http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/03/15/the-fukushima-fifty Comments On: The Fukushima Fifty by Jonathan Golob en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:45:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
I'm not sure if you're just too dense to catch the sarcasm in posts 20 & 21, but if you missed the news: THE SITUATION IS ROYALLY FUCKED. And Tepco appears to have their thumbs up their asses worried more about PR than ACTUALLY DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS SITUATION.

They need to be FLOODING this site with EVERY GODDAMN WATER PUMP AND GENERATOR AND FUEL SOURCE they can find in the country. NOW.

And they need to be preparing massive loads of concrete, sand, and boron to dump on top of exposed core if they have to. They need to be preparing to build massive concrete structures to contain what's left of these reactors if possible.

At the moment they making a couple of trips with a helicopter to dump a few tons of water onto pools that are apparently empty, which should be holding 2,000 tons of water.

So what the FUCK are you talking about? "Fixes"? FIXES TO WHAT?!?
Posted by Captain Wiggette]]> Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:09:11 -0700 The Stranger If you had been carefully following the events at these reactors you would have understood my brief comment. At the time it was being reported that ALL the workers had been withdrawn from the site, and frankly, that was unbelievable.

No magic about this, but it does require incredible individual sacrifice, and it appears the Japanese have beefed up the crews on site beyond the 50 or so individuals that Golob reported. That would suggest they are responding to the urgency of the situation, however there are unanswered questions about events that have taken place at these sites. Investigation and review beyond TOPCO efforts is likely overdue and is just now being voiced. Different sets of eyes sometimes have a different perspective on problems and their solutions.

I believe every effort must be made to cool and contain the unshielded, spent fuel rods and the reactors. This is a problem and a solution (temporary or premanant) to a problem is often referred to as a "fix" in the venacular. One does suspect you have never turned a wrench.

Hopefully this spells it out for you in a manner you can comprehend. You might may disagree with me to the urgency of the problem, however the idea of cesium 137 being spread by burning, spent fuel rods into a dense, Japanese landscape is
not an acceptable outcome.

As I asked in @16 above, what's your solution? Why don't you clarify for us what you think is an acceptable cost to human life and environmental destruction.

Posted by Fairhaven]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:05:22 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Captain Wiggette]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:35:50 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Toe Tag]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:49:04 -0700 The Stranger Posted by prompt]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:58:37 -0700 The Stranger Posted by svensken]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:27:00 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Blech]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:12:07 -0700 The Stranger
go here for actual news http://live.reuters.com/Event/Japan_eart…
Posted by my name is not here]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:14:35 -0700 The Stranger
Just where would that mountain be? And would the people in the thousands of miles of civilization you'd have to cross to get the stuff to that mountain be wildly enthusiastic about that little nuclear disaster train moving through their areas?
Posted by sarah68]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:22:44 -0700 The Stranger
Or is all the technology just for getting funky, being creepy and, ummm, other stuff.

(Donate to recovery at Seattle Japan Relief!)
Posted by Mr. Happy Sunshine]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:19:19 -0700 The Stranger Posted by ian]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:56:59 -0700 The Stranger Posted by svensken]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 05:04:49 -0700 The Stranger
They haven't come up with a new design because we as a community havent pressured them. It's the horrible truth of our modern politicians and scientists that we must push them into better ideas and safer realities.

There was an experimental technology I heard of years ago in France that would reproduce the suns plasma reaction through deuterium. Deuterium is a low radiation and high energy output way of making a tiny sun on earth for all of our needs that uses the deuterium found in seawater, while supplying an immediate shut off when needed. But like every other experimental project, I haven't heard the slightest peep from them in years.

I'm part of the party that believes nuclear is fine, but only when we've discovered a way of directly drawing energy from the radiation decay instead of this archaic steam production which only gives us a small percentage of the energy these wonderful nuclear materials (a limited resource) produce. Supposedly a new form of panel has been theorized that could absorb the nutron decay like solar panels, instead of us using 100 year old technology which relies on the limits of water.

But enough of my babbles and drunken misspellings, I hope to god that your right and this doesn't become anything like another Chernobyl.
Posted by svensken]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:11:30 -0700 The Stranger Posted by biju]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:24:05 -0700 The Stranger I'd be all for solar and wind if it could actually produce enough power to run this country. I really would. But last I heard, we'd need a solar farm the size of Arizona to power LA. We haven't built a plant in 30 years and it still accounts for 20% of our power (I'm not positive on the numbers, but it's something like that.) It's 70% of our noncarbon producing power.

Imagine how much better it'd be if they didn't have to store waste onsite because they devoted some mountain in a desert miles from civilization to house it, or if there were more modern plant designs. There is a design that I heard about years ago that was in development that couldn't melt down, using something similar to a gumball machine system.
Posted by prompt]]> Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:19:31 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Sargon Bighorn]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:34:22 -0700 The Stranger
It's not unusual for the military, police or firefighters to sacrifice themselves. All of those jobs cannot be avoided in our society, but nuclear power can through hydro electric, solar and wind power or newer forms of plasma technology. All of the previous have very minimal effects on the environment and human lives, while nuclear fuel is stuck with us for thousands of years and directly effects innocents lives.
Posted by svensken]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:32:15 -0700 The Stranger Posted by sirkowski]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:00:01 -0700 The Stranger

Posted by Fairhaven]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:45:44 -0700 The Stranger totally reasonable right now.

Are these, like, unicorns that are going to be "inserted" in there? And where are you inserting these unicorns?

What the fuck are you talking about?
Posted by Captain Wiggette]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:26:05 -0700 The Stranger fantastic idea.
Posted by Captain Wiggette]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:21:28 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Spindles]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:21:24 -0700 The Stranger Posted by WFM]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:11:54 -0700 The Stranger I would be considering exploding a tactical nuclear weapon on Fukushima (after evacuating just about everyone) to preemptively vaporize the whole mess. About 10 kilotons would do the trick.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:10:15 -0700 The Stranger What's your solution to this problem? Perhaps you should clarify for us what you think is an acceptable cost to human life and environmental degradation.

Posted by Fairhaven]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:03:48 -0700 The Stranger