Nukes

[ezrablu]

I'm sure everybody has been following the nuclear disaster going on in Japan. It was announced now they are on Red Alert status and that most likely a meltdown has occurred but it's being down played to prevent mass hysteria while trying to deal with the earthquake emergencies.

Lois...I also just heard it was announced a very likely possibility of fallout being carried directly over British Columbia. If that's the case, it will also be blowing over the west coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDqmOoELYEU

Current Jet Stream path:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLWlxg95 ... re=related



I'm sure it's all being down played a LOT so far here in the USA to keep people from freaking out and making a run on the stores, etc. That being said...I'd suggest heading for Walmart before the mad rush....then pack your bus and head to Florida. We can all meet up at the beach

First get yourself some of these:
http://www.anbex.com/

And from our government...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8_q06SL ... ature=fvwp

P.S. jet stream info:
http://www.stormsurf.com/

and what to do:
http://www.ki4u.com/guide.htm

[GoodClue]

The CLASSIC British animated film based on an elderly coupe going through a nuclear attack, in particular, the resulting fall out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EbsrJuAoQo

You should watch all parts through to the end for the full impact.

My father went from WWll tanks to artillery to nuclear missiles, finally Civil Defense Director for Jackson County (Kansas City) MO. in his life.

He was commandant of a Nike missile base in the SF bay area, 1955 through 57 ... as a kid I loved SF ... we lived in The Presidio family housing the first year, then Berkley ... visited the Nike Ajax site across the Golden Gate frequently, watching practice attacks from both the silos and control headquarters ... Long before the Hippie movement, tho I joined from a distance later

I still have the Civil Defense kit with 3 levels of geiger counter, old film strip and record to show to classes ...

I left the boilermakers when the only work available were Nuke power plants ... never believed in them ... the potential hazards, in particular waste disposal, etc. So many better alternatives ... but, hey, we'll be on oil till they can't squeeze any more out of us

As a family we discussed fall out shelters or face the inevitable. We all voted for the inevitable vs. a family crypt. Basically, I learned how to smile while bending over ...

We won't have the drastic effects of the Japanese disaster, tho there will be residual effects ... it is already impacting discussions on a nuclear energy plant 50 miles away from here at Pueblo, CO ... and prompting discussions on our existing plants ...

God Bless Us All said Tiny Tim ... Everyone

[ezrablu]

Very interesting GoodClue! For you knowing first hand about nuclear "stuff" can be a curse as well as a blessing. It must have been kind of unsettling knowing these things while young?

I went to school in Chicago and we had weekly Air Raid Drills all through the 60's and well into the 70's. The sirens would blow and we would all have to go to the lowest floor, sit on the floors next to each other like sardines with our legs crossed Indian style, heads bent down into our lap and our arms folded over our heads for protection. All the green blackout shades were pulled down and we had to sit like that for about 10 minutes. The weird thing is they never told us what Air Raids were lol. I didn't understand what it was for and the weirdest part is none of us kids even asked. Back in those days, the way of life was "Respect authority and do as your told. Don't ask why, just do it!". It was just the beginning of the hippie revolution when people finally started questioning authority....I guess I was still too young to understand I was being held down by the man

It was also still legal back then for teachers to smack us around. Remember those days?

Tiny Tim was right.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Thats funny, I never thought of asking either

[Headache]

Wow ezra you're bringing back more memories!

We had drills for various reasons all the time in the L.A. school districts most often for air raids and earthquakes. For us it was get under the desk, kneeling on the floor, put head down between knees then hands over head.

And yes I do remember those days, including seeing the imprints on the paddle of all the marbles I had neglected to take out of my pocket. YEOW!!

[Stealth Camper]

I worked for a flowmeter company in the early '80s where we installed emergency coolant meters on 4 nukes in Canada - east of Toronto. Pickering B station of Ontario Hydro. Became good friends with one of the commissioning engineers there and got to tour the entire place. We were on reactors 5 thru 8.

Time to fuel them and startup; place got to hot for some reason (centrifugal coolant pumps were installed reversed - some flow, but not enough - why didn't they test that before turning the thing on??). CANDU reactors are horizontal fuel cells, so when the tubes got too hot, they sagged, then broke, spilled water out into the containment rooms (one on each end of the reactor bundle). Really bad. Talked to friend, and kind of half joking asked him what the hell he did to that reactor? He started spilling his guts about all the problems, so I said shut up, I don't wanna know.

After crisis cooled down, they started inspecting. There were x-ray records for over 14,000 welds on the fuel tubes for the supports between the tubes. When they cut into it, they could only find a little over 4,000 welds in the tube bundle. What happened to the other 10,000?? Low bid-itis!

Our flowmeters worked, but everyone thought they were broken because the flow was about 15% of what was expected, so had to be the meters, right? Nope, it was those pumps mentioned earlier - backwards.

Dodged that bullet because they were bringing it up slowly a little bit at a time.

Anyway, I didn't like nukes way before that and I haven't liked them any better since then. Ironic how a daughter is nuclear health physicist who has worked at Hanford and believes in the things. I however have not given up on fixing her wrong-headedness, 'cause rust never sleeps!!

[dburt]

I always thought that they should build nuke reactors for power generating on large ships and put them in a safe harbor when they are working near the large cities on the coasts where they are needed. If they ever go belly up like the ones in Japan, they could just tow them out to sea where it is really deep and just sink them, or at least flood them so that the nuke part of the reactor was under water and could not overheat and have a melt down. But what do I know, I'm just an average guy

[Headache]

My thinking regarding nuclear power is primitive at best. Yes I use it because for some of the places I have lived it's all that's available. However I don't like it. To me it shouldn't be used until a viable way to handle the waste is found and shooting it into space or burying it in the ground is not viable. IMH and ignorant O.

[earthhorns]

Hey Stealth Camper, (love that name, as that was my motto when I lived 11yrs. on the road full time!), I worked as a Health Physcist at the Surry Nuclear Plant on the James river, Virginia, back in the mid 1980's. I saw the entire "inner workings" of a nuke plant...they are NOT safe, take it from someone who has worked in the industry. Yes, amongst many issues are the problem of safely disposing of spent fuel rods combined with construction of plants going to the lowest bidder. It's like a kid playing with matches, the corporate, industrial, military complex puts profits well above human safety, afterall, they have their "safe zones" in place already...just for them!

[ezrablu]

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/

http://www.epa.gov/cdx/

[Stealth Camper]

My daughter is Nuke Health Physicist. Small world, ain't it? And up until the Japanese reactors, she has been full bore fan of nukes. Don't know that she has changed, but she is somewhat muted the last couple weeks.

Leaving all the other stuff out of it, the economics of it just isn't there. Especially since the "honeymoon" period of cheap uranium from all the bombs that we and the Russians have decommissioned has pretty much ended. Have seen some prices quoted on uranium that show in last 10 years or so, it went from $7 per lb to about $75 in 2006. And 2010 it was $475 per lb. (I don't know what level stuff that is - yellowcake or just ready to refine, or what?)

What I have been waiting my whole life is for a fusion reactor power plant. But that would create too much cheap energy and chaos in the economy. As if we couldn't think up new uses - maybe bigger neon signs??