For those who think all nuclear power is safe: A story from just this week

[Ardentfrost]

I dunno about other areas, but the plant where I'm from is on it's own 20 sq. mile plot of land. But then, they did that because it was the biggest manufacturer of weapons grade plutonium during the cold war

How close to they let nuke plants get to civilization in regular places?

[Nonphixion]

Originally Posted by archangel003

Uranium is something the world should probably thank us for using up.

We're spraying back all over the middle east -- the sands will be hopelessly peppered with depleted uranium by the time we pull out of there.

Contrary to popular beleif DU is actually highly toxic, and slightly radioactive, itself being mined from uranium ore.

[7960]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

I dunno about other areas, but the plant where I'm from is on it's own 20 sq. mile plot of land. But then, they did that because it was the biggest manufacturer of weapons grade plutonium during the cold war

How close to they let nuke plants get to civilization in regular places?

seabrook nuclear power plant is relatively close to the general population

[7960]

Originally Posted by Nonphixion

Contrary to popular beleif DU is actually highly toxic, and slightly radioactive, itself being mined from uranium ore.

contrary to your belief, no it's not.

[Dumpy Dooby]

Whose belief is popular?

[PetriW]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

FORSMARK, Sweden, Aug. 1, 2006 (UPI) -- Last week's shutdown of the Forsmark nuclear power plant in Sweden, north of Stockholm, reportedly could have resulted in a meltdown.

The emergency -- called by some the most dangerous international nuclear incident since the destruction of the Russian Chernobyl plant 20 year ago -- occurred when two of four generators shut down, officials said.

"It was pure luck that there was not a meltdown," nuclear expert and former Forsmark director Lars-Olov Höglund told The Local. "Since the electricity supply from the network didn't work as it should have, it could have been a catastrophe."

He said without power, the temperature would have been too high after 30 minutes and within two hours there could have been a meltdown.

Nuclear plant faced possible meltdown - Last week's shutdown of the Forsmark nuclear power plant in ...

CNN.com - Swedish nuclear power plant*alert - Aug 3, 2006

Nuclear is not that safe which is why I wouldn't want one in my backyard

Several people I know with somewhat good insight into this (through work) are flabbergasted Lars-Olov Höglund would make these statements; the guy is seriously fishing when he says it was very close to a core meltdown and the 3rd most serious event in history.

There were many systems still working before this would happen. Only the top automated systems went down, two reserve power generators (of 4) could still supply power and automatic systems reduced the effect of the reactor immediately. Only one of the four generators is needed to supply power for the automated systems.
The manual systems were still also good with which you can regulate the process. And if the manual systems stop working you still have steps for preventing a reactor meltdown. Heck, the whole thing can be taken over by terrorists and it can STILL be shut down safely without any electricity from several remote locations without them having any power over it.

These nuclear plants are NOT similar to Chernobyl, they're far far safer, that and I doubt they’ll be allowed to turn off the security systems like that did in Tjernobyl. Forsmark is a Boiling Water Reactor, you have a couple of these in the US too, look it up on wikipedia if you wonder about it.


Nuclear power in general is filled with fears that stifle development of better and safer nuclear reactors. Most people don't even know research indicates that the nuclear waste from nuclear power plants can be used to harness energy to the extend where the material would be radioactive for hundreds of years instead of several hundred thousand years, political leadership is 100% intent on digging the crap down anyway, something that in light of this research would be the most stupid thing ever.



(If you wonder what kind of connection my work has to all this we create automated configuration tools for switchgears and monitoring systems used in everything from small switchgears for small power sheds to hospitals power supply to power plant monitoring.)

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

I dunno about other areas, but the plant where I'm from is on it's own 20 sq. mile plot of land. But then, they did that because it was the biggest manufacturer of weapons grade plutonium during the cold war

How close to they let nuke plants get to civilization in regular places?

oak ridge is really close to knoxville

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by 7960

seabrook nuclear power plant is relatively close to the general population

Hard to tell how close that is... I mean, like I said, the plant at home is 20 miles away. That one looks to be only a couple miles though

But the plant at home is about 10 miles in from the sides of its' area. So people live 10 miles away, we just lived 10 more miles out

[willis]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

How close to they let nuke plants get to civilization in regular places?

state list of all nuclear power plants

Maps and Aerial Views of US Reactors

now with terraserver aerial shots of all.. pretty cool stuff

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by willis

state list of all nuclear power plants

Maps and Aerial Views of US Reactors

now with terraserver aerial shots of all.. pretty cool stuff

That's cool, but still doesn't tell me how populous the area is. Plant Vogtle in GA is one that supplies JUST power (unlike the one I've been talking about which supplied weapons), does so for a very wide area, and is in a fairly low population area (kinda near Waynesboro, GA)

SRS is near Augusta, which is pretty populous, but it's shut down now anyway

[Ardentfrost]

The one in Massechusets looks like it might be pretty close to a good number of people. It's just so hard to tell

[willis]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

That's cool, but still doesn't tell me how populous the area is. Plant Vogtle in GA is one that supplies JUST power (unlike the one I've been talking about which supplied weapons), does so for a very wide area, and is in a fairly low population area (kinda near Waynesboro, GA)

SRS is near Augusta, which is pretty populous, but it's shut down now anyway

I dunno about close to huge population centers, but a bunch of them are closer to civilization than 20 miles..

.. i just thought the aerial shots were pretty cool to see where it is in relation to the closest houses / whatever..

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by willis

I dunno about close to huge population centers, but a bunch of them are closer to civilization than 20 miles..

.. i just thought the aerial shots were pretty cool to see where it is in relation to the closest houses / whatever..

Yeah, but since nuke plants employ a lot of people, of course you're going to have houses cropping up near them. The areas near SRS had very little there until they setup shop in 1951.

Really though, it just looks like for the most part they're setup near small towns or low population areas and supply power to a very large area.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

Yeah, but since nuke plants employ a lot of people, of course you're going to have houses cropping up near them. The areas near SRS had very little there until they setup shop in 1951.

Really though, it just looks like for the most part they're setup near small towns or low population areas and supply power to a very large area.

You could have the power companies reimburse people for gas and require a 20 mile drive to work. A lot of that goes on around here with other power plants. Companies give a company vehicle and gas card to employees to drive to and from work.

[7960]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

The one in Massechusets looks like it might be pretty close to a good number of people. It's just so hard to tell

it's 13 miles from seabrook (bigger blue circle) to portsmouth nh (north of there)

On a warm summer day there may be 100,000 people on hampton beach, approx 2 miles away

[Emfuser]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

FORSMARK, Sweden, Aug. 1, 2006 (UPI) -- Last week's shutdown of the Forsmark nuclear power plant in Sweden, north of Stockholm, reportedly could have resulted in a meltdown.

The emergency -- called by some the most dangerous international nuclear incident since the destruction of the Russian Chernobyl plant 20 year ago -- occurred when two of four generators shut down, officials said.

"It was pure luck that there was not a meltdown," nuclear expert and former Forsmark director Lars-Olov Höglund told The Local. "Since the electricity supply from the network didn't work as it should have, it could have been a catastrophe."

He said without power, the temperature would have been too high after 30 minutes and within two hours there could have been a meltdown.

Nuclear plant faced possible meltdown - Last week's shutdown of the Forsmark nuclear power plant in ...

CNN.com - Swedish nuclear power plant alert - Aug 3, 2006

Nuclear is not that safe which is why I wouldn't want one in my backyard

Wow, 2 stories lacking any sort of real technical detail, anything close to an explanation of what happened, or generally useful information whatsoever.

I have to drag myself all over the internet pissing out fires of people ignorantly badmouthing nuclear power, so what is this weak shit?

[PetriW]

Originally Posted by Emfuser

Wow, 2 stories lacking any sort of real technical detail, anything close to an explanation of what happened, or generally useful information whatsoever.

I have to drag myself all over the internet pissing out fires of people ignorantly badmouthing nuclear power, so what is this weak shit?

English summary incident Forsmark 1 - Forsmark_Extern

The official thing.

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

You could have the power companies reimburse people for gas and require a 20 mile drive to work. A lot of that goes on around here with other power plants. Companies give a company vehicle and gas card to employees to drive to and from work.

I'm not saying that is required... It just seems that MOST cases have power plants in remote locations probably for just in case. The mass one was the only one I found that wasn't like that

I still think it's a very safe technology and will only get safer. I'd much rather have a nuke plant supplying my city than most other types of energy production (I can't think of one off hand, but there might be one )

[motivez]

Originally Posted by Emfuser

Wow, 2 stories lacking any sort of real technical detail, anything close to an explanation of what happened, or generally useful information whatsoever.

I have to drag myself all over the internet pissing out fires of people ignorantly badmouthing nuclear power, so what is this weak shit?

Do you think it's safe enough to really integrate into communities? Or should they be distanced enough that if something does go wrong, there's not as much of an impact from any radiation?

My personal worry is that despite precautions to make a reactor as safe as possible, there's still the lingering possibility that it could completely melt down and the number of deaths could be quite large..

Is that not the case?