Deadly Bargain: Impact of 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami on Japan's Nuclear Reactors – Protect Yourself from Radiation Now!

Almost 40 years ago, in the heyday of the expansion of nuclear power, one of its pioneers warned the world that it had made "a Faustian bargain" with the atom. People like himself, he said in 1972, were providing a "magical energy source" that was "almost non-polluting when properly handled". But it came at a price: "a vigilance … to which we are quite unaccustomed".

Today at Fukushima – as at Chernobyl, 25 years ago last month, and at Three Mile Island seven years earlier – the world is being forced to weigh up that bargain. Is the supply of a well-developed, low-carbon source of energy worth the price of the cataclysm that can follow a human lapse in vigilance or an act of God? Does the role it could play in helping avert the almost certain slow catastrophe of climate change justify the risk of a calamitous accident? Japan earthquake; Nuclear power under fire Also see Nuclear Meltdown

When Impossible is just an Opinion

by Lanny Sinkin on

Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 7:23pm

Having just been through the tsunami,

the Hawaiian community is now preparing for

the radioactive cloud from Japan.

These events prompted the following thoughts.

Sometimes impossible is just an opinion.

Prior to the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had determined that such an accident was impossible.

The sequence of events at the reactors in Japan are similarly proving that just saying something is impossible does not make it so.

An 8.9 earthquake hits a reactor designed for a 7.3 maximum earthquake. (Saleena: Japan is calling it a 9.0 now)

The earthquake takes out the first line of defense — the power supply from the grid that keeps the core cooling process going during a scram or emergency shut down.

Then came the tsunami into the nuclear reactor neighborhood. The water in the tsunami took out the second line of defense — the diesel generators supposed to provide back up in case grid power is unavailable.

The cooling systems ended up relying on the third and last line of defense — batteries at the reactor capable of operating the cooling system for a few hours.

To prevent a meltdown, the reactor operators are injecting sea water and boron directly into the cooling system, even though such an action will render the reactor useless in the future.

Even with this extraordinary effort, apparently two reactors have already experienced partial meltdowns, with one core uncovered to a depth of eight feet because apparently a leak is draining the cooling liquids.

Two reactors have experienced hydrogen explosions. Apparently, the second reactor explosion triggered new earthquakes and a new tsunami impacting Japan.

One can easily imagine how nuclear reactor manufacturers and nuclear utilities would have responded, if presented with this scenario a week ago. The most often repeated word would have been “impossible.”

What we have are two sins,

one classic and one historical.

Hubris or arrogance is believing that

Human engineering can build an

extraordinarily dangerous machine

which will not be subject to failure

from mechanical failure, human error,

or act of Nature.

Beyond hubris is putting such a machine

in the middle of an urban area.

The historical sin is building a

highly dangerous machine

to deliver cheaper electricity

to those alive during the

life of the machine and leaving

highly dangerous radioactive waste behind

for every generation coming afterwards.

This decision was a direct reversal of the indigenous people’s standard of judging actions based on their impact on the seventh following generation.

Those who tried to raise awareness of this intergenerational crime were deemed emotional. Those who spoke out for a modicum of humility and common sense were dismissed as anti-technology.

Now people in Hawai’i are discussing the

best way to protect their

thyroids from radioactive iodine

by taking iodine before a

radioactive cloud can arrive.

Yogurt, kelp, strawberries, eggs,

cows milk, mozzarella cheese.

Ongoing research.

Prayers are in order to call for the

reactors to be brought under control

before they turn into radioactive volcanoes.

Lanny Sinkin Facebook

Message from Naomi today:

"We need to remember that this

'Nuclear" disaster is happening so we

CEASE and DESIST from

using nuclear energy completely.

Every where…..

EVERY WHERE.

That is the basic lesson of this experience."