Is there a role for nuclear energy?

[Outlaw Yogi]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Must Come Clean on Reactor Safety Hazard
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/05/18-9

TAKOMA PARK, MD - May 18 - Following on an exposé in the New York Times and the April 13, 2011 filing of its own emergency enforcement petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Beyond Nuclear is renewing its call on the NRC to suspend the operating licenses of 21 Mark I units in the United States. The US Mark I reactors are nearly identical to the Fukushima reactors that exploded into shambles and that are leaking radioactivity into the air and sea.

A May 17, 2011 New York Times article reveals that an experimental venting system installed on the flawed containment system of the General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) failed to function as designed on Units 1, 2 and 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The article points out that the venting system is identical to the same experimental “fix” installed in the late 1980s and early 1990s on a number of the 23 GE Mark I BWRs now operating in the US.

The Beyond Nuclear petition further demands that the NRC require that the operators of all 24 Mark I with the elevated and overloaded "spent" fuel pools above and outside of the rated containment system retrofit those vulnerable systems with Class E1 emergency backup power systems. These systems includes independent emergency power generators and backup battery systems rated for up to 72 hours to provide reliable cooling capability during loss of offsite power.

[Pastafarian]

How many of those are likely to be at risk of tsunamis>??

[Outlaw Yogi]

How many of those are likely to be at risk of tsunamis>??

Wrong question.

Seeing as many US reactor sites are on faultlines, the question is 'how many are at risk from Earth quake?'

Natural disasters aside, all 23 GE Mark 1 reactors are at risk of Fukushima type melt-down due to coolant system failure as a result of poor design.
Not a single Mark 1 reactor in the US meets mandatory safety regulations for operation and/or maintainance.

[Jovial Monk]

Mk 1 and 2s should be shut down and replaced with gen 3/4.

I want a whopping big nuke plant outside Pt Augusta, could supply 3 states and close Hazelwood.

Coal fired power stations spew more radioactive matter than the fukushika plant! Every fucking day!

Yogi Bear is a hopeless romantic, i.e. a Green!

[Pastafarian]

Given that fukushima was damaged by a tsunami it is the correct question

[Jovial Monk]

A force nine earthquake hit it first!

[Pastafarian]

A force nine earthquake hit it first!

Remind m e though whaty the force nine earthquake did?

[Jovial Monk]

It didn’t do it a lot of good!

It damaged containment housings, bent fuel rods.

Tsunami then ripped away the connections for the automatic cooling systems.

[Pastafarian]

It didn’t do it a lot of good!

It damaged containment housings, bent fuel rods.

Tsunami then ripped away the connections for the automatic cooling systems.

So basically it damaged but didnt causre catastrophic failure but the tsunami did?


So hence the Mk 1s can withgstand the earthquakes

[Jovial Monk]

I would have to go back and read the initial reports but by knocking out those backup cooling systems the tsunami delivered the coup de gracé!

No tsunamis on south coast of Oz. Plenty of cratonised ground—no earthquakes. Would be worth it (PR reasons in more than one way) to surround the nuke plant with a high levee.

West coast of WA also susceptible to tsunamis, that Pacific Ring of Fire thing. Dunno about waters between north coast and PNG, suspect susceptible. So south coasts of WA, SA and SW coast of Vic not that likely to be hit by a tsunami.

Earthquakes wouldn’t do much damage to Gen 3/4.