Yes! The Nuclear Lobbyists and the politician lapdogs are already at work.
82%
No! Nuclear power will never, ever, be "safe" and American will "get" this now.
18%
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The U.S. cares nothing for the safety of its citizens. Some disaster of biblical proportions will have to happen here before something is done. And maybe not even then if it can be covered up.
Money trumps life every time unfortunately
No, this time, the people will really "get it", and no one will support nuclear power anywhere. This catastrophe may revive the "Earth Day" movement.
That reminds me of another old cliche' that went something like -
Old age and treachery, will trump youth and ambition most every time.
Our only chance is to show a sense of true unity, like the anti-war movement of the late 60's early 70's - most collage students today do not even have a concept of those trying times.Their preocupied with wondering where to go for spring break. This generation has had it way too soft . It will take something much bigger and closer to home to wake most of them up.
We are outsourcing this to Japan ? If the White House burned down, would we outsource the rebuilding to another country?
Speak up people !
We are outsourcing this to Japan ?
My guess about the outsourcing Johnnyamazing is - it would be so the Japanese company would bring in their own Non-Union people for the work, and then you can imagine where the quaity controll will go. Any infrastructure projects using American $$ should go to American companies and should be using American made steel and products. How else are we going to get the American Skilled labor force back to work ? If a Jap company gets the contract they will most likely be importing Communist Chinese steel products and componants - What a bunch of crap, plain and simple.
Put American skilled labor back to work ! Its not protectionism - its Patriotism !
Longer story made short - I agree with you - Wake up America, and speek up !
They didn't "get it" after Three Mile Island. They didn't "get it" after Chernobyl. They won't "get it" this time, either.
Facts First - America has not had an serious accident at a nuclear power plant since 1979. (stuck valve and then human error). Chernobyl was 1986 ( testing experiment gone wrong and human error). France gets 78% of its power by nuclear power plants (the most of any country). The USA about 20% Some nuclear power plants are over 40 years old.
Now how many oil disasters do you know of ? Exxon Valdez, Gulf of Mexico, etc.... Serious impact on marine life, polluting the air worldwide on a constant and increasing basis. We pump millions of gallons of oil out of the ground every day and every bit of it ends up in the air... Think about that. Then think about burning coal and how detrimental to health that is.
In most of the nucler accidents and the ones going on in Japan are/were caused by not keeping the core cool. From what I understand in the Japanese situation 13 backup generators failed to function at keeping the core(s) cool. As humans we need to concentrate more on backup systems and more redundancy in ways to cool a nuclear reactor in case of failure.
Of course we could use solar power and wind turbines for backup systems for nuclear power plants..... right... Frightening thought isn't it?
But you would never trust either one of these as a backup system for let's say a hospital would you... But you probably trust the nuclear power plant if you were the patient in the middle of a heart operation. B
ut that's what everyone wants to believe that somehow solar and wind are going to save our ever demanding use for power. These are the same people that want electric cars everywhere.... Wow how much electric power will we consume then?
The Japanese are dealing with a catastrophic situation created by an unusually powerful earthquake. But when you think about all of these situations none of these power plants blew up immediately. There was time, if it was in place or had been thought out correctly that cooling any of these nuclear power plants (past and present) in a more efficient and reliable manner may have prevented their demise.
The Japanese are supposed to build a nuclear power plant in Texas..... I would doubt they would ever have to deal with a huge earthquake there but but I would hope they would concentrate on how to "stop" the power plant more efficiently with more backup systems and more computer checkpoints.... Just like Japanese cars sometimes they run great but sometimes they are just hard to stop.
Unless we can figure a way to exile most all Republicans to Lybia, regretably we will be building Nukes shortly.
...unfortunately, it seems the *bozo nuclear energy show* must go on — and judging by a co-worker's comments today — it probably will — if this direct quote is the average line of thinking: "Nuclear energy is a *necessary* evil."
(I'm thinking, ummmm...no...and if given the choice, I'd rather try my luck and *risk* running out of energy options as a preferable "necessary evil" instead of risking a global disaster — or even a local melt-down...*heavy-sigh*
Every poll I see on this subject is the same, even when the numbers dont add up to 100, over 70% supposedly want nukes. This proves how easily people can be brainwashed, given the only ones who profit from nuclear energy are the contractors who build the plants. A nuke plant takes 20 years to break even under the best of conditions, and costs 10x as much as a coal fired plant.
A solar thermal plant will break even in less than 4 years, and is the cheapest type of plant to build in terms of $$/ watt.
safe, clean, too cheap to meter.......drill baby drill
10% of the unuseable land in the desert SW, dedicated to solar power and backed up by natural gas, would supply more than enough energy for the entire country- including an electric vehicle fleet- well into the next century. The studies have been around for years now. Those studies were based on systems that were less efficient than we have today. For less money than we pissed away in Iraq we could be running on a 100% renewable energy system, and that price includes a rebuilt distribution system.
Nuclear energy is a dangerous gamble, and a lousy investment. Without government backing, no nuke plant could ever get funding. What do bankers understand that most of us dont?
Think I'm blowing smoke about renewable energy? Try some light reading:
Zweibel, J., Mason, J., Fthenakis, V. ( 2008, January)
A Solar Grand Plan. Scientific American, 64-73
or
Jacobson, M. C., & Delucchi, M. A. (2009, November)
A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030. Scientific American, 58-65
Thom We should phase out nuclear power / Phase in wind-solar-clean energy but GOP will not pay for anything Unless its another profitable war or more billionaire tax cuts as Reagan Bush & GOP congress each gave. I Never thought I'd see the day the GOP became this devious greedy and heartless. No more GOP for me 1981 Reaganomics Bush 1 -2 2008 crash TARP - fat cat policies with lots of push by Goldman Fed boys..Greenspan -Rubin, Paulson,Bernacki They taught me a hard lesson.
renee My thoughts exactly
exactly correct Russ
Renee I absolutely agree with you with this statement below!!!!
I'm thinking, ummmm...no...and if given the choice, I'd rather try my luck and *risk* running out of energy options as a preferable "necessary evil" instead of risking a global disaster — or even a local melt-down...*heavy-sigh*
We're close but not there yet! My hope was that this might be the moment when people would start to "get it" until I talked with my son. He is a very tech savvy computer guru at a national architectural firm and will be getting his Nissan Leaf in a few weeks. His view is that it is a necessary evil and that new plant designs that are supposedly "walk away safe" will solve the problem of melt-downs. When I asked him about spent fuel he said, "reprocess it." |SIGH|
Next, ask We The People what We want. No one seems to be asking the People's Will.
Example: "As an American Citizen, do you want the continuation of nuclear power in the United States Of America? (or your state?)