Relative dangers of nuclear power

[warhed]

good money there i bet..

iirc it was a 3/8 piece of stainless steel liner inside the vessel was the only thing maintaining the pressure boundary.. just another testament to how well american/GE plants are designed..

Japan's plants seemed to frighten the world but i see it as success. They withstood a mag9 earthquake and the following tsunami and to top it all off were without offsite power for 7days.. the last i read the suffered minor fuel damage.. probably less than 5%.. but bottom line is their primary containments held.

The American media shows this as "the danger of nuclear power realised."  I see it as a testament to how safe these reactors are, even though they weren't designed to handle these sorts of disasters.
The new designs the Japanese had for future reactors would of weathered these events much better.  One had emergency cooling water held in a lake on a mountain above the plant, able to use gravity in the event of failure.

[Sundowner]

Ran across these words from the days of my youth.

I leave it to each individual to interpret it's inflection regarding the current events of the day.

Godzilla strikes me as symbol of the nuclear genie that cant be put back in the bottle.
http://static.infowars.com/2011/03/i/general/demon.jpg

Regards,
Sun

History shows again and again
How nature points up(OUT) the folly of men
Godzilla!

Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Godzilla ga Ginza hoomen e mukatte imasu!
Daishkyu hinan toejame kudasai!
Daishkyu hinan toejame kudasai!
(Attention, emergency news!
Attention, emergency news!
Godzilla is going toward the Ginza area!
Immediately escape, catch up, find shelter please!
Immediately escape, catch up, find shelter please!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6rDWqjnW7w&feature=related

[warhed]

You're right, let's abandon nuclear power before we create a real Godzilla.  This is what humanity really needs, before it's too late

[TheDudeDVant]

haha  i like the Godzilla analogy...
 
Warhed,  what kinda work? Are they going to bring up U2 at Perry? If so that will be hugh! We recently brought back one of our units a few years back.. Was a really big deal at the time.. The Potus even came! ha

 

[warhed]

Our Unit 2 was around 75%-80% completed, including the cooling tower.  I don't think it will ever be completed.  Bottom 2 levels have been flooded since before I was there, I believe they finally remedied that permanently however.  It's just too far gone to complete.
I loved walking through it however, was a mirror image of Unit 1.  It was like a before and after you could walk through.  Once saw something the size of a small bear scurry around a corner and dive into the water near Unit 2's drywell, I swear!!   

[TheDudeDVant]

  Once saw something the size of a small bear scurry around a corner and dive into the water near Unit 2's drywell, I swear!!   

lol!   

[warhed]

As far as work, I've done everything there is to do in an outage short of moving fuel.  I got out in 2010, due to other better prospects.  An old boss started up the new repair/decon company, and wants me to help form up an outage support crew.  I used to show up 2-3 months before, set everything up, work in Maintenance, be a tool of Radiation Protection (Health Physics), assist fire teams, sacrifical dose lamb, etc.  Then I'd be on for a few more months closing everything up.  
I never said no and always volunteered first.  My stepdad was pretty high up in Engineering so I got used for anything he needed.  In 07 they gave me my own small crew and stuck me with Operations.  
Helped save a lot of money not using contractors, and we were much more trained, and it was our home plant.  So we'll work on specializing an outage crew to the same standards, and pimp them out.
I love outages  

[warhed]

lol!   

The guy with me said, "Don't tell anyone, no one's going to believe you anyway."

[TheDudeDVant]

I love outages  

lol i hear you.. always loved the money for sure! not everyday you get to see a  main generator rotor removed and lowered ~60ft below.. haha

i worked as an auo in operations for several years and am now in a license program.. air conditioning is appealing.. lol  hope to pass my nrc exam in august.

[warhed]

lol i hear you.. always loved the money for sure! not everyday you get to see a  main generator rotor removed and lowered ~60ft below.. haha

i worked as an auo in operations for several years and am now in a license program.. air conditioning is appealing.. lol  hope to pass my nrc exam in august.

Good luck man, if the woman I worked with could do it, I'm convinced anyone can.
I loved being as close to the reactor as possible, I assisted in some heavy work under the vessel, love it down there, I was the only one in the plant qual'd to run the blackbox for control rod maintenance work, spent 6-8 hours a night for a week down there, they were burning out contractor's limits doing the work, a few hours were dosing them out.  After about 30 workers they started using guys who had no clue down there.  Radiation Protection mixed me up with one of their guys, so I was the only "tech" on duty.  Which would of been fine had one of the contractors not passed out under vessel.  Had to cut an airline after making a 50/50 choice of which one.  Ah, good times lol   
That radiation sure is addicting. 
Outages certainly provide some "holy crap" moments for sure. 
 

[Carrel]

The biggest problem with nuclear power is the potential for a radiation leak. Other than that it's safe.

[warhed]

The biggest problem with nuclear power is the potential for a radiation leak. Other than that it's safe.

Coal leaks pollutants 24/7. 
Minus the 28 who died at Chernobyl, nuclear hasn't killed anyone yet.  Add up the deaths associated to coal, nuclear is safer.  Even hydro power with massive dams is more dangerous.