Re: nuclear power

From: John Marlow (johnmarlow@gmx.net)
Date: Sat Jun 02 2001 - 04:42:04 MDT


#cbelow

On 1 Jun 2001, at 7:54, Chuck Kuecker wrote:

> At 12:31 AM 6/1/01 -0700, you wrote:
> >Windscale. Idaho Falls. Brown's Ferry. Three Mile Island. Chernobyl.
> >Who needs terrorists? Another Chernobyl seems far more likely.
> >
> >jm
>
> Chernobyl was a design for failure, and built without any kind of realistic
> containment. To top it all off, experiments to draw power from the energy
> stored in the graphite core were run while the cooling system was partially
> disabled.

#Again--second-rate nations will continue building second-rate crap
and using third-rate management which intentionally disables safety
devices.

...Along those lines, you forgot a couple of nuclear rocket
> experiments in Nevada that had fission products in the exhaust.

#Really? Do tell.

> Brown's Ferry proved that the safety systems work. Stupidity in using
> flammable wiring and a worker using a flame to check for air flow damaged
> the cabling, but the reactor remained safe. A success.

#Proved that the system failed. The design should never have been
approved; it had redundant flaws. It's a freaking miracle the thing
didn't melt down. HAte to see your idea of a failure, if this was a
success.

>
> Three Mile Island released no significant radiation to the environment. The
> containment worked.

#Prove it. Disabled detection devices is a wee bit suspicous,
wouldn't you say?

>
> We have the technology to produce SAFE reactors, if only someone will allow
> them to be developed. Again, I must bring up the IFR at Argonne Labs, that
> Clinton's administration killed off so efficiently.

#Yeah, we have the tech. Doesn't mean we can implement flawlessly.

>
> A really scary one that everyone ignores was the Fermi plant outside
> Detroit in the 1970's - a liquid sodium cooled fast breeder that actually
> had a meltdown due to last minute addition of "safety" devices not in the
> original plans. Check out the book "We Almost Lost Detroit".

#Hey, where do ya think I got the guy-pinned-to-the-ceiling story?

  :)

jm

>
> Chuck Kuecker
>
>
>

John Marlow



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