# Still support nuke power plants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 14, 2011, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647 "2011-03-14T11:56:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 40
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/781 "2011-03-22T02:15:39Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Almost 20 years ago I was in the BWR at Ringhals, Sweden. (They also had 3 PWRs) Not sure if this was a Mark I, but it certainly looked like the pictures coming out of Japan. The reactor is in the taller squarish building, and fuel pond is in the shorter, longer fueling hall next to it. The spent fuel pond was in the end of the fueling hall toward the reactor, with pretty much noting but clearance for a gantry crane above that. I don’t really recall what is in the end of the hall farther from the reactor, but I seem to recall that it was an open dry handling area where fresh fuel was brought in, and spent fuel left (after cooling Interesting info. Do you remember if there were any doors or gates to the outside from the reactor hall or fueling hall? Because I’m wondering just how much of this grief could have been avoided if someone had ventilated those upper halls to prevent hydrogen build-up, either before venting operations or after the reactor #1 building blew. Of course, ventilating from inside might not have been possible after reactor steam had been vented into those halls - they could have been too radioactive - but I do wonder. ---
**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 22, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/782 "2011-03-22T02:20:34Z")
Unless I post a link to a website, I just saw it on TV, usually CNN (turns head and spits) That being said, they are reporting thick smoke from reactor three, and they had to abandon the entire plant today. No more info is available. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/783 "2011-03-22T02:20:36Z")
I’ve given up on **FXMastermind**. I suspect many of his cites would be “the little voices in my head”… Every time you counter his statements he just gets wilder. ---
**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 22, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/784 "2011-03-22T02:22:05Z")
The handing out of iodine pills, and taking a Carrier out of dock where it was undergoing servicing and repairs, that is a very disturbing move. They are almost 200 miles from the plant. Way to show the people of Tokyo how not to panic. ---
**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 22, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/785 "2011-03-22T02:23:14Z")
Didn’t I post links to CNN and live Japan TV? So even people with out TV can keep up? If you want to run your mouth on this, but can’t be bothered to watch the news feeds, what does that say about you? Seriously ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/786 "2011-03-22T02:30:17Z")
oops… I thought this was the Pit thread. Sorry. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/787 "2011-03-22T02:31:56Z")
… ---
**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 22, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/788 "2011-03-22T02:35:15Z")
Japan TV in English [http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv](http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv) CNN > **[Video News - CNN](https://www.cnn.com/videos)** > > Watch breaking news videos, viral videos and original video clips on CNN.com. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/789 "2011-03-22T02:45:09Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > How is a week of back up enough when you have to keep the pumps running forever? You can get a cool down on a reactor, but that doesn’t mean you can stop the pumps. a week of battery power is enough to move a generator into place. The problem is that once it got out of hand they couldn’t do the most basic of tasks without overexposure. You can’t work on something if you’re not there. A week of cooling would have helped immensely. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/790 "2011-03-22T02:46:33Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > That is not only wrong, but ignorant. Please read up and return chagrined properly. How is it wrong? Name one state without a PUCO where power companies are free to do what they want. You are completely out to lunch on 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:** [March 22, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/791 "2011-03-22T02:51:43Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > a week of battery power is enough to move a generator into place. The problem is that once it got out of hand they couldn’t do the most basic of tasks without overexposure. You can’t work on something if you’re not there. A week of cooling would have helped immensely. You assume your ordinary disaster scenario, like where just part of the country is damaged in the extreme. And you can still fly in from other areas. You add extreme volcanic activity to the disaster, so you can’t fly, and some biological problem, some disease or pathogen type disaster, where help won’t be coming in a week, and you have 20 or 30 damaged reactors, (say, a really big series of multiple quakes), you get to a point where you are on your own. A bunch of nuclear reactors in such a worst case disaster, turns the disaster into a worldwide disaster, with no way to end it at that point. We still are not at the point if we can end this one disaster. One explosion right now, or containment breach, and the whole thing can go up in flames. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/792 "2011-03-22T02:54:22Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Stockholders are not engineers and don’t sign off plant designs. The backup to the plants were generators built at lower levels. That’s it. There was no plan C except to watch the buildings explode. This isn’t a design flaw, it’s a lack of redundancy. There is no arm chair quarterbacking involved. Lack of redundancy is a design flaw. It is a big one . What else could it be? ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/793 "2011-03-22T02:59:21Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Unless I post a link to a website, I just saw it on TV, usually CNN (turns head and spits) > > That being said, they are reporting thick smoke from reactor three, and they had to abandon the entire plant today. No more info is available. Nothing about that yet on NHK, which I have on a lot of the time. CNN online is talking about Libya at the moment. Are you sure you’re not referring to the smoke seen yesterday evening, where there was no corresponding radiation spike? ---
**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 22, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/794 "2011-03-22T03:00:48Z")
No, it just was reported, in between the Libya crap. It’s on their live cnn site, under video ---
**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 22, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/795 "2011-03-22T03:02:30Z")
https://www.ustream.tv/embed/7497266 Just said smoke is still coming out. No live video of the plant still. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/796 "2011-03-22T03:03:26Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Lack of redundancy is a design flaw. It is a big one . > What else could it be? It’s a design flaw. Do you think every car on the road is equal? The GE design is better that Chernobyl but worse than others. I’d rather have a coal plant next to me but nuclear is fine. One of the first nuclear plants was 20 miles from my home. It’s been put to bed as have a half dozen of other small coal plants. We’re going to need something to replace our aging power plants. I’d probably be using electricity from a nuclear power plant now but they buggered up the construction job so bad they just built a coal plant instead. I certainly don’t want another mess like that. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/797 "2011-03-22T03:05:08Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > [http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv](http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv) > > Just said smoke is still coming out. No live video of the plant still. The video started 3 days ago. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/798 "2011-03-22T03:05:09Z")
Just catching it on NHK now. Happened yesterday evening, buildings #2 and #3 still smoking but the radiation level is not increasing. Work has recommenced. There was a brief radiation spike associated with a “grey smoke” release from reactor 3 that led to an evacuation from that area, but not the whole site. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/799 "2011-03-22T03:06:43Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > No, it just was reported, in between the Libya crap. It’s on their live cnn site, under video That’s from the 21st. Yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647/800 "2011-03-22T03:32:09Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > You assume your ordinary disaster scenario, like where just part of the country is damaged in the extreme. And you can still fly in from other areas. You add extreme volcanic activity to the disaster, so you can’t fly, and some biological problem, some disease or pathogen type disaster, where help won’t be coming in a week, and you have 20 or 30 damaged reactors, (say, a really big series of multiple quakes), you get to a point where you are on your own. Well, what’s going to happen now is older plants are going to get too much flack, so we’ll be phasing them out. Middle aged plants are going to have to wage a PR war to stay alive. We’re already hearing them brag about their plants. We’re still probably going to have to build some new plants. Especially in the densely populated eastern half of the US. I live in the western half, and the US’s prevailing winds are mostly towards the east, so no worries here. The Yellowstone supervolcano will take out the west. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647.md?page=39) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-support-nuke-power-plants/574647.md?page=41)