Amusing and Informative, Your Lil' Sister Loves to Get the 'Scoop' on the Mainstream Media and To Present a Variety of Obscure, Under-Reported and Decidedly-More Newsworthy Items From Around The Globe; You'll Also Be Privy To Pieces of My Own Personal Paranormal Phenomena; and Frequently Hear of Things Your Parents, Clergy, Society and Uncle Sam didn't bother to tell you. But, I will...
In Other Words:
The Way This Grrrl Sees It!
Showing posts with label nuclear accidents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear accidents. Show all posts
Fort Calhoun had been using 8ft., inflatable "aqua-dams" in an attempt to prevent the rising floodwater from the Missouri River from repeating a series of events similar to those which recently led to Japan's significant and ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima (the tsunami knocked out the power; stopping the flow of massive amounts of water necessary to keep everything cool; leading to cores/rods overheating; leading to nuclear melt-downs/throughs.).
At Fort Calhoun on Sunday, crews working near the aqua-dams "brushed against one" and punctured it, which caused the one dam to collapse. The collapse of the dam allowed floodwater to reach Fort Calhoun's turbines & transformers (keeps water flowing/cools everything).
Official Statement: "Everything's fine. The aqua-dams weren't key to safety, they were an extra."
Oh, really?
If that's True...
Then how is that - with the collapse of that one aqua-dam - 2ft of the Missouri River managed to get through the cement barrier placed around the transformers? The very cement barrier that's not "extra" and is in place specifically to keep floodwater away from the plant's transformers? This breach then forced Fort Calhoun to disconnect from the power grid... which meant they had to switch to diesel-powered generators (Is this sounding familiar, yet?)?
Fukushima lost power. Then lost their generators. During the disaster, plant officials behaved very much like British Petroleum officials after the oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to one of the worst (if not the worst) oil spills on record: The officials played down how serious the events were and what had resulted; they intentionally provided false figures/information about what was happening to those who were trying to help; they lied, repeatedly; they denied, repeatedly; they turned down/away help.
The end result in Fukushima: 3 Nuclear Melt-downs (and, possibly, Melt-throughs).
The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant is now Two Feet below the current level of the Missouri River.
And, the consistent statement made by Fort Calhoun officials: "Don't worry everything's fine."
Yeah, right. (Initially, Fukushima officials had said pretty much the same thing.)
Japan is one nation I'd never have expected to go with the perpetually-poisonous (toxic waste w/half-lives) and potentially disastrous-beyond-belief route of energy production that is nuclear power.
Boy, was I wrong.
Despite it's geographical location, which is smack in the midst of " The Ring of Fire" and despite being struck, frequently, by sizable Earthquakes which are often followed by Tsunami - the archipelago that is Japan (formed by one tectonic plate moving under another in a process called subduction) has 50 (that's five-0) nuclear power plants.
Fifty nuclear power plants scattered across beautiful islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Hmmm... How is it that, apparently, no national and/or international chorus of scientists. statisticians, people who understand how priceless and fragile ecosystems are... or even just those fortunate ones who possess Common Sense rose up to Protest, declaring for those blinded by greed(?) "This is a Stupid Idea!"? {rhetorical question}
Sigh. Well, as was - without exception - bound to happen at some point - Yesterday. Friday, Japan was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake.
Japan has declared an atomic power emergency. At one of the 50 plants, Daiichi, residents within a 6-mile radius of the plant have been ordered to evacuate. The neighboring Daini plant is also reporting offline reactors. Members of the world's scientific community are voicing concern that Japanese officials are being less than forthcoming with timely and accurate information.
Initially, Daiichi had reported falling back on back-up power sources to provide the energy required to continue pumping the huge amounts of water through the reactors which is necessary in order to keep the nuclear cores cool. About an hour later - after the tsunami had struck - they had lost that back-up power source.
The worst-case scenario? A very real possibility: nuclear meltdown.
The last news report I heard said that at least 10 of Japan's reactors were off-line due to the quake and subsequent tsunami.
I sincerely hope that those rocket scientists who promoted the idea that Japan was the perfect location for nuclear power plants also made a point to build some state-of-the-art concrete plants close-by...
Well, not too close-by...
Last night, TRMS offered a clear, concise and to-the-point segment on the ongoing and worrisome situation in Japan with a physicist from The Union Of Concerned Scientists.
Check it out:
