Nuclear Power Concerns

No human endeavours get made perfectly. Proper engineering can minimize risks but never really eliminate them. Man made disasters happen through combination of human error, faulty equipment, and poor planning.

Disasters caused by forces of nature happen seemingly at random and engineers can plan for them but never actually divine all the details nor the upper limits of destructive forces.

Disasters with nuclear plants have the capability of rendering large swathes of our planet uninhabitable and inflect wind borne radiation upon the whole globe with resulting loss of human life, with children at greater risk.

Do we as a human race really need an iPhone upgrade every year?

[The recent events in Japan remind us that while the likelihood of a nuclear power plant accident is low, its potential consequences are grave. And an accident like Fukushima could happen here. An equipment malfunction, fire, human error, natural disaster or terrorist attack could—separately or in combination—lead to a nuclear crisis.

The U.S. will continue to obtain a significant portion of its electricity from nuclear power for many years to come, regardless of how rapidly energy efficiency measures and other sources of electricity are deployed.

Given this reality, the United States must take concrete steps now to address serious shortcomings in nuclear plant safety and security that have been evident for years. No technology can be made perfectly safe, but the United States can and must do more to guard against accidents as well as the threat of terrorist attacks on reactors and spent fuel pools.

The report outlines and explains 23 specific recommendations, listed below:....

Require reactor owners to develop and test emergency procedures for situations when no AC or DC power is available for an extended period.]

This first area of critical concern clearly concerns me, with an address with 2 nuclear power plants within about 120 miles, one right on the Gulf of Mexico and other smack dab on the Atlantic.

Hurricanes can bring down power grids for weeks.
http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/nuclear_power_risk/safety/ucs-nuclear-safety-recommendations.html

Department of Call Me Unsurprised, Part 2: Fukushima released twice as much radiationas thought

Of course, US corporate media cannot report an earthquake damaged the plant, causing it to spew radiation before the tsunami hit.  The CA Diablo Canyon sits on a fault line.

Even the World health Organization minimizes the risk from radiation released in a nuclear accidents, using 3 pages of a report to write all humans receive some ionizing radiation from various natural sources but that exposure probably doesn't kill people.

Then on page 4 we find "long term effects from radiation exposure," such minor things like elevated numbers of humans with thyroid cancer, especially children.

Sheesh, I feel better already.

[The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have released twice as much radiation into the atmosphere as previously estimated, according to a study that contradicts official explanations of the accident.

In a report published online by the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, experts from Europe and the US estimated that the quantity of the radioactive isotope caesium-137 released at the height of the crisis was equivalent to 42% of that from Chernobyl.

Significantly, the report says the plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo, may have started releasing radiation between being hit by a magnitude-9 earthquake on 11 March and the arrival of a tsunami about 45 minutes later.

"This early onset of emissions is interesting and may indicate some structural damage to the reactor units during the earthquake," the report said.

The operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power, and the Japanese government maintain that the facility withstood the quake but was damaged by waves that breached its protective seawall.] emphasis added
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/28/fukushima-released-double-radioactive-material