Japan's Nuclear Now
Okay, I want to make it clear right off the bat that I did not write what is quoted below. That would be my best friend of some twenty years(God, I feel old).
"MSNBC is on its anti-nuclear kick (which, as an environmentalist, really bugs me - if you're going to take a real stand against air pollution and climate change, then nuclear power is the only viable alternative to coal/gas power plants at this point. If you're against both coal plants and nuclear plants, then you're just making noise) and they made this comment about the situation:
"The really terrifying thing about a nuclear accident is that nobody knows what the worst case scenario is, nobody can say just how bad it might possibly get."
What?!? Um, see, the thing about nuclear science is that it is an "exact science". Yes, we can say exactly how bad it might possibly get. We know how many fuel rods there are, what they're made of, what they decay into and what kind of radiation each step down the elemental ladder releases. So yes, we can say how bad it can possibly get. That's easy. Take all the fuel rods. Remove the whole power plant, its containment shells and cooling mechanisms. Now drop the fuel rods on the ground. There you go. That's the worst case scenario.
I'm not making light of the situation, because it is and has the potential to be catastrophic, but "nobody knows the worst case scenario" is mind-bogglingly ignorant fear-mongering. It's like these people who keep worrying about radiation in the United States over this. People, it is very literally on the other side of the planet. Are they not aware that we had dozens of nuclear bombs exploding in the midwest, just a few states over? It's almost an insult to the people in Japan struggling with all this to worry about the few extra rems we might get."
"MSNBC is on its anti-nuclear kick (which, as an environmentalist, really bugs me - if you're going to take a real stand against air pollution and climate change, then nuclear power is the only viable alternative to coal/gas power plants at this point. If you're against both coal plants and nuclear plants, then you're just making noise) and they made this comment about the situation:
"The really terrifying thing about a nuclear accident is that nobody knows what the worst case scenario is, nobody can say just how bad it might possibly get."
What?!? Um, see, the thing about nuclear science is that it is an "exact science". Yes, we can say exactly how bad it might possibly get. We know how many fuel rods there are, what they're made of, what they decay into and what kind of radiation each step down the elemental ladder releases. So yes, we can say how bad it can possibly get. That's easy. Take all the fuel rods. Remove the whole power plant, its containment shells and cooling mechanisms. Now drop the fuel rods on the ground. There you go. That's the worst case scenario.
I'm not making light of the situation, because it is and has the potential to be catastrophic, but "nobody knows the worst case scenario" is mind-bogglingly ignorant fear-mongering. It's like these people who keep worrying about radiation in the United States over this. People, it is very literally on the other side of the planet. Are they not aware that we had dozens of nuclear bombs exploding in the midwest, just a few states over? It's almost an insult to the people in Japan struggling with all this to worry about the few extra rems we might get."
posted by FirstOfTheFallen at 10:12 AM
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