ThomasDenton 79 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 With all this nuclear crisis going on in Japan, what's everyone's thoughts on nuclear power? Just to be clear with Japan's situation, even though they are a technologically advanced nation, they were still using some old style technology with that plant (didn't even have the containment walls that we use). And not to mention that even though those plants are built to withstand planes crashing into them and such, Japan was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a massive tsunami that apparently damaged all the plant's failsafes. I personally think nuclear power's good can outweigh the bad. The biggest problem would be the cost of building the plants. I mean, they produce no harmful emissions like coal and oil (not knocking coal and oil, but they are a lot dirtier), and if we really pushed alternate energy sources (all types of solar, hydro, geothermal, and wind) then we wouldn't need that many nuclear plants. I read somewhere that we pretty much don't use oil anymore for power plants, that the oil is for everything else (everything from cars to synthetic rubbers to medicine) but if we also pushed electric vehicles which are charged with the electricity from power plants, then that would take a big chunk out of oil too and nuclear could help out there bigtime. A lot of things are exagerated about nuclear power due to the horrific happenings with Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and now Japan, but with today's technology and knowhow (and as long as we don't do anything stupid like build a plant on a fault line like in California) I think we could really make nuclear power work a lot better than what we're currently doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasDenton 79 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/5-myths-about-nuclear-energy/2011/03/15/AB9P3Oe_story.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance 228 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Nuclear power is safe...even this situation in Japan is not as bad as the media is playing it up to be...they are trying to make this look like another Chernobyl and its not...worst case and a total meltdown of all 3 reactors and you will have an area of about 20 miles around the plants to evacuate...estimates i've seen are about 400 people or so could die at the most...Chernobyl had close to 40,000 die...it's night and day difference and these reactors are designed to handle a meltdown...the newer reactors (these were built in the 70s using 60s technology) are much more advanced and more efficient...as well as safe. There is no reason our country could not be using 100% nuclear power other than the public hysteria that surrounds anything with nuclear. I know the coal people dont want that because it's not good for the local economy, but its true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasDenton 79 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Nuclear power is safe...even this situation in Japan is not as bad as the media is playing it up to be...they are trying to make this look like another Chernobyl and its not...worst case and a total meltdown of all 3 reactors and you will have an area of about 20 miles around the plants to evacuate...estimates i've seen are about 400 people or so could die at the most...Chernobyl had close to 40,000 die...it's night and day difference and these reactors are designed to handle a meltdown...the newer reactors (these were built in the 70s using 60s technology) are much more advanced and more efficient...as well as safe. There is no reason our country could not be using 100% nuclear power other than the public hysteria that surrounds anything with nuclear. I know the coal people dont want that because it's not good for the local economy, but its true. I think another downside that nuclear opponents would play on is that uranium mining is really dangerous, but isn't mining for coal and drilling for oil dangerous too? Also, one of my biology teachers told us once that there's enough stuff to fuel our country (if we were totally nuclear) for hundreds of years approximately right in our own territory. I think there's even places to mine right off the east coast around Virginia. You could always train oil riggers and coal miners to mine for uranium, but there's just too much fear and opposition against it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Nuclear power is safe...even this situation in Japan is not as bad as the media is playing it up to be...they are trying to make this look like another Chernobyl and its not...worst case and a total meltdown of all 3 reactors and you will have an area of about 20 miles around the plants to evacuate...estimates i've seen are about 400 people or so could die at the most...Chernobyl had close to 40,000 die...it's night and day difference and these reactors are designed to handle a meltdown...the newer reactors (these were built in the 70s using 60s technology) are much more advanced and more efficient...as well as safe. There is no reason our country could not be using 100% nuclear power other than the public hysteria that surrounds anything with nuclear. I know the coal people dont want that because it's not good for the local economy, but its true. This pretty much sums up my beliefs and opinions on this issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance 228 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 just to clarify...worst case being 400 people or so would be in the event they did not evacuate and considering some loss of people at the actual plants in the event there was some sort of "catastrophic event" that they didn't plan or have time to get people out of there...otherwise you are looking at a short term "zero" loss of life and a possible long term cancer risk due to exposure for those involved in containment work directly at or around the plant. This whole thing has been hyped up greatly by the media and I wish they would start putting experts on that would educate most people about what is happening. Everyone thinks "nuke" and flips out and its really not anything to be scared of...this is not 1950 and we are not all in a black and white sci-fi movie...time to get real on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker 82 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 I am neither pro or anti nuclear power. It does have its place in meeting our needs. What bothers me is when there is a problem like this that is caused by nature, you have idiots getting in the media and blathering about how we need to rethink using nuclear at all. The Japanese are without a doubt the world experts in the technology and are best equipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. I am confident of one thing that will come out of this situation; that Japan will now be looking at other potential energy sources and that could lead to a break through in new technologies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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