# Fukushima still melting down, still a nuclear disaster **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 3, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282 "2013-10-03T17:48:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/301 "2014-01-11T11:07:50Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > You aren’t making yourself clear. I thought he made himself quite clear: he is an idiot who cannot comprehend the difference between being dangerous by accident and being dangerous through deliberate misuse. It’s like railing against toasters because you could throw one in a bathtub. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/302 "2014-01-11T14:33:31Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > It’s like railing against toasters because you could throw one in a bathtub. More like railing against toasters after 6 of them ended up in the county pool. ---
**Author:** ![Peaton\_of\_peat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@Peaton\_of\_peat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peaton_of_peat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/303 "2014-01-11T19:01:44Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > More like railing against toasters after 6 of them ended up in the county pool. No comment could do this analogy justice. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/304 "2014-01-11T19:09:57Z")
Hah! And yet, no children died from the toasters. Sure the entire town of 140,000 people had to evacuate and lose everything, but toasters aren’t to blame. You can’t judge all toasters by the few that ended up in the pool. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/305 "2014-01-11T19:11:08Z")
And the fact that it’s going to take 40 years and and 20 to 50 billion dollars to get the toasters out of the pool, just ignore that as well. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/306 "2014-01-11T20:08:38Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > You aren’t making yourself clear. The safety of Iran’s nuclear plants is not in any way at issue. Their ability to refine weapons-grade fissiles is. Anyone who can enrich/reprocess can make weapons. Doesn’t mean they _are_ making weapons. It’s part and parcel to the technology you claim is incredibly safe. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/307 "2014-01-11T20:21:57Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > And the fact that it’s going to take 40 years and and 20 to 50 billion dollars to get the toasters out of the pool, just ignore that as well. What kind of toasters do you use? ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/308 "2014-01-11T20:22:08Z")
You don’t need enrichment with a reactor to use the material as weapons. A few dozen pounds of powdered spent fuel would be more devastating than an H bomb in terms of deaths. Just spread it from the air over a populated areas, death beyond imagining. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/309 "2014-01-11T20:31:18Z")
Dude, you must have a ton of degrees! How long did it take you to learn all this science? I have noticed that you are an expert in climate and meteorology, statistics, nuclear engineering, physics and now medicine! Fucking A, man, you must be a genius! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/310 "2014-01-11T21:11:18Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Anyone who can enrich/reprocess can make weapons. Doesn’t mean they _are_ making weapons. It’s part and parcel to the technology you claim is incredibly safe. No, that isn’t quite true. There are technological barriers and threshholds. It takes positive efforts to upgrade a power-producing reactor to become a weapons-producing reactor. Oh, by the way, I have never claimed that nuclear power is “incredibly safe.” I consider it risky, the way any high concentration of energy is. Gasoline tanks blow up; electricity causes fires; coal produces environmental harm. Nuclear power is just slightly better than average on the big spectrum of safety. So…wrong and wrong. **Grumman** : I’m afraid you’re probably right! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/311 "2014-01-11T21:13:51Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > You don’t need enrichment with a reactor to use the material as weapons. A few dozen pounds of powdered spent fuel would be more devastating than an H bomb in terms of deaths. Just spread it from the air over a populated areas, death beyond imagining. The toxin in one can of spoiled beans, if spread widely enough, could kill tens of thousands of people. I guess canned food is now on the list of unacceptably dangerous technologies. How many people actually die in automobile accidents? Thousands of times as many as die in nuclear power accidents. Makes you think, doesn’t it? (Something fucking well ought to!) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/312 "2014-01-11T21:52:24Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > No, that isn’t quite true. There are technological barriers and threshholds. It takes positive efforts to upgrade a power-producing reactor to become a weapons-producing reactor. > > Oh, by the way, I have never claimed that nuclear power is “incredibly safe.” I consider it risky, the way any high concentration of energy is. Gasoline tanks blow up; electricity causes fires; coal produces environmental harm. Nuclear power is just slightly better than average on the big spectrum of safety. > > So…wrong and wrong. > > **Grumman** : I’m afraid you’re probably right! Cite that Iran is pursuing weapons? Idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/313 "2014-01-11T22:34:50Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > You don’t need enrichment with a reactor to use the material as weapons. A few dozen pounds of powdered spent fuel would be more devastating than an H bomb in terms of deaths. Just spread it from the air over a populated areas, death beyond imagining. Holy shit, you _ARE_ right!!! China [burned 3.8 billion tons of coal in 2011](http://science.time.com/2013/01/29/the-scariest-environmental-fact-in-the-world/) and [coal contains ~1 ppm of uranium and thorium in its matrix](http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs163-97/FS-163-97.html)! This means that China released ~4000 tons of radioactive components into the environment in the coal smoke and fly ash. 4000 TONS OF FUCKING POWDERED DEATH SPRINKLED IN POPULATED AREAS! The result? [500,000 people dying EVERY FUCKING YEAR](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10555816/Chinas-airpocalypse-kills-350000-to-500000-each-year.html) because of this radioactive pollution. Holy shit. I am sorry about all the bad stuff I thought about your, **FXMastermind**. I thought you were a brain dead moron. I thought you were a shill in the pay of the petroleum industries. I thought you were a fucking troll that was just posting the stuff you did because you got some weird kind of perverted sexual thrill posting mindless drivel on the internet. I actually envisioned you slowly stroking your tiny member while posting unscientific garbage on topics you didn’t understand and laughing gleefully and breathlessly as you came when people tried time and again to correct your ill structured and wrong ideas. But mea culpa, **FX** , mea culpa. You were right; radiation _IS_ being released into the environment and millions are dying just like you said. Fucking A, I have not been this wrong in a long time and I am truly sorry. Tool. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/314 "2014-01-11T23:04:54Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Cite that Iran is pursuing weapons? Idiot. I didn’t actually say they were. Fuckhead. There is a strict system of international economic sanctions against them because a lot of other nations believe they are. Dipshit. But I didn’t actually say anything of this nature. Illiterate oaf. And a hearty turd-eater to you while I’m rolling. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/315 "2014-01-11T23:06:58Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I didn’t actually say they were. Fuckhead. Hey! That’s my word of endearment. Don’t use it lightly. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/316 "2014-01-11T23:09:44Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > Holy shit, you _ARE_ right!!! China [burned 3.8 billion tons of coal in 2011](http://science.time.com/2013/01/29/the-scariest-environmental-fact-in-the-world/) and [coal contains ~1 ppm of uranium and thorium in its matrix](http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs163-97/FS-163-97.html)! This means that China released ~4000 tons of radioactive components into the environment in the coal smoke and fly ash. 4000 TONS OF FUCKING POWDERED DEATH SPRINKLED IN POPULATED AREAS! The result? [500,000 people dying EVERY FUCKING YEAR](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10555816/Chinas-airpocalypse-kills-350000-to-500000-each-year.html) because of this radioactive pollution. Holy shit. > [@](#): > > The radiation hazard from airborne emissions of coal-fired power plants was evaluated in a series of studies conducted from 1975–1985. **These studies concluded that the maximum radiation dose to an individual living within 1 km of a modern power plant is equivalent to a minor, perhaps 1 to 5 percent, increase above the radiation from the natural environment.** [Radioactive Elements in Coal and Fly Ash, USGS Factsheet 163-97](http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs163-97/FS-163-97.html) Dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/317 "2014-01-12T00:00:33Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > Holy shit, you _ARE_ right!!! China [burned 3.8 billion tons of coal in 2011](http://science.time.com/2013/01/29/the-scariest-environmental-fact-in-the-world/) and [coal contains ~1 ppm of uranium and thorium in its matrix](http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs163-97/FS-163-97.html)! This means that China released ~4000 tons of radioactive components into the environment in the coal smoke and fly ash. 4000 TONS OF FUCKING POWDERED DEATH SPRINKLED IN POPULATED AREAS! The result? [500,000 people dying EVERY FUCKING YEAR](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10555816/Chinas-airpocalypse-kills-350000-to-500000-each-year.html) because of this radioactive pollution. Holy shit. > > I am sorry about all the bad stuff I thought about your, **FXMastermind**. I thought you were a brain dead moron. I thought you were a shill in the pay of the petroleum industries. I thought you were a fucking troll that was just posting the stuff you did because you got some weird kind of perverted sexual thrill posting mindless drivel on the internet. I actually envisioned you slowly stroking your tiny member while posting unscientific garbage on topics you didn’t understand and laughing gleefully and breathlessly as you came when people tried time and again to correct your ill structured and wrong ideas. But mea culpa, **FX** , mea culpa. You were right; radiation _IS_ being released into the environment and millions are dying just like you said. Fucking A, I have not been this wrong in a long time and I am truly sorry. > Tool. Hahaha. That was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/318 "2014-01-12T00:03:32Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Solar power is so dangerous I can wear it on my wrist. I’d like to wear my nuclear power watch but the six feet of lead was clumsy. > > Yes, nuclear is way more dangerous and scary than every other form of energy. That’s why we spend billions and billions making it constantly safe to be anywhere around, every moment of the day, year in and out, and will be for many millennia, if we’re around that long. > > If it were \*actually \*safe, everyone would be doing it by now and we wouldn’t have to threaten war with other countries over it. Wow. The stupid. It burns. I’ve provided cites proving that, per unit of energy of energy produced, nuclear kills way less than other power sources. Additionally, you can buy a nuclear powered watch. Well, the light at least. [Link](http://www.gadgetsandgear.com/nuclear-watch.html). Now, do you understand that solar kills over four times more people than nuclear per TWH? Given that solar is more dangerous than nuclear, why aren’t you bemoaning new solar installations? One of the reasons we don’t have nuclear, especially the newer, safer designs, is that idiots like yourself are unable, or unwilling, to understand risk. Instead of looking at the issue logically, emotion, ignorance and fear rule the day. “But nuclear is evil!!1!1!1!” scream the ignorant ones while the power sources we use instead of nuclear kill tons of people and destroy the environment. Slee ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/319 "2014-01-12T00:31:13Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > Hahaha. That was hilarious. Damn, now I have to go back and read it? Mother fuck > [@sleestak](#): > > Now, do you understand that solar kills over four times more people than nuclear per TWH? Given that solar is more dangerous than nuclear, why aren’t you bemoaning new solar installations? Oh my gawd, that is priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282/320 "2014-01-12T00:50:21Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > . . . One of the reasons we don’t have nuclear, especially the newer, safer designs, is that idiots like yourself are unable, or unwilling, to understand risk. Instead of looking at the issue logically, emotion, ignorance and fear rule the day. > > “But nuclear is evil!!1!1!1!” scream the ignorant ones while the power sources we use instead of nuclear kill tons of people and destroy the environment. . . . And, just to head off the inevitable straw-man attack, you aren’t saying, here, that nuclear power is “oh so incredibly safe.” Just wanted to get that out of the way before one of our resident fools mischaracterizes you. Nuclear ain’t safe. Nothing is. Nuclear has its own unique problems. So do gasoline and electricity. Some of us support expansion of nuclear power, well knowing its hazards. We’re able to make a rational and balanced assessment. “It’s perfectly safe” is not one of those assessments. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fukushima-still-melting-down-still-a-nuclear-disaster/670282.md?page=17)