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Merged nuclear power safe?

It's a shame, this will probably set US nuclear back another 20 years :nope:
 
I have not seen this map until now.

When Chernobyl exploded, Cs 137 from the event was detected by the Environmental Survey Lab where I work within a week or two.

This Cs 137 spike was attributed to the Chernobyl incident.

Of course Chernobyl and Fukushima are totally and absolutely different kettles of fish.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12733393

Ugh. It's such a shame the BBC is so hell-bent on this. One choice gem:

But as with the first explosion, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the thick containment walls shielding the reactor cores remained intact. It also said radiation levels outside were still within legal limits.

'Not optimistic'

What wonderful juxtaposition.
 
but if the core melts, won't it spew highly radioactive crap into the air..for days?

It will spew highly radioactive crap into the air if godzilla rips the roof off of the core too.

Instead of playing 'what if' games, one should play the 'how likely is' game instead. There's a containment area for a reason.
 
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but if the core melts, won't it spew highly radioactive crap into the air..for days?

No.

Not unless you imagine a nuclear core inside a perfectly working containment area is exposed to the open air, at any rate.
 
but if the core melts, won't it spew highly radioactive crap into the air..for days?

Not if the pressure vessel and concrete containment are intact and North Korea abstains from testing a nuclear bomb at Fukushima.:rolleyes:
 
Not if the pressure vessel and concrete containment are intact and North Korea abstains from testing a nuclear bomb at Fukushima.:rolleyes:

ok, good to know.

so even if the core melts, we can still be ok?

that's good to know.
 
but if the core melts, won't it spew highly radioactive crap into the air..for days?

No. If the core melts, it will sit as a nasty puddle of goo in the bottom of the containment vessel until it is cleaned up.

Bottom Line: As long as the containment vessel holds, which it appears to be doing quite well, then no substantial radioactivity will escape into the environment.
 
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I am astonished by how little critical thinking there is among the press. (You'd expect it for the general public of course.) Maybe I'm a bit prejudiced: I'm a retired Health Physicist and worked for years in the radiological protection field. (Primarily nuclear attack but with a fair amount of nuclear plant emergency response work.) But with all the good credible sources available on-line, both the public and news outlets are still doing a lot of fear mongering. Sadly, nothing new: The "most trusted news source in journalism" Walter Cronkite, mentioned in a broadcast that radiation was detected penetrating the 3ft thick TMI containment shell. Experts knew better of course, but you can imagine the panic among the public when they thought how bad radiation levels must be to go through three feet of concrete. I'm not sure the press has learned much in the ensuing quarter century.
 
I am astonished by how little critical thinking there is among the press.

I'm not. Critical thinking seems to be declining in the press as years pass. Either that or I'm just noticing it more as I get older (I'm only 22).
 
Having actually worked with industrial equipment I'm calling ********. There is no *********** plug on those generators.

Head hurts immensely. That is a horribly stupid idea that has a good chance of completely destroying the cooling system.

Agreed (with the 2nd part).

WRT the plug, it's not entirely uncommon for mobile generators to have a plug for hooking up to a building (or aircraft, as the case may be). Chances are,however, that if the plug didn't fit it's because the generators weren't set up to produce the "right" kind of power. Which would by why the generators weren't just hardwired in. That's my initial impression and completely unsupported by anything other than my own personal experience working in an industrial/electrical/aircraft maintenance field.
 
Reading the Wikipedia page on Chernobyl, they mention a recent study that mentions "985,000" deaths resulting from the incident.

Isn't that like 100 times more than liberal estimates used to say ? Is that even possible ?

That is a BS number. I encourage you to research the real number and fix that entry (with proper citations and etc.)
 

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