# 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:** 69
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1361 "2011-04-04T19:42:39Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > ETA: I love the fact that FXM links to an all Japanese web page and then thinks this means or proves something. Basically, if HE could read it I would expect him to do a summary or partial translation. > > -XT Ohh I don’t know…I think he is definitely “turning Japanese…turning Japanese…oh yes I think so…” in regards to this wankfest if you know what I mean… ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1362 "2011-04-04T19:55:10Z")
You ain’t a foolin nobody with your ignorance. I post link after link to real events, real happenings, and you try to focus on anything but that. > **[As Fukushima fallout circles the globe, nuclear sleuths sift it for clues](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-fukushima-fallout-circles-the-globe-nuclear-sleuths-sift-it-for-clues/2011/03/30/AFfnQBHC_story.html)** > > Three weeks after the nuclear crisis began in Japan, minute traces of fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have circled the globe. Nuclear sleuths are analyzing the fallout to understand what happened. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1363 "2011-04-04T20:02:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government approved the plan because removing the water from the No.2 reactor is a more urgent matter. [http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/04\_34.html](http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/04_34.html) Approving this sort of contamination of the ocean means things are desperate. Not that this wasn’t already obvious. What’s the plan for dealing with this disaster? “Pumping sea water onto everything for the last three weeks.” No, the plan for dealing with it! “We must keep everything cool” We know that. What’s the plan after that? “We must keep everything cool” Repeat for the next ten years. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1364 "2011-04-04T20:04:43Z")
[QUOTE=FXMastermind] You ain’t a foolin nobody with your ignorance. I post link after link to real events, real happenings, and you try to focus on anything but that. [/QUOTE] What do you suppose this cite proves? That radiation detectors all over the world have noticed the event? Notice when the last time they noticed such an event was (it’s in your cite)? Besides the fact that radiation detectors are incredibly sensitive, what else do you suppose your cite proves? -XT ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1365 "2011-04-04T20:07:29Z")
As for the whining about “protesters stopped the nuclear fuel from being stored” nonsense… well, in reality > [@](#): > > The U.S. Department of Energy was to begin accepting spent fuel at the Yucca Mountain repository by January 31, 1998. However, 12 years after this deadline, the repository at Yucca Mountain is still over a decade away from being opened, and the opening date continues to be delayed. [http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2009/2009-05-08-092.asp](http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2009/2009-05-08-092.asp) If it was open for business no amount of protesting would stop them from simply putting the fuel there. Try making something else up, see how it goes over. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1366 "2011-04-04T20:26:11Z")
It’s funny how they were 12 years over that deadline…it’s almost like, I don’t know, something kept delaying them…and delaying them…and delaying them…until something (the gods know what) managed to kill the whole project! I wonder what that ‘something’ could have been? 😕!! It’s a puzzlement, no doubt… -XT ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1367 "2011-04-04T20:28:45Z")
It was about money. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1368 "2011-04-04T20:29:45Z")
Hard as it may be to believe, it actually cost a lot of money to build 40 miles of secure tunnels under a mountain. Especially when it’s a government contract. You probably don’t even know how much money they already spent, do you? ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1369 "2011-04-04T20:34:23Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Hard as it may be to believe, it actually cost a lot of money to build 40 miles of secure tunnels under a mountain. > > Especially when it’s a government contract. You probably don’t even know how much money they already spent, do you? Is not knowing a piece of trivia worse than you not knowing a damn thing at all about the subject? ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1370 "2011-04-04T20:34:36Z")
Of course you don’t. You probably really believe a bunch of hippies waving signs stopped the whole show. > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON – The projected costs to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, ship used radioactive fuel to Nevada from around the country and operate the site for 100 years have grown to more than $90 billion, an energy department official said Tuesday. > Ward Sproat, director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Management, said the department will detail its new cost estimate in a report to be released in the next several weeks. > The department’s previous “total system life cycle” cost estimate for the repository was $57.6 billion, set in 2001. Since that time, the project schedule repeatedly has been pushed back and some of its key elements are being redesigned. Reality is, it actually cost a shit ton of money to store and guard nuclear material for the next thousand years. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1371 "2011-04-04T20:35:22Z")
I know EXACTLY how much money was spent on Yucca Mt, guru. I actually have friends, co-workers and even family members who were involved in different aspects of the construction and I’ve, personally, been there. You? Oh, what am I asking…you were probably personally involved in the design plus highly involved in the upper level discussions about it on your other mystery board of ‘experts’! :smack: -XT ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1372 "2011-04-04T20:51:03Z")
Instead of bragging about your experience, why not educate us with some facts? Not that we believe you about having been there, but still, you could take the same amount of time you spent bragging and post some figures. It’s not even that hard to do. Give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1373 "2011-04-04T20:53:09Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Instead of bragging about your experience, why not educate us with some facts? Not that we believe you about having been there, but still, you could take the same amount of time you spent bragging and post some figures. > > It’s not even that hard to do. Give it a try. Irony! ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1374 "2011-04-04T20:54:18Z")
I was going for satire! ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1375 "2011-04-04T20:55:39Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > It’s funny how they were 12 years over that deadline…it’s almost like, I don’t know, something kept delaying them…and delaying them…and delaying them…until something (the gods know what) managed to kill the whole project! I wonder what that ‘something’ could have been? 😕!! It’s a puzzlement, no doubt… > > -XT But, you said you knew all about it. Did they leave you out of the budget meetings? Didn’t you get the memo about the cost over runs? The serious problems that caused the redesigns? Are you sure you really know about this? ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1376 "2011-04-04T20:59:48Z")
> [@](#): > > But this isn’t just a theory, it is happening. In Spain today, 35% of the energy mix comes from renewables, 16% of it from wind. Portugal shifted its electrical grid from 15% to 45% renewables in the space of just 5 years. And, **Germany’s installed solar energy capacity is greater than all six of the Fukushima reactors combined**. > **[Is nuclear energy worth the risk?](https://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/04/nuclear.debate/index.html)** > > The more things change, the more they stay the same... ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1377 "2011-04-04T21:00:37Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I think even \*\*Xtisme \*\*is coming around to the idea there’s been meltdowns. I think. **Xtisme**? Do you realize Three Mile Island had a core meltdown (happened in the first few hours of the disaster)? Half the core was melted. They did not realize it till years later when they were able to open the reactor and have a look. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1378 "2011-04-04T21:00:57Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Hard as it may be to believe, it actually cost a lot of money to build 40 miles of secure tunnels under a mountain. What is this “secure” shit? Is each tiny segment protected by an individual Klingon security officer or sumptin? ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1379 "2011-04-04T21:01:38Z")
About TMI Yeah, but that is because they were able to contain most of the radioactivity. In Japan you have 6 reactors, all of which have had various levels of melt downs and fuel fires. And a lot of it is not contained. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389/1380 "2011-04-04T21:03:21Z")
oops. To expand, we know about what has happened in the cores and fuel ponds because of the release of radioactive materials. Analysis of that shows what has happened. We don’t have to wait a decade to find out. Looking at the isotopes also tells how long it has been since nuclear activity took place. You don’t get isotopes with a 40 minute half life, four weeks after the nuclear reactions stopped. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=68) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-meltdown-holy-godzilla-noooo/574389.md?page=70)