Sky Pilot wrote:I know I will get dumped on over this but what the hell. I firmly agree we should have nuclear power stations. We have an infinite supply of raw fuel (is it called yellow cake, or maybe a chip butty) and so once the capital cost has been depreciated over several years then our power bills would be cheap which would give manufacturing a healthy leg up.
Base load power can't be delivered by current technologies in wind, solar and wave motion. I don't think so anyway.
Remove the hysteria from the Greens and other loons and it is a sound source of electricity.
You were doing so well until that final comment.
You want me to dump on you for it?
As someone who's surviving day to day in a highly infected radioactive nation I think I am somewhat qualified to answer.
We own a Geiger counter, never thought I'd need one of those bastards but hey I don't live in a nuclear free zone like you do. I am doing all I can to get out of here and the idea of just abandoning our customers and business has come up many times. Many of our friends ate jealous simply because we have a country to run to, the vast majority here cannot run.
The Japanese government has done all it can to quell hysteria and protect those industries directly affected by the disaster. For example the dairy industry: cows eat alot of grass and there are alot of cows in the Fukushima area, to protect farmers from a fearful public not wishing to buy radioactive milk, the government allowed cows from the area to be spread across the nation. Now cows from everywhere are potentially lethal. Make sense? Labeling practices have also been relaxed, milk that was once labelled Fukushima can now legally be labelled Kumamoto, the area least affected by radiation. Make sense?
Radioactve garbage from Fukushima is burnt across the nation to share the burden, pissy little local goverents eager for a payoff gladly allow waste to be burnt in their local area while claiming to their local constituents that they're helping the nation, if people find out.
Everything I buy for my family is checked for it's origins, even then we know it'll have higher than normal infection if it's from within japan. The least we can do is buy safer products, nothing is completely safe.
We spend every day dodging potential sources of high radiation. We've seen the documentaries on Chernobyl, all these years on. Shocking! You tube it!
In years to come there'll be documentaries on Fukushima and surrounding areas. I pray to God Kyushu will not be featured.
Remember, when they started these reactors they were touted as being safe, made by good companies etc. Truth is as time goes on people get slack and complacent and the government in power may not have the priorities of those that went before. This is what has happened in Japan, and before Fukushima there were grave fears by many in the know about safety standards at those plants. I read about one guy who quit working in protest about how slack safety was.
I used to be a firm believer in nuclear power, for the reasons you stated in your post, I think you'll find most greens love the idea. But having lived it and studied it for 2 years I am definitely anti nuke.