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[achilles]

Some of our own reactors, including I think the San Onofre plant near to me, (about 20 miles or so away), have the same design as the plants in question.

I hear thought that the French have a new design that is supposed to be vastly safer and immune largely to the problems facing the Japanese now. Perhaps we should look into that design. The Japanese too, if they want to improve the safety at their plants. The rebuilding phase is as good a time as any to take their existing plants off-line one or two at a time and build replacements using the French design.

[sdsichero]

Some of our own reactors, including I think the San Onofre plant near to me, (about 20 miles or so away), have the same design as the plants in question.

I hear thought that the French have a new design that is supposed to be vastly safer and immune largely to the problems facing the Japanese now. Perhaps we should look into that design. The Japanese too, if they want to improve the safety at their plants. The rebuilding phase is as good a time as any to take their existing plants off-line one or two at a time and build replacements using the French design.

Does the "A" in your sig stand for France???

[Cat-Scratch]

Some of our own reactors, including I think the San Onofre plant near to me, (about 20 miles or so away), have the same design as the plants in question.

I hear thought that the French have a new design that is supposed to be vastly safer and immune largely to the problems facing the Japanese now. Perhaps we should look into that design. The Japanese too, if they want to improve the safety at their plants. The rebuilding phase is as good a time as any to take their existing plants off-line one or two at a time and build replacements using the French design.

You know folks are going to lutz you on that. Right?

I doubt that any reactor could stand up to what those Japanese ones did. No matter how well designed and safe, something happens to prove otherwise.

[sdsichero]

Ugh twitter reports that AP (haven't seen the actual article yet) that a 4th reactor is on fire and more radiation is being leaked...

[Victorian Squid]

Ugh twitter reports that AP (haven't seen the actual article yet) that a 4th reactor is on fire and more radiation is being leaked...

I can't imagine where the heck they are evacuating so many people to.

[Victorian Squid]

I just read it, shit shit shit..

The Prime Minister has warned residents to stay inside or risk getting radiation sickness.

[Victorian Squid]

U.S. ships off-shore to assist Japan had to move far out to sea when the winds started blowing thataway.

[Herald]

Some of our own reactors, including I think the San Onofre plant near to me, (about 20 miles or so away), have the same design as the plants in question.

I hear thought that the French have a new design that is supposed to be vastly safer and immune largely to the problems facing the Japanese now. Perhaps we should look into that design. The Japanese too, if they want to improve the safety at their plants. The rebuilding phase is as good a time as any to take their existing plants off-line one or two at a time and build replacements using the French design.

From the description I saw on Japan's NHK Newsline today, they had 3 backup ways to avoid radiation leakage... and it happened anyway. As mentioned, the Japanese aren't known for cheaping out on this sort of thing. Nature simply found a way to bypass all that, anyway. I suspect that, if the French design were pitched into similar sudden, worst-case conditions, it would fare no better.

[sdsichero]

From the description I saw on Japan's NHK Newsline today, they had 3 backup ways to avoid radiation leakage... and it happened anyway. As mentioned, the Japanese aren't known for cheaping out on this sort of thing. Nature simply found a way to bypass all that, anyway. I suspect that, if the French design were pitched into similar sudden, worst-case conditions, it would fare no better.

No. the French design features a troupe of mimes on bicycles to help power the cooling systems.

[sdsichero]

Not a huge quake... but a decent size: 6. What's alarming to me (since I am alarmist) is that this one was West of Tokyo inland vs. most of the other quakes which were to the East and North off island (~10:30pm Japan Time)...

[AaronW]

Exactly. Japanese architects are renowned for creating large public buildings designed to withstand earthquakes, so this isn't like Chernobyl where the whole complex was built on the cheap.
I can't help thinking this is far more serious than we are being led to believe.

I read that they used a reactor design we created that we never implemented due to its problems and limitations.

[AaronW]

In any event hopefully this spurs safer reactor design because our need for nuclear power is not going away any time soon.

[sdsichero]

In any event hopefully this spurs safer reactor design because our need for nuclear power is not going away any time soon.

That's a good hope to have... though I am not optimistic. We always tend to think the absolute worst cannot happen.

Even though we have seen that we can't even imagine the worst.

[Strict31]

That's a good hope to have... though I am not optimistic. We always tend to think the absolute worst cannot happen.

Even though we have seen that we can't even imagine the worst.

It is not logical to plan for specific occurences that cannot reasonably be foreseen. Versatility is key for such situations.

[sdsichero]

It is not logical to plan for specific occurences that cannot reasonably be foreseen. Versatility is key for such situations.

Understood. However, I think we often put money concerns in the way of doing something right. We limit ourselves by this in many ways.

At the same, there are limits to how much we can plan before we all end up in always indoors encased in bulletproof bubbles.