# 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:** 25
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/481 "2011-03-17T00:42:47Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Maybe the plant workers signed up for it, but the public didn’t. I think a power source likely to kill its customers is more egalitarian than one that only kills the people that produce the power. Cheap ass customers dont give a fuck if miners are dying in mines as long as their electricity is a few percent cheaper. Tell those same customers that 10 percent cheaper nuclear power will greatly increase the chance the nuclear reactor in their backyard will blow sky high and I bet the tightwads will pry open their wallets more quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/482 "2011-03-17T00:43:54Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Maybe the plant workers signed up for it, but the public didn’t. The public signed up for the electricity it generated. Otherwise, it would have shut down years ago. The public elected politicians who allowed it to operate as it did. Otherwise, they would have shut it down years ago. Again, is the process of generating electricity from nuclear power less safe than from coal? You were asked that and didn’t answer. Lackluster reader, indeed. ---
**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 17, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/483 "2011-03-17T00:47:53Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Pay attention. You should pay attention to what’s going on at the Fukushima site instead of plying your anti-nuke rant. But I can see you are not really interested in that so much as keeping your little harangue going, so by all means, please proceed. :smack: ---
**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:** [March 17, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/484 "2011-03-17T00:54:52Z")
While all spent fuel rods contain plutonium, (and it not only burns but melts before the uranium), the fall out from burning plutonium is heavy and doesn’t travel far. It does however remain dangerous for over 24,000 years. So even a little plutonium burning is a very very bad thing. ---
**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 17, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/485 "2011-03-17T00:57:59Z")
How are those “damaged fuel rods” doing? What is that damage? Are they past their expiration date? Chipped? Cracked? Bent? No, the damage is that they are melted. Fuckin’ melted. And the pro-nuke people can’t deal with it, so they believe the propaganda. They have partially, but not completely melted. As in there are portions that are not yet melted. I can’t do anything about what has happened in Japan except to donate. But I can continue haranguing here to make sure that we never have another nuclear reactor in the US. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/486 "2011-03-17T01:14:25Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I can’t do anything about what has happened in Japan except to donate. But I can continue haranguing here to make sure that we never have another nuclear reactor in the US. Why would you think the policy makers and planners who dictate this stuff are reading this board? Or, if they were, would care about anything you have to say at all? You flatter yourself. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/487 "2011-03-17T01:36:39Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Why would you think the policy makers and planners who dictate this stuff are reading this board? Or, if they were, would care about anything you have to say at all? You flatter yourself. There is nothing you can say to the government pro nukers or those who build them. They know what could happen. They just don’'t care. They just want to make money off building them in somebody else’s backyard. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/488 "2011-03-17T01:49:31Z")
4 minutes ago > [@](#): > > Military helicopters are dumping water on a pool storing spent fuel at the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station in a bid to cool uranium and plutonium fuel rods that two nuclear regulators overseas said were exposed and could be spewing radiation. > > Water may also be sprayed from a water cannon used by the National Police to control rioters, an official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said in Tokyo today. > > All water in the No. 4 reactor’s spent-fuel cooling pools has drained, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told a congressional panel in Washington. Fuel stored in units 4, 5 and 6 at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant are exposed and releasing radiation, Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Vienna before departing for Tokyo. The Dai- Ichi complex has six reactors, three of which have been damaged by explosions following the March 11 earthquake. [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/helicopters-dump-water-on-japan-nuclear-fuel-rods-as-radiation-risks-rise.html](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/helicopters-dump-water-on-japan-nuclear-fuel-rods-as-radiation-risks-rise.html) Why the plutonium is so dangerous [http://www.npr.org/2011/03/16/134600825/plutonium-in-fuel-rods-cause-for-concern?ps=cprs](http://www.npr.org/2011/03/16/134600825/plutonium-in-fuel-rods-cause-for-concern?ps=cprs) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/489 "2011-03-17T01:58:13Z")
I asked before, where’s the waste sea water going? I got an answer to the effect it would be carefully collected and treated, etc. That was when things were still going peachy. How about now? They’re spraying tons of water on these things and it’s “draining.” Where? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/490 "2011-03-17T02:02:56Z")
Obviously you do not know what evaporation is. No not a peachy thing, buy it was almost certain that a lot of the smoke that it was seen was coming from evaporation. IIUC that is one of the big reasons why there was more radiation detected yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/491 "2011-03-17T02:27:31Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Obviously you do not know what evaporation is. I know what draining is. Draining and evaporation are the same thing in Japanese? ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/492 "2011-03-17T02:28:03Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > While all spent fuel rods contain plutonium, (and it not only burns but melts before the uranium), the fall out from burning plutonium is heavy and doesn’t travel far. It does however remain dangerous for over 24,000 years. Much longer than that. The **half-life** of Pu-239 is 24,100 years. A length of time equal to several half-lives needs to elapse before the amount remaining is negligible. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/493 "2011-03-17T02:50:18Z")
I was trying not to alarm anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/494 "2011-03-17T03:13:55Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Who the fuck do you think is responsible in part for almost all the things around you? Poets? History majors? Actually, a lot of those guys end up in construction… ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/495 "2011-03-17T03:34:33Z")
Something I was just thinking about: a lot of this huge argument seems to stem on a disagreement on what point the consequences of “failure” become so great that it’s not worth trying at all. That and whether there are any options besides “nuclear power” or “catastrophic global warming from all the coal we’re burning.” Interesting questions, both. Lucky we have a GD topic on this. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/496 "2011-03-17T03:37:01Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Actually, a lot of those guys end up in construction… Sorry for the OT rant here. Construction. Do you even know what skilled trades do? You are a moron and we love people like you. We build stuff. We create your house. We charge you a hundred bucks an hour when your shitter backs up. We get big bucks when you let that roof leak drip for weeks. (because you are a moron) And on and on and on… Many of us in the trades make two or three times as much as you do with your degree, you condescending asshole. We LOVE people like you. ---
**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 17, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/497 "2011-03-17T03:46:59Z")
The problem isn’t not trying, it’s that attempts are half-assed and cheapied and not thought through. Not just the physical engineering but the psychology of committing to long term safety at a very high level. I’m now watching a National Geographic show on earthquakes in the US. They have put a few new minutes in at the front on the quake last week in Japan. But most of it is a repeat of a program they have been showing for a few years now. They have been expecting a Cascadia quake of 9.0 or 9.1 and a Memphis series of quakes of 8.0 and greater. This is hardly new. The two California nuclear facilities still in operation are within pissing distance of the coast. There is no reason to believe that their construction expectations of 7.5 quakes are safe. This is not the Cascadia fault, but the San Andreas could easily dish out a 8.0. It did so in the Ft. Tejon quake in 1857 and the SF quake on 1906 are estimated at 7.9. Failure due to being half assed and cheap and making more profits that costs the lives of strangers due to cancer is just not acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/498 "2011-03-17T04:44:31Z")
> [@Nadir](#): > > Please spare us the blow-by-blow media hype circus. :rolleyes: > [@Nadir](#): > > You should pay attention to what’s going on at the Fukushima site instead of plying your anti-nuke rant. Awesome. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/499 "2011-03-17T05:10:25Z")
[http://www.alternet.org/world/150268/nuclear\_experts%3A\_japan\_nuclear\_disaster\_unprecedented\_--\_no\_way\_to\_know\_about\_us\_impact/](http://www.alternet.org/world/150268/nuclear_experts%3A_japan_nuclear_disaster_unprecedented_--_no_way_to_know_about_us_impact/) You can see from this picture that the reactors are in tact and it is all hysteria. ---
**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 17, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/500 "2011-03-17T05:49:48Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Undecided as to whether he/she wants to live near one. I live near a couple large wind farms and a couple of natural gas plants. I would consider it a huge hit to my home value to live within 100 miles of a nuclear plant. The Rancho Seco plant, closer to me than 100 miles, was closed down before I moved nearby. [Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Seco_Nuclear_Generating_Station) I live 3 miles away from 3 nuke plants. If they serve no other purpose, they will keep you stooges from moving in near me. ETA: One of them is the same model as the ones in Japan! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=26)