Monday, July 28, 2008

Germany Loses its Mind-Follow Up

First, thank you to all my readers. I hope you are finding the posts worthwhile and occasionally humorous. I pride myself on the research that I do for each post, as well as my professional experience and Masters-level education. And yes, nuclear energy is safe, very safe.

I would like to post a comment to one of my posts on Germany's decision to decommission nuclear plants in favor of wind farms. Again, thank you for your comments.
Anonymous said...

I hope nobody reads your ramblings, mate. You clearly ignore the horrors and suffering that Chernobyl caused and still continues to cause to Eastern Europe. Nuclear energy is not safe, period. Anyone who says so is ignoring the number of accidents around the world that get reported 2-years after they happened -- or never if they can conceal it (Russia?).

We -- Germans -- simply do not trust the people working in nuclear power plants. The technology may be alright, but the human beings inside are no computers, we all make mistakes. Chernobyl was no technical issue, but a series of very unlikely human errors. As long as we are in control, nuclear power is not safe. OTOH I wouldn't even think about giving a computer total control over such a thing.

And please, stop bragging about your superior common sense, when it sounds more like some down-home-hokum. You clearly have little facts at your hands as you continue to accuse every other person on this planet to have none.

Look at some pictures of the people dying in Chernobyl and read about their stories and then remember that it was a human error that can and will happen again. Maybe this could teach you some compassion.

And while we're at it, just buy a bike and use it instead of a car and choose home appliances by their energy usage -- the German build ones are pretty good at this, maybe then you can understand that our environment is pretty dear to us.

So, if you research nuclear power generation globally, you will find that the Russians failed to build a secondary containment unit of reinforced concrete, which is standard for ALL Western nuclear plants. If they had done that, the deaths and devastation wouldn't have occurred.
The French and the US have managed to run nuclear plants without fatalities for over 30 years. Guess what, that's a lot safer than flying in a plane or riding a bicycle!! Human error is real. However, with proper planning and risk management, nuclear power generation remains the cleanest and safest, without exception.

We pray for the souls of the dead and injured from Chernobyl, but also place the responsibility where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of the haphazard Russian builders.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sir, i agree with your reasoned argument with one exception. Nuclear POWER is safe. Nuclear waste is another story.
I'm not hurling at you a doomsday-scenario idea of terrorists stealing the waste, or us losing it somehow. my problem is this.

Every tank of nuclear waste, (even recycleable nuclear waste can only be recycled so many times before it is relegated to being useless radioactive slime), takes 250 million years for its halflife to run enough cycles to bring it back down to background radiation, making it safe. In other words, when you're done with your nuclear fuel and it is completely useless waste, you need a place to put it that will be guaranteed to be safe from nuclear spillage for the next 250 million years. That's the unsafe part.

Peace and Freedom for Iran!
Respect Life, Defend the Weakest Among Us!

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