1 comment

• 
  by Stephen Talko - March 31, 2011, 11:40 pm

  I live a mere 5 miles from a hydroelectric plant and this proximity has never been a source of worry. Even if the dam collapsed there would be in the worst case just a little flooding. Ever since my high school days I have been especially leery of nuclear power. Hydroelectricity is over 90% efficient while nuclear electricity production is not much better than 40% with so much waste heat that cooks nearby bodies of water. Even a sophisticated country like Japan forgot to include adequate safeguards. In a crisis situation the reactor should be required to shut down on its own without any intervention. I am always amazed by off the shelf computer equipment which incorporate so many redundant fans, power supplies and hard drives that multiple failures will not result in any loss of data. Nuclear power plants need to go underground so that cataclysmic explosions will not release any radiation. Spent fuel is now a ticking time bomb which keeps increasing in quantity. This waste can be processed by bombarding it with particles that result in atoms that disintegrate quickly into non-radioactive atoms. The Japanese took the easy way out by just stockpiling this nasty waste. It is a shame so many people had to suffer because bureaucrats totally ignored long term solutions.

  Reply Permalink Report