# Nuclear meltdown! Holy Godzilla NOOOO!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 12, 2011, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389 "2011-03-12T08:19:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/281 "2011-03-13T20:23:25Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Well I have a quick simple money-saving solution to that problem. 😉 And I’m sure you’ll like the coal fired power plant next door to your house that replaces it, too. Unless you and your neighbors are going to start burning dung in your fireplaces for energy, that is. > [@](#): > > So basically, when things go to shit at a nuclear power station we should shut up about it because it’s actually our fault for ever allowing the things to get built. I get tired of people getting blamed for the worlds woes for just being in business. It’s like the only ‘good’ people are the poor and retards. Anyone else is evil and trying to take advantage apparently. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/282 "2011-03-13T20:31:59Z")
Are we approaching the possibility of acknowledging that while nuclear power plants do in fact present some danger and challenges that this is a pretty unique situation in the (largely safe) history of nuclear power plants? Some of the comments upthread are beyond reason. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/283 "2011-03-13T20:34:20Z")
The answer to this question is probably glaringly obvious to everyone but me: why do nuclear power plants _need_ a power supply? Can’t they just provide power to themselves? ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/284 "2011-03-13T20:37:38Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > The answer to this question is probably glaringly obvious to everyone but me: why do nuclear power plants _need_ a power supply? Can’t they just provide power to themselves? Under normal circumstances, yes. But in this case the plants were shut down following the earthquake and have stopped generating power. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/285 "2011-03-13T20:41:06Z")
> [@cckerberos](#): > > Under normal circumstances, yes. But in this case the plants were shut down following the earthquake and have stopped generating power. :smack: I was pretty sure I was missing something simple, and so it proved. I’m starting to feel like Yogi Berra these past couple of days, “They x-rayed my brain, and found nothing.” ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/286 "2011-03-13T20:41:48Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > The answer to this question is probably glaringly obvious to everyone but me: why do nuclear power plants _need_ a power supply? Can’t they just provide power to themselves? Surprisingly, no, even in the case of multiple units on the same site. The reason is cost savings, really. ETA: black-start capability requires that you have some other power generation source on-site which can supply the entire auxiliary power of the bigger unit, which ranges from the single to the dozens of MW in range. It’s certainly possible with diesel generators and/or gas turbines, but the thing which limits the use of these items is cost. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/287 "2011-03-13T21:38:56Z")
Very good question/answer format from Reddit with a nuke eng. [http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/g37tl/ima\_former\_nuclear\_emergency\_planner\_wanting\_to/](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/g37tl/ima_former_nuclear_emergency_planner_wanting_to/) Offered without comment. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/288 "2011-03-13T21:42:18Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > And I’m sure you’ll like the coal fired power plant next door to your house that replaces it, too. Unless you and your neighbors are going to start burning dung in your fireplaces for energy, that is. Me? Literally me? I smoke, have for years. Appoint me Lord King Emperor can’t-be-assassinated/impeached-for-ten-years, and Ill fire up all the coal plants, and build more. It’s not like we haven’t already designed them to run many times cleaner than they used to. With gobs of money being thrown at them, the technology will regularly improve, or there will be public executions of executives and corporately funded scientists who exaggerate, and a few random politicians as a matter of course. We’ll cut ourselves off oil imports, break OPEC’s back, spend trillions building the smartest Skynet-smart energy smart grid we can, spend more trillions subsidizing renewables, large and small scale, and we’ll keep employment home, and greatly expand it. By “home” I mean Canada, US and Mexico. No, I don’t mean we’ll invade them or something, just that if they can’t or won’t fund a compatible smart grid with us, we’ll pay for it and do it for them. Energy in North America will be cheap, as a basic human right. We will then pwn the Earth. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/289 "2011-03-13T22:04:04Z")
Do the Japanese leave spent fuel rods in water ponds near the [plant like we do? If so what about them? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/290 "2011-03-13T23:27:54Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > They will have to be sealed up for an eternity and new plants will have to be constructed. And then in 2558, when we have long forgotten what used to reside there, a brave archaeologist and his team of explorers will enter the site and leave with a terrible sickness. Unable to read the “nuclear contamination” sign, nor recognize the no longer in use symbols, rumors of it being a secluded cursed temple will arise. I’d watch that movie. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/291 "2011-03-13T23:37:22Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > And then in 2558, when we have long forgotten what used to reside there, a brave archaeologist and his team of explorers will enter the site and leave with a terrible sickness. > > Unable to read the “nuclear contamination” sign, nor recognize the no longer in use symbols, rumors of it being a secluded cursed temple will arise. > > I’d watch that movie. It is japan. They will open up a door to Godzilla or Mothra. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/292 "2011-03-13T23:50:37Z")
Who cares? Doesn’t matter how “evolved” they might be, still fucking cockroaches! ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/293 "2011-03-13T23:52:46Z")
We still talking about engineers? ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/294 "2011-03-13T23:53:29Z")
Godzilla won’t come for a few years yet. He was born from radiation IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/295 "2011-03-13T23:58:41Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Godzilla won’t come for a few years yet. He was born from radiation IIRC. I thought he was a prehistoric monster whose powers were enabled by radiation, sort of like Peter Parker. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/296 "2011-03-14T02:23:09Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I thought he was a prehistoric monster whose powers were enabled by radiation, sort of like Peter Parker. Godzilla got his powers by being bitten by a radioactive human? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/297 "2011-03-14T02:23:27Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > I disagree, but I can’t offer you an hard cites, just going off my experience working with coal power plants for 2 decades. The quake would damage things but coal power plants are flexible and meant to move - the buckstays on the plants are meant to give and act as shock absorbers, and the entire boiler is mounted in fairly flexible steel as it’s meant to move (little known fact, coal boilers grow considerably as they’re heated, which is one reason so many of them are suspended from above, so they can stretch). > > One nice thing about coal boilers is then the fire blows out/the unit trips, there isn’t the residual heat of the core to deal with for more than an hour or so. > I need to check but I’m sure this ties for one of the dumbest things written on this message board. Who the fuck do you think is responsible in part for almost all the things around you? Poets? History majors? This isn’t a coal thread. Stop peddling your dirty, dirty, dirty coal here. Engineers and their fellow travelers, accountants, are responsible for every engineering failure in history. Tacoma Narrows bridge, Hyatt Regency walkway collapse, the Ford Pinto, Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion, Chernobyl, every dam damn that ever failed, the Boston Molasses Disaster, the DC-10, the Hindenburg, Lake Peigneur, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill, Bhopal, flooding of New Orleans during Katrina, etc. etc. etc. And let’s not forget that engineers are responsible for virtually all weapons systems and the efficiency with which they have slaughtered millions of people. Anyway Una, try not to make this thread about your blindness to all the blood on your profession’s hands. Engineers are an evil. A necessary one, but an evil nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/298 "2011-03-14T02:30:00Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > And let’s not forget that engineers are responsible for virtually all weapons systems and the efficiency with which they have slaughtered millions of people. . You say that like its a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/299 "2011-03-14T02:49:37Z")
Obvious troll is obvious. Good Cleveland reference, though. I always like a good Cleveland reference. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/300 "2011-03-14T03:01:07Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > This isn’t a coal thread. Stop peddling your dirty, dirty, dirty coal here. Engineers and their fellow travelers, accountants, are responsible for every engineering failure in history. Tacoma Narrows bridge, Hyatt Regency walkway collapse, the Ford Pinto, Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion, Chernobyl, every dam damn that ever failed, the Boston Molasses Disaster, the DC-10, the Hindenburg, Lake Peigneur, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill, Bhopal, flooding of New Orleans during Katrina, etc. etc. etc. > > And let’s not forget that engineers are responsible for virtually all weapons systems and the efficiency with which they have slaughtered millions of people. > > Anyway Una, try not to make this thread about your blindness to all the blood on your profession’s hands. > > Engineers are an evil. A necessary one, but an evil nonetheless. That’s the spirit! :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=16)