video of the destruction of one town:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8380309/Japan-earthquake-eye-witness-records-tsunami-destroying-town-in-under-7-minutes.html

    The cameraman is on steps going up a hill: as he retreats, the black surge comes on faster and faster and more powerfully. First cars, then trucks and boats, then the buildings themselves give way. And the black water wipes away the place where he was standing. Finally, you see the whole city moving. Unbelievable.

  29. “Capital systems short sightedness”

    Yeah, those 5-year plans worked out great for the Soviet Union, didn’t they Brad? No it was only becuase they didn’t have the *right people* making the decisions. If they had some smart guys – like, say, Brad! – deciding everything for the rest of us idiots it would have all been peachy keen, skittles and unicorns for everybody.

    Give it up, pal. You lost that argument decades ago.

  30. France has built their nuclear power plants by government-funded program. It was not 5-year plan, but 25-year plan. And DeGaulle had a habit to ignore all mass protests and public opinion completely. The only people whose opinion he wanted to hear were scientists and engineers, as is proper to former military commander.

  31. Two other blog entires covering this, with links to various sources.

    Coyote Blog

    Patterico I
    Patterico II

    P.S., in the comments for the second Patt link lies this gorgeous gem:

    “Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward–reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.
    In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

    – Michael Crichton

  32. The difference in German and French approach to nuclear energy roots in their approach to democracy: In France it is so old and boring that nobody takes it seriously anymore, but in Germany it is a novelty which is worshiped religiously.

  33. I have to say this… my comments on this topic have been scant, not because I don’t care about this horrifying turn of events, but because the exchanges of “experts” everywhere, not just here but all over the ‘webs, make it clear to me that there is pretty much nobody I can trust to know what he’s talking about.

    Again vested interests and clashing egos have clouded what was supposed to be a clear-cut matter of objective scientific reality. Again the truth will out only once we have the 20/20 vision of hindsight.

  34. Pingback:Dental Fluoride Treatment method Side Effects

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>