Monday, March 21, 2011

The Silliness of Nuclear Panic

Blog Opinion

Nothing else in the quake-stricken area has come through anything like as well as the nuclear power stations, or with so little harm to the population. All other forms of infrastructure – transport, housing, industries – have failed the people in and around them comprehensively, leading to deaths most probably in the tens of thousands. Fires, explosions and tank/pipeline ruptures all across the region will have done incalculably more environmental damage, distributed hugely greater amounts of carcinogens than Fukushima Daiichi – which has so far emitted almost nothing but radioactive steam (which becomes non-radioactive within minutes of being generated).

I like this article, but really, it encourages utter slackness on the part of the nuclear plants.  Those lining up for the Darlington hearings (live tweets anyone?), should always remember that life is a roll of the dice.  For our earthquake, it is a roll each year of a pair of 20 sided dice.  If it comes up Snake-eyes, then we get hit.  And really, we only expect some radioactive steam, while you may be dead or homeless, or most likely freezing in the dark.  Will the radioactivity be the most important thing in your life?  My main beef with nuclear incompetence is that we'll never get the power back on because the nuclear plants will be a mess, and not with the minor releases.

But I still don't think we have the brains for new nuclear, so we will keep Glass-Pickering running for a long time.  Just hope for a good roll!

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