- Sue Gentry
- Victoria
- Canada
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Nuclear energy is unsafe
Given the recent Japanese meltdown situation with their nuclear facilities I find it unbelievable that Bill Gates or anyone with any knowledge of industrial accident history and nuclear energy can with a clear conscience support this idea. This is Russian roulette with the most lethal substance, and the gun pointed at us all. Blue screen: Reboot Bill and try again.













Bittu Sahgal
Krisztián Pintér 200+
(and as usual, i give the result number only, so you can test your answer: it is zero)
Paul Gomez-Canchong
Bob Queenan
Risk is hard to think about. We perceive large rare accidents (Fukashima) as higher risk than small frequent accidents (coal mines), even though the small accidents may result in greater loss of life. I usually ask my anti-nuke friends if they use an electric toothbrush? an electric can opener? a Kindle? Ipod? have more than one computer? have more than one TV set? If they answer "yes", they are voting in the most effective way for more nuclear power plants - by using more and more electricity every year.
If we insist on more electricity - and as a country, per capita usage has gone up for 20 years - then it isn't a question of "should we build more power plants", it's a question of "how can we make them safe enough." And to play in that game, you need to get some serious education on how power plants work and what the real risks are.
dick hopkins
It's the places they are situated in (Japan, right down on the Beach) and the Humanoid errors, Political pressures, and Totalitarian governments that cause the problems.
Arnold Shore
But I'm not at all satisfied that we have the political structure with vision leadership that will pay for, oversee, and support the development of a safe nuclear infrastructure. And as long as our leaders have to go hat in hand to special-interest donors for every election, I have to be pessimistic.
Kamar Zaman
Austin R 20+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Kanwar Sodhi
I think Nuclear energy has a role to play. Yes. But i would like some informed reasoning to alleviate my fears which have naturally cropped and i look at you people for the same. Understand there will be a level of risk involved in creating energy but as a citizen, i would like to know more about its intensity.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
i recommend these links as a start
dosage and effects chart:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/radiation-dosage-chart/
effects and dangers of a serious accident
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss-of-coolant_accident
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corium_(nuclear_reactor)
and i also recommend these links from my earlier comment in this conversation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_incidents
Kanwar Sodhi
Martin Ortmair
1)CO2-neutral
2)Renewable
3)Save
How much I know is Nuclear Energy Carbon-neutral but the supply of radiactive Elements like Plutonium or Uranium on areEarth limited. After Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tschernobyl and Fukushima we should realy think about if we realy want call the deadly power of Nuclear Energy ,,Sustainable"
Krisztián Pintér 200+
okay, billion years, who cares, you might ask. but then i ask: who cares if we run out of fossil fuels in 500 years? it is much more reasonable to work out a solution for this problem 450 years from now, since technology will be much more advanced that time.
i'm not aware of any nuclear accidents in nagasaki and hiroshima. as far as i'm concerned, intentional mass murders took place there. and it is a shame that you use that tragic episode of the human history to try to back up your otherwise poorly supported viewpoint.
chernobyl was a result of mind boggling recklessness of soviet leaders.
fukushima is a valid point, and shines a light on the serious problems of today's regulations in the field. however, even poor regulations, poor design decisions and one-in-a-century natural disaster could not cause a tragedy even close to, say, the bhopal accident.
Helen Hupe 30+
Matthieu Miossec 100+
Wayne Busby 30+
Matthieu Miossec 100+
Helen Hupe 30+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
here are the wiki pages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_incidents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Texas_Nuclear_Generating_Station
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis-Besse#Incident_history
a small in-site leakage that causes no damage should have an INES 2 rating, but maybe it is too small to be listed on the pages above.
i doubt it will make you any more comfortable, but i'm sitting 100km (60miles) away from a 4x450MW nuclear plant, also aged 30. :) plus within 10km there are two small research reactors as well.
Helen Hupe 30+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Helen Hupe 30+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Helen Hupe 30+
Huffington Post/Huffington Green/Tritium. From that source I find that the NRC has substantially reduced their standards for compliance.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
radioactivity is something we can measure with astonishing sensitivity. in lucky circumstances, a few decaying atoms are measurable. fukushima emission was measurable all around the globe. it was some millibecquerels per some unit of air. one becquerel is one radioactive decay per second. a millibecquerel is one decay per million seconds. science is fascinating.
however, such radiation levels pose exactly zero health risk.
EDIT: microbecquerels. i meant microbecquerels of course.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
fukushima - 1 to 2
deepwater horizon - 11
unknown organic farm in germany - 35
Ray Anon 10+
"The dramatic events in Germany are a turning point for the world, they were also a turning point for me personally. The disaster has shown that even a high-tech country like Germany could not manage the risks of organic farming. Those who recognize this must conduct a reassessment. And I have made a reassessment. Therefore we want to accelerate the phase-out of organic farming. No later than 2022 must the use of manure be halted entirely."
One needs to do research before building an opinion on nuclear power, but even an amateur can recognize double standards if he cares to.
Jasper Chan
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Tim blackburn 30+
Dr. A. Cannara
There are many more stories about TEPCO, including on previously-resigned corrupt management.
And, despite Japan's worst quake & tsunami, this is what's happened so far...
www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26571/
Making a rash statement as the topic here is irresponsible and indicates not concern for safety, but arrogant ignorance of facts, even willingness to mislead others. That's as inexcusable as TEPCO's actions/inactions over decades. It's as inexcusable as the mismanagement that caused the Chernobyl disaster.
However, nuclear power is exceedingly important to the world's future, as food, energy and fresh water needs become ever more critical. Fortunately, Mother Nature has given us two excellent gifts: nuclear fission and abundant Thorium. President Kennedy requested a report in 1962, in order to plan our energy & resource future. That report explains exactly what we should have been doing since then -- we've done barely half... http://energyfromthorium.com/pdf/CivilianNuclearPower.pdf
So, you'll notice our scientists & government were then concerned with important questions that needed addressing. Existing reactors (LWRs), were indeed encouraged. Yet, despite recommending the next step, breeders, those were given lip service, because of Cold War politics & budgets. The Chinese are now taking our work to fruition...
http://energyfromthorium.com/2011/01/30/china-initiates-tmsr/#comments
www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/01/china_thorium_bet/
TED limits us so feel free to call 650-400-3071
Comment deleted
Ikaichi Tuda
Second, people are vastly misinformed on how nuclear energy works. The safety measures at the reactors in Fukushima are way better than those in Chernobyl. I would suggest to you to get a little more information on how dangerous actually the nuclear crisis in Japan is. A lot of people still think that a reactor in this situation could explode like an atomic bomb would. Again, misinformation is a huge damage to our world. On the other hand the nuclear reactor that Bill Gates talks about would be a great advance. It leaves no residues behind and exposes people far less to radioactive material since they don't have to be refueling so often, according to the test every load will last for 60 years.
Remember what happened during the bp crisis in the Mexican Gulf? That oil has been more damaging to the ecosystem than the Fukushima or the Three mile Island accidents. And still, I don't see that much people being so afraid of companies continuing with their oil businesses.
Hope you can get your hands on more data so you can build a better judgement over this matter. Here is this article which I find very clear and helpful, hope it does the same for you.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
among many, the biggest difference between fukushima and chernobyl is graphite. in chernobyl, graphite fire carried the totally exposed core material to the atmosphere. in fukushima, there is no graphite, so even the escape of corium wouldn't cause global disaster.
Wayne Busby 30+
The whole of the conversation I found myself wondering if they found me as troubling as I found them. They were earnestly trying to convince me that the media coverage of Japan was being influenced by pressure from various diabolical Green organizations.
Nuclear is completely safe as evidenced by the fact that no one has died in Japan. I guess Hiroshima doesn't count.
There is in fact no need for the various redundant and in this case curiously ineffective safety systems.
That teams of safety, rescue and health care professionals can afford to commit their time to involving themselves in assessing the fake and impossible threat of radiation poisoning.
Persons who are anti Nuclear are caught up in a fear campaign to excite the ignorant public opinion and interfere with the progress of nuclear science...
Is it just me who is a little worried here about what our education system is efficiently turning out.
Its up to us to get our ignorant selves informed.
Sabin Muntean 30+
Wayne Busby 30+
Sabin Muntean 30+
Ray Anon 10+
Please try to accomplish non-fallacious reasoning first before applying irony (or what you take for it). The sentence "Nuclear is completely safe as evidenced by the fact that no one has died in Japan. I guess Hiroshima doesn't count." is neither funny nor witty, let alone a valid argument. It is instead making use of the fallacy "guilt by association" in a literal meaning, trying to throw together nuclear power plants with nuclear bombs. This is the intellectual level of vandals who confuse "pediatrician" with "pedophile"....
If there is good reason to oppose nuclear energy, then you are inflicting massive damage to that cause.
Matthieu Miossec 100+
Wayne Busby 30+
I do sincerely apologize Matthieu, if I did offend.
Wayne Busby 30+
Decades after the bombings both Hiroshima and Nagasaki are thriving cities, yet there are still some people, the 'hibakusha', who are negatively effected.
Mladen Jankovic 50+
Compared to the tsunami and the earthquake, this is still a minor event, with only minor consequences for human life. Few people got sick due to
While the nuclear option will always hold some risks, they are managed fairly and do not cost lives to the same level that other power sources cause, even if you include renewables.
In short, while it's not a completely safe power source, it's among the safest ones (I think only geothermal has a better safety record when you consider per unit of energy (as you will always need energy it makes sense to pick the least deadly, and that still happens to be nuclear power (take geothermal, if you have it, by all means))).
Wayne Busby 30+
I believe that there is too much emphasis on speeding up economic growth, with little regard to the real cost of how we are spending the finite resource that is our remaining time on this planet. More time and money has to be allocated to perusing "good therefor better" alternatives.
Unfortunately this event that you mentioned has not as yet run its course.
Mladen Jankovic 50+
Dominant problems in the 3rd Zone are illegal logging and poaching!
While we're at it, take a look at Pripyat here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.405556,30.056944&spn=0.01,0.01&t=h&q=51.405556,30.056944
So far, the worst case ended up creating an unplanned wildlife preserve. While people died, we did learn from it, and in the Fukushima disaster immediate steps have been taken to eliminate the risk of thyroid cancer, for example. Fukushima still poses less of a risk than Chernobyl, and it always posed less risk than Chernobyl, even if Fukushima is a slightly older design.
This argument of your's is also based on a fallacy, more specifically the Nirvana fallacy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy
You might want to inform yourself about critical thinking, you're not doing too well right now.
Wayne Busby 30+
As of April 2006 ...'The new data, based on Belarus national cancer statistics, predicts approximately 270,000 cancers and 93,000 fatal cancer cases caused by Chernobyl. The report also concludes that on the basis of demographic data, during the last 15 years, 60,000 people have additionally died in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident, and estimates of the total death toll for the Ukraine and Belarus could reach another 140,000.'
www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/chernobyl-deaths-180406/
Ray Anon 10+
Greenpeace has a reliability and competence regarding environmental that is only comparable to the authority of Creationists on Evolution. Citing them for an argument is not only uncritical on the highest level, it is the outright confession that one is wrong. Wrong in such a drastic way that one couldn't find a single better source than that. Wrong to that extent that one actually backs up the other side with the utterly failed attempt to object. It's as if one objected to something with "BUT FOX NEWS TOLD ME OTHERWISE!", only much much worse. I can't even nearly illustrate how little that says about the quality of the attacked statement and how much about oneself.
So please, if you want to be taken seriously, never ever sell proven liars as trustworthy. And if you think that Greenpeace (or 9/11 truthers, or moonlanding hoaxers...) have a good point somewhere, then take the effort to find their original sources and read them. Be willing to bet your credibility on the validity of the sources, because otherwise you will be no better than the average political nutjob, religious fanatic or conspiracy crackpot. Which is the category in which you will end up anyway if you bet your credibility on the wrong sources. So you better be attentive with the choice of sources...
Just a general advice. Have a nice day!
Wayne Busby 30+
www.smw.ch/docs/pdf200x/2004/43/smw-10221.pdf
This link Is from the 2004 publication of the Swiss Medical Weekly. Check their credibility to your satisfaction. The article examines the effects of Chernobyl up until 2004 almost 15 yrs. after the incident. It will elaborate for you " the dominant concerns and issues of human safety", as well as vindicate the credibility of Green Peace and myself.
Further:
'1.0mSv is the EPA yearly limit of artificial radiation exposure to the public.'
'6.0mSv was the dose from spending 1 hour on the ground at Chernobyl in 2010.'
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/radiation-dosage-chart/
Finally:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents
Thank-you Kristian P.
Guys, while I appreciate your encouragement to be informed about critical thinking and who I choose to align myself, your tone comes across as rude and more than a little condescending. Unfortunately I do not have the time to help you define what it is your overcompensating for. I will, however, offer you a semblance of your own advice "check your sources" and your motivation before you choose to attack someone's integrity.Have a nice day.
p.s. Ray what exactly is your beef with Green Peace?
Gregory Bishop
Krisztián Pintér 200+
this is the showcase how safe these reactors are. i mean, what is needed to actually breach a core? meteor impact?
EDIT: correction, the cores are damaged. i meant the containment vessel.
Koen Schrauwen
There is still no sign of a full meltdown of one of the cores. So it is reasonably to believe that the way these reactors are build is strong enough to survive a tsunami and an earthquake.
But, if a core collapses in one of the following days then there is a reason to take a good look at the position of these reactors. For instance in Holland we don’t know any earthquakes and tsunamis, so you can say that a reactor here is safe enough.
Krisztián Pintér 200+