SavannahMann
Platinum Member
- Nov 16, 2016
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Many people who have read me before know I am an unapologetic and full throated advocate for Nuclear Power. Before we begin, let’s get serious. Fukushima and Three Mile Island and all that. Those were early technology designs. They were the nuclear power equivalent of the 1934 Ford Roadster. Not bad for an early effort, but certainly not state of the art.
Fukushima and other similar reactors were designed in the era when Slide Rules were the calculator for Engineers. When pencils and paper were used to do the math. When modeling technology consisted of people sitting around and thinking, imagining what would happen. It was not the same by any stretch of the imagination to what is happening today.
First, the modern car is similar in only the most basic means to the 1934 Ford we mentioned above. It has wheels, and an internal combustion engine. It has a transmission, and the other things that make a car go.
Today, those engines are smaller, more powerful, and engineered to last a decade, or more. You don’t need to change the points or plugs every couple months. You don’t need to adjust the valves, or dial in the carburetor. The modern engine is engineered using computers, and advanced metallurgical standards. Like the airplane of the same era, you can see the similarities but it is nothing like that.
Modern designs of Nuclear Power are able to handle the kind of accident that was unimaginable when they designed Fukushima. One I saw on a NOVA program was able to keep running for 72 hours without power to run any pumps. If Fukushima had been able to go 72 hours, the accident would never have happened. It would have shut down safely. It did not have that time. It could not buy the time for all the gold in the world. It would be as if you expected that 1934 Ford Roadster to pass modern safety standards. It could not do it. Crumple zones were unheard of. It didn’t even have safety belts, much less three point harnesses and airbags. Any accident was likely to be fatal, and the people of the era believed that you were safer if you could be thrown clear of the accident, an illusion that hampered the development of safety belts I might add.
Nuclear power can meet the needs of the planet today. It can do so without producing any Greenhouse Gasses. It can do so and actually consume the depleated uranium that is left over from the enrichment of old fuels. Modern reactors do not need the premium gas so to speak. Modern reactors would not need to be refueled for sixty years. In other words, after you start it up, minimal maintainance and all that would be all that is needed for six decades. Power for all, with no greenhouse gases, for sixty years.
There is room for Solar, and wind, but Nuclear is the way to go if you really want to end Global Warming. But it is a path that has been sewn with traps. Those traps are ignorance, and fear.
Fukushima and other similar reactors were designed in the era when Slide Rules were the calculator for Engineers. When pencils and paper were used to do the math. When modeling technology consisted of people sitting around and thinking, imagining what would happen. It was not the same by any stretch of the imagination to what is happening today.
First, the modern car is similar in only the most basic means to the 1934 Ford we mentioned above. It has wheels, and an internal combustion engine. It has a transmission, and the other things that make a car go.
Today, those engines are smaller, more powerful, and engineered to last a decade, or more. You don’t need to change the points or plugs every couple months. You don’t need to adjust the valves, or dial in the carburetor. The modern engine is engineered using computers, and advanced metallurgical standards. Like the airplane of the same era, you can see the similarities but it is nothing like that.
Modern designs of Nuclear Power are able to handle the kind of accident that was unimaginable when they designed Fukushima. One I saw on a NOVA program was able to keep running for 72 hours without power to run any pumps. If Fukushima had been able to go 72 hours, the accident would never have happened. It would have shut down safely. It did not have that time. It could not buy the time for all the gold in the world. It would be as if you expected that 1934 Ford Roadster to pass modern safety standards. It could not do it. Crumple zones were unheard of. It didn’t even have safety belts, much less three point harnesses and airbags. Any accident was likely to be fatal, and the people of the era believed that you were safer if you could be thrown clear of the accident, an illusion that hampered the development of safety belts I might add.
Nuclear power can meet the needs of the planet today. It can do so without producing any Greenhouse Gasses. It can do so and actually consume the depleated uranium that is left over from the enrichment of old fuels. Modern reactors do not need the premium gas so to speak. Modern reactors would not need to be refueled for sixty years. In other words, after you start it up, minimal maintainance and all that would be all that is needed for six decades. Power for all, with no greenhouse gases, for sixty years.
There is room for Solar, and wind, but Nuclear is the way to go if you really want to end Global Warming. But it is a path that has been sewn with traps. Those traps are ignorance, and fear.