# 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:** 18
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/341 "2011-03-14T07:23:43Z")
> [@robby](#): > > First off, the rate of reaction makes all the difference, as noted by **Der Trihs**. Secondly, it’s not the same reaction. Nuclear fission bombs either use plutonium or highly enriched, weapons grade uranium, whereas nuclear power plants use _slightly_ enriched uranium that cannot be made to react fast enough to produce a nuclear explosion. Reactor #3 is a plutonium reactor. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/342 "2011-03-14T07:44:56Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > I’m pretty sure that _whenever_ you giggle, just like \*whenever \*you post, you do it like a moron would. No, a product liability lawyer… Oh, wait!! That’s the same thing. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/343 "2011-03-14T08:07:38Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Reactor #3 is a plutonium reactor. You mean it uses a mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel rather than enriched uranium oxide. MOX uses plutonium as the enriching fissile component but **robby’s** point stands: - reactor fuel is far too dilute in its fissile isotope content to undergo a fission explosion. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/344 "2011-03-14T10:22:41Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > But no. It’s kinda a Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show meets SNL’s Weekend Update “Really?” At least that is the voice I’m going for in my head. I’ve been giggling like a moron for two days without any intoxicants. In my own mind I am really, really funny. But apparently not to others. No “apparently” about it. I know humour is a subjective entity but If you have to explain it at length to every other person, you are in serious trouble. You currently have a receptive audience of one and judging by the comment above even he is starting to have doubts. If you have any serious points to make you should try engaging with the people opposite. At worst you will learn alternate views. At best you’ll take on tangible facts. As it is you are just being tedious. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/345 "2011-03-14T10:27:52Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Engineers and their fellow travelers, accountants, are responsible for every engineering failure in history. Engineers are responsible for every engineering failure in history. What a pearl of wisdom utterly devoid of meaning. Next you’ll be saying militaries are responsible for every military failure in history. Astronomers are responsible for every error in astronomy in history! Historians are responsible for every error in history in history! ---
**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, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/346 "2011-03-14T10:52:19Z")
I would suggest that anyone interested in actual serious or even semi-serious discussion of what is going on in Japan right now do so in one of the many other non-Pit threads on it, because this one is a complete and total waste. ---
**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, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/347 "2011-03-14T10:59:29Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I would suggest that anyone interested in actual serious or even semi-serious discussion of what is going on in Japan right now do so in one of the many other non-Pit threads on it, because this one is a complete and total waste. You might even say that it has suffered a meltdown. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/348 "2011-03-14T11:59:18Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > [Coal plants emit more radiation into environment than Nuclear plants, says Scientific American.](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste) Not malfunctioning, melting down nuclear plants they don’t. Nor can they melt down. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/349 "2011-03-14T13:04:49Z")
> [@matt](#): > > Are you implying that ALL engineers do is maim and kill? I kind of got the impression that if you combined an engineer and an accountant you got pure evil. Otherwise, meh. ---
**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 14, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/350 "2011-03-14T13:15:37Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > You might even say that it has suffered a meltdown. Thank Og the Pit containment hasn’t cracked. ---
**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, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/351 "2011-03-14T13:22:53Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > Not malfunctioning, melting down nuclear plants they don’t. Not much more, if at all. And no, Chernobyl doesn’t count since it required a very extreme kind of bad design for that particular disaster to happen, one which you don’t see elsewhere. > [@tagos](#): > > Nor can they melt down. They can however _burn_ down. And they emit constant pollution into the air even when functioning perfectly, which nuclear reactors don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/352 "2011-03-14T13:33:03Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > Engineers are responsible for every engineering failure in history. What a pearl of wisdom utterly devoid of meaning. Next you’ll be saying militaries are responsible for every military failure in history. Astronomers are responsible for every error in astronomy in history! Historians are responsible for every error in history in history! He’s trying for every Lawyer failure in history. Or maybe Humor failure. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/353 "2011-03-14T13:36:07Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > > [@MsWhatsit](#): > > > > I would suggest that anyone interested in actual serious or even semi-serious discussion of what is going on in Japan right now do so in one of the many other non-Pit threads on it, because this one is a complete and total waste. > > You might even say that it has suffered a meltdown. Is Yucca Mountain ready to take high level radiological waste, yet? ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/354 "2011-03-14T13:38:59Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > > [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > > > [Coal plants emit more radiation into environment than Nuclear plants, says Scientific American.](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste) > > Not malfunctioning, melting down nuclear plants they don’t. Nor can they melt down. True. They just spew their stuff 24/7/365 for the mere 50 years or so they are in operation, whereas we know that nukes melt down every day. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/355 "2011-03-14T13:58:07Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Not much more, if at all. And no, Chernobyl doesn’t count since it required a very extreme kind of bad design for that particular disaster to happen, one which you don’t see elsewhere. > > They can however _burn_ down. And they emit constant pollution into the air even when functioning perfectly, which nuclear reactors don’t. Well, I’ll take a burning down coal plant over a melting down nuclear plant any day. Particularly when as a tax payer I’m stiffed with the clean up bill. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/356 "2011-03-14T13:59:12Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > True. They just spew their stuff 24/7/365 for the mere 50 years or so they are in operation, whereas we know that nukes melt down every day. It isn’t either/or and clean coal technology is meant to solve that. ---
**Author:** ![Nadir](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nadir/32/7302_2.png) [@Nadir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nadir)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/357 "2011-03-14T14:36:48Z")
> [@matt](#): > > Pig-ignorant, ungrateful parasite. > [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’m a lawyer. Go figure. :rolleyes: > [@Michael\_Ellis](#): > > You’re a fucking idiot pig-ignorant piece of shit. Pig ignorant POS looking for the mother-of-all liability cases somebody like him could retire on, no doubt. > [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Is Yucca Mountain ready to take high level radiological waste, yet? Dunno, but sure looks to me like we have some high level SDMB waste posting threads here. At least he’s served to support my long held belief that lawyers are generally speaking, the scum of the earth. Good job with that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/358 "2011-03-14T14:54:33Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > No “apparently” about it. I know humour is a subjective entity but If you have to explain it at length to every other person, you are in serious trouble. > You currently have a receptive audience of one and judging by the comment above even he is starting to have doubts. > > If you have any serious points to make you should try engaging with the people opposite. At worst you will learn alternate views. At best you’ll take on tangible facts. > > As it is you are just being tedious. No, see, all the people who aren’t mentally impaired don’t feel the need to post that they’re not mentally impaired morons who need the simplest human behaviors continually explained to them, over and over and over again, still not comprehending. I’m certain the only form of humor you actually get, is the Family Circus cartoon in the paper. On those rare occasions when people happen to be somewhere near you, they see you rolling on the floor laughing maniacally and ask you what was so funny and between uncontrollable bursts of laughter you say “today’s Family Circus! It’s sooooo funny! It’s genius!” Then the people smile politely so as not to startle you, and then get away from you as quickly as possible. ---
**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, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/359 "2011-03-14T17:16:20Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Not much more, if at all. And no, Chernobyl doesn’t count since it required a very extreme kind of bad design for that particular disaster to happen, one which you don’t see elsewhere. And all the people killed by Chernobyl don’t count because they weren’t Americans. \ > [@tagos](#): > > Well, I’ll take a burning down coal plant over a melting down nuclear plant any day. Particularly when as a tax payer I’m stiffed with the clean up bill. You clearly didn’t get the memo that you are supposed to ignore that the taxpayers get stiffed with the cleanup bill. Certainly you are not supposed to agree with me that such is outrageous. > [@Nadir](#): > > At least he’s served to support my long held belief that lawyers are generally speaking, the scum of the earth. Good job with that. 😉 I quite agree with this statement. In my experience it’s only 98% of the lawyers that are giving the other 2% a bad reputation. > [@](#): > > **Dissonance** > > Engineers are responsible for every engineering failure in history. What a pearl of wisdom utterly devoid of meaning. Next you’ll be saying militaries are responsible for every military failure in history. Astronomers are responsible for every error in astronomy in history! Historians are responsible for every error in history in history! Shhh. You’ll spoil it for the others. They are very, very worked up over this one. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/360 "2011-03-14T17:38:05Z")
I just want the OP to know I read this thread with my lips moving out of sync to the words. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=19)