• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

He really is that stupid.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Fukushima Makes Baby Bunnies Cry

Fukushima Makes Baby Bunnies Cry

by $8 blue check mistermix|  March 31, 20119:41 am| 38 Comments

This post is in: Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue

FacebookTweetEmail

This image accompanies Ashai Shinbum’s Fukushima coverage today, which reports that radioactive iodine in the discharge to the sea continues to grow. There have also been high levels of radiation discovered outside of the evacuation zone (up to 40 km north). The levels there are twice the level that triggered evacuations around Chernobyl, yet no evacuation has occurred.

Some good/bad news from WNN about radioactive water in trenches around the plants is that the bulk of the water in those open trenches probably came from the tsunami, not just from plant leakage.

If you want to know what the US can do now to avoid this kind of accident at its plants, Dave Lochbaum’s testimony to Congress [pdf] is a relatively short and very readable list of things that need to be done to deal with plant blackout and spent fuel.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Prom Night In The Cosmos/My High School Wasn’t Like This
Next Post: More of This, Please »

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    Damned at Random

    March 31, 2011 at 9:51 am

    It seems wasteful to me that “spent” rods are still producing enough energy to burn without being submerged in circulating water. If we are going to use this dangerous power source, why are we not wringing every BTU possible from the “spent” fuel?

  2. 2.

    Tom Levenson

    March 31, 2011 at 9:59 am

    I am pro-nuclear, in the sense that a well run and very well regulated nuclear industry seems to me essential to bridge the gap between peak oil and a sustainable renewable-energy economy.

    I’m anti nuclear in that there is no evidence that industry can run itself well, nor that regulators can avoid poorly-run industry capture.

    Sincerely Yours, shivering in the dark.

  3. 3.

    Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy

    March 31, 2011 at 10:07 am

    Damned at Random: Energy density.

  4. 4.

    mistermix

    March 31, 2011 at 10:09 am

    @Damned at Random: The amount of waste heat in a nuclear plant is astonishing – IIRC, only 1/3 of the energy emitted by the core is actually used.

  5. 5.

    Jude

    March 31, 2011 at 10:13 am

    @mistermix: There’s a lot of “waste heat” in every power source, not just nuclear.

    [Insert long comment about Carnot efficiency and Rankine cycles here.]

  6. 6.

    cleek

    March 31, 2011 at 10:15 am

    @mistermix:
    roughly the same thing is true with coal or oil plants: 33% thermal efficiency is average.

  7. 7.

    fasteddie9318

    March 31, 2011 at 10:15 am

    Has anybody been reading Brave New Climate? With my (seriously low) level of knowledge about nuclear power, I can’t figure out if it’s the lone outlet of reason amid a bunch of ignorance and fearmongering or if it’s putting a happy face in what’s going on because it has an agenda to push.

  8. 8.

    PeakVT

    March 31, 2011 at 10:22 am

    I wrote a letter to the Vermont Legislature (which I can’t print and send because my printer just broke) on Vermont Yankee and the Fukushima crisis.

  9. 9.

    mistermix

    March 31, 2011 at 10:26 am

    @Jude:
    @cleek: Thanks for the info.

  10. 10.

    Cermet

    March 31, 2011 at 10:29 am

    @mistermix: True but that has to only do with the laws of thermodyamnics – not engineering. The waste heat on a huge reactor core is much less than most other power production devices – that is why they are built with such high density cores with enriched uranium – it is much more cost effective. Of course, that also means that there is a LOT of heat that must be removed even with the control rods in place. I guess there are big down sides, too. One reason the CANDU reactor is safer – far less latent heat (and less cost effective, however.) Still, looks like a power company could save many tens of billions by building CANDU’s rather than our sub based designs so when an acsident does happen, no core melt down with no coolant flow – also, fewer safety systems required.
    Troll alert – yes, I know the enrichment value and that subs are PWR and plants are BWR and there is no f’ing real differnce so why bother with making noise just to try and post (unless you get paid to post, then please DO post – in this economy, its as good a job as one could hope for!)

  11. 11.

    Punchy

    March 31, 2011 at 10:29 am

    You and your fancy-pants “km” shit. Get your nancy yurrupean units outta here. I want it in fathoms or perches, bitches.

  12. 12.

    daveNYC

    March 31, 2011 at 10:45 am

    @Punchy: Quiet heathen! Everyone knows that the only true units of measurement are cubits and spans.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    March 31, 2011 at 10:48 am

    @Cermet:
    If you know that the Fukushima reactors aren’t actually based on sub designs, either historically or in important engineering details, why do you keep repeating it? It isn’t adding to your argument. It hurts your credibility with people who know something about reactors without being especially convincing to people who don’t. There are enough good, strong arguments about why our existing designs are unsafe that you don’t need to bolster them with stuff about sub reactors that gives nitpickers an excuse to argue with you about details.

  14. 14.

    Face

    March 31, 2011 at 10:49 am

    @Punchy: I expected all you nerds here to clamor for Parsecs.

  15. 15.

    Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy

    March 31, 2011 at 11:02 am

    cermet: Did Just Some Fuckhead die and make you God of Balloon Juice?

  16. 16.

    TJ

    March 31, 2011 at 11:08 am

    @cleek:

    Somewhat higher efficiencies for oil and coal steam plants, since they can get higher water temperatures than nuclear.

    Insert [blah blah Carnot blah blah Rankine blah blah entropy]

  17. 17.

    TJ

    March 31, 2011 at 11:11 am

    @Cermet:

    No, actually the waste heat is less on combined cycle plants.

    Insert [blah blah Carnot blah blah Rankine blah blah blah blah Brayton blah blah entropy]

  18. 18.

    catclub

    March 31, 2011 at 11:26 am

    @Face: Also, barns.
    becquerels are nice, and henry’s, and coulombs.

    els and furlongs have their uses, too.
    I cannot remember the unit used for measuring the Cambridge bridge, but know it ends in an ear.

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    March 31, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @catclub:
    I think you’re thinking of Smoots. Personally, I’m a big fan of stadia and talents. And Thompsons are awesome, though I only think that for professional reasons. The best unit of all, though, is the part per million; everyone loves parts per million.

  20. 20.

    catclub

    March 31, 2011 at 11:40 am

    @Roger Moore: Yes, Smoots!

    I forgot teslas and webers and farads.
    Those E-M guys! Of course, there are also einsteins and fermis. Steradians are more of a dimensionless unit.

  21. 21.

    Robert Sneddon

    March 31, 2011 at 11:44 am

    @cleek: The UK has a small fleet of Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) that get about 40% thermal efficiency. Their design was based on the projected price of uranium going up during their operational period due to scarcity and many more reactors being built worldwide hence the drive for thermal efficiency. In the event uranium remained abundant and cheap and there wasn’t the expected upsurge in reactor building. The AGR design is noticeably more expensive to build than light-water reactors, using carbon dioxide as coolant.

    A friend of mine got invited for a behind-the-scenes trip to the local AGR plant at Torness near Edinburgh and he wrote an article about it:

    http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/rants/nothing-like-this-will-be-buil.html

  22. 22.

    Captain Goto

    March 31, 2011 at 11:49 am

    @Tom Levenson: as a former employee of a Navy nuke contractor, I will add “What you said.”

    In that job, I saw people willing to make their underlings miserable NOT for an extra buck wrung out of the customers (because they didn’t have any), but to insure that things RAN SAFELY. Because Hyman Rickover didn’t want his reputation going down along with some sunken nuke sub.

    After that experience I found it hard to believe that ANY commercial enterprise would EVER take safety that seriously, if their first priority was profits–which (by definition of “commercial”) it has to be.

  23. 23.

    MikeJ

    March 31, 2011 at 11:58 am

    @Captain Goto:

    After that experience I found it hard to believe that ANY commercial enterprise would EVER take safety that seriously, if their first priority was profits—which (by definition of “commercial”) it has to be.

    You should remember, the military is the only branch of government that doesn’t have to run efficiently. Every other part is subject to people poring over the budgets to wring every last nickel out of it so that they can give millionaires a tax break.

    Independent oversight of government spending is obviously a good thing in most cases. I don’t believe it’s compatible with safety though, and in the end, when the argument comes down to money or safety, there will be less safety.

  24. 24.

    Robert Sneddon

    March 31, 2011 at 11:59 am

    @catclub: Barns are good, too, and on-topic as the barn is the unit of nuclear cross-sectional area, i.e. how easy or not it is to hit a given nucleus with a particle such as a neutron. It derives from the phrase “You couldn’t hit the side of a barn” rather than being named after some famous dead scientist.

  25. 25.

    Bill H.

    March 31, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    Wait a minute. The “radioactive water in the trenches” came from the tsnuami? If it did not come from the reactor, how did it get radioactive?

  26. 26.

    Bill H.

    March 31, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    @MikeJ:

    You should remember, the military is the only branch of government that doesn’t have to run efficiently.

    Hahahahah. You should go on tour.

  27. 27.

    gex

    March 31, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    Fucking thermodynamics and diminishing returns. How do they work?

  28. 28.

    gex

    March 31, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    @Roger Moore: I’m a angstrom fan, myself.

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    March 31, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    @Captain Goto: Mr WereBear, who worked a lot with the Navy, cites the excellent record of nuclear subs as a way of making sure it gets done, right.

    Because we do need both; we must have nuclear, and we must have it safely.

  30. 30.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 31, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    Will no one stand up for coulombs or even regular ohms?

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    March 31, 2011 at 12:43 pm

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM:
    No. I will stand up for the MΩcm, though; 18.2 MΩcm is a great resistivity, though anything over 10 is still useful.

  32. 32.

    catclub

    March 31, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    @gex: Just don’t call it an angstrom unit. That is like a PIN number or an ATM machine.

  33. 33.

    Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy

    March 31, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    catclub: Insert CD or DVD disc into drive.

  34. 34.

    Gravenstone

    March 31, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    @Cermet: You know, fucknuts, people might take you a bit more seriously if you stop accusing everyone who dares disagree with you of being a fucking troll!

  35. 35.

    Bob L

    March 31, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    Can we get some love for the Hertz? Without those cycles none of this happens.

  36. 36.

    catclub

    March 31, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    @Bob L: They rent motorcycles now? Who knew?

    also, anyone else know what a sverdrup is?

  37. 37.

    Jude

    March 31, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    All of these unit lovers, and no one mentions the mho.

    Best. Unit. Ever.

    /Other than the one in my pants.
    //Shows self out

  38. 38.

    Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy

    March 31, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    Heh, go over to the Oil Drum and you might decide that this is the right week to start shooting Her0in into your pen1s.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Geminid on Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Fading Neom Dreams (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:24am)
  • TBone on COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 17, 2024 (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:24am)
  • OzarkHillbilly on On The Road – BillinGlendaleCA – The Milky Way Reimagined. (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:22am)
  • Ceci n est pas mon nym on COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 17, 2024 (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:21am)
  • Betty Cracker on Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Fading Neom Dreams (Apr 17, 2024 @ 7:21am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!