Capitol Hill Blue Forums Science and Technology Health, Medicine & the healing Sciences Fukushima - The Elephant in the Room

Nuclear energy's consequences last a long long time.

Climate change lasts a long time.

Chewy chewy Tootsy Rolls last a long time.

but to the best of my knowledge tootsie rolls don't remain radioactive for thousands of years, cause genetic mutations, kill people, create dead zones, don't have to be carted away and buried in some remote area where they still remain radioactive for thousands and thousands of years, and potentially can eliminate mankind. BUT, there are exceptions:

I think Twinkies are the other exception.

Most Americans... even those living close, don't know about this.
Crystal River Nuclear

It's just another ho humm....

As is Vermont Yankee

Being a local boy I knew some of the rednecks who worked on the Crystal River Plant. Mostly fishermen who did concrete as a sideline. These were guys who poured driveways and sidewalks, slabs and foundations. They netted mullet and trapped crabs. Some were shrimpers. They knew two things about concrete that the highfalootin companies who hired them might not have known:
1. It's gray.
2. It cracks.

Spent fuel storage might actually be the greater problem that Progress Energy faces.

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There is no might about it.

It is the great question that faces all future civilization.

There are many more pressing problems facing the US and global economies than spent nuclear fuel but I will grant that it is a very big problem. And one that seems to be ignored by most. The spent fuel pool is the biggest problem in the Fukushima fiasco and the section of the plant that has caused the most concern.

I seems to me- now that Yucca Mountain has been deemed off limits as a spent fuel repository for US reactors- the public thinks all is well. No Yucca Mountain--everything is peachy. Just let the spent rods sit in pools beside reactors forever. Wonderful solution. Only it is way worse than having Yucca used for spent fuel storage. I have posted on this several times. Yucca Mountain as a spent fuel repository was not a scientific problem, it was and is a political problem. Harry Reid should be ashamed of himself but he’s not. He is, after all, a politician.

But as in almost all things political, logic doesn’t go very far. It’s mostly emotion, hysteria, half truths, finger pointing, shouting past the opposition, and scoring points for your side only. There is little will from any side to compromise and attempt a workable solution that benefits (and is best) for the most. It’s winner take all and we are losing fast.