Is there a role for nuclear energy?

[harvey]

Pro nukers can't keep up, they're half a century behind everyone else.
Nuke power is a dud technology.

LOL

[Outlaw Yogi]

How to fix a reactor with sticky tape and chewy .....

Absorbent yet to soak up radioactive water at Fukushima plant
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/82882.html

Workers tried Sunday to block the leakage of highly radioactive water into the sea from the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant by injecting polymeric water absorbent that can soak up 50 times its volume, but the water flow remains unaffected, the government's nuclear safety agency said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, meanwhile, told a press conference that it could take several months before radiation stops leaking from the plant, suggesting a lengthy battle ahead to resolve the crisis triggered by the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami.

Engineers put 8 kilograms of the polymeric water absorbent together with 60 kilograms of sawdust and three bags of shredded newspaper into pipes leading to a pit connected to the No. 2 reactor building where a 20-centimeter crack has been found to be leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, the agency said.

However, those materials injected at a point 23 meters away from the seaside pit have not been sucked into the water flow, leaving no impact on the rate of leakage, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the governmental Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

[Jovial Monk]

It is hard to justify nuclear about now. But a nuclear accident might kill a few people. Global warming can kill EVERYBODY! Until fusion is up and running, nuclear will have to carry the low emissions energy banner.

[Jovial Monk]

George Monbiot says yes:

The unpalatable truth is that the anti-nuclear lobby has misled us all
I've discovered that when the facts don't suit them, the movement resorts to the follies of cover-up they usually denounce

George Monbiot

Over the last fortnight I've made a deeply troubling discovery. The anti-nuclear movement to which I once belonged has misled the world about the impacts of radiation on human health. The claims we have made are ungrounded in science, unsupportable when challenged, and wildly wrong. We have done other people, and ourselves, a terrible disservice.

I began to see the extent of the problem after a debate last week with Helen Caldicott. Dr Caldicott is the world's foremost anti-nuclear campaigner. She has received 21 honorary degrees and scores of awards, and was nominated for a Nobel peace prize. Like other greens, I was in awe of her. In the debate she made some striking statements about the dangers of radiation. So I did what anyone faced with questionable scientific claims should do: I asked for the sources. Caldicott's response has profoundly shaken me.


Illustration by Daniel Pudles
First she sent me nine documents: newspaper articles, press releases and an advertisement. None were scientific publications; none contained sources for the claims she had made. But one of the press releases referred to a report by the US National Academy of Sciences, which she urged me to read. I have now done so – all 423 pages. It supports none of the statements I questioned; in fact it strongly contradicts her claims about the health effects of radiation.

I pressed her further and she gave me a series of answers that made my heart sink – in most cases they referred to publications which had little or no scientific standing, which did not support her claims or which contradicted them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... sled-world

[IQS.RLOW]

Monbiot is a fucking tool

Plimer pwn3d him on global warming

[Jovial Monk]

Fukushima crisis rating hits maximum level

Japan has lifted the crisis rating for the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant to seven, the maximum international level.

Previously only the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster had been given a rating of seven.

Fukushima is being upgraded from level five after emitting radiation for more than a month.

"This is a preliminary assessment and is subject to finalisation by the International Atomic Energy Agency," Japan's nuclear safety watchdog said on Tuesday.

"In terms of volume of radioactive materials released, our estimate shows it is about 10 per cent of what was released by Chernobyl."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011 ... ion=justin

Not good. Be prepared for a shock if you click on the photo of the plant on the original article

[lisa jones]

I'm a bottom line person .. so I just wanna know is seafood gonna be safe to eat anymore? Yes or no?

[Jovial Monk]

Safe if caught down here. Most of the stuff has a half life of a few days,none is at dangerous levels.

[Rainbow Moonlight]

Nuclear energy is dangerous and unneccessary. Clean coal and renewable energy are the paths I want fo renergy use in Australia.

[Jovial Monk]

Clean coal is a myth