• Three Mile Island: 35 Years ago
    40 replies, posted
[quote]Today marks the 35th anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. On March 28th, 1979 one of the reactors at the The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Dauphin County partially melted down. Back then, no one knew exactly what was going to happen. The incident was unprecedented. Former Governor Dick Thornburgh was at the center of the crisis. He marked the anniversary at an event Thursday at Penn State’s Harrisburg campus in Middletown–not far from the plant.[/quote] [url=http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2014/03/28/three-mile-island-35-years-later/]Source[/url]
I remember watching this documentary on it a while ago. Very interesting situation and interesting to see how people responded to it. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J7kHfBBBmk[/media] [editline]28th March 2014[/editline] dat thumbnail
It certainly didn't help the stigma against development of nuclear power, that's for sure.
Worst nuclear accident in the USA and one of the worst in the world, and no-one even died and there was no long-term harm to anything. Why is fear of nuclear power so prevalent? I'm not sure of the cause of 3 mile, but Chernobyl was caused by idiotic measures to override the safety systems of the plant and Fukushima, what'd you expect when a power plant running on outdated equipment gets fucked by a tidal wave and an earthquake at the same time?
If I remember correctly three mile island was due to them interrupting automatic safety measures.
I live fairly close to this. I drive down every other weekend to see my father, and drive right by this. Eerie.
Three Mile Island being the death of nuclear power is a common misconception, the extremely high development cost and all the red tape was putting off most companies from developing new reactors. It was just the final nail in the coffin. The Obama administration has been very supportive and even offering a safety net for companies wanting to build new reactors in case it doesn't work out for them and it still slow going. Their is also plenty of reactor towns that have been wanting another one or a newer reactor too.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;44383288]Worst nuclear accident in the USA and one of the worst in the world, and no-one even died and there was no long-term harm to anything. Why is fear of nuclear power so prevalent? I'm not sure of the cause of 3 mile, but Chernobyl was caused by idiotic measures to override the safety systems of the plant and Fukushima, what'd you expect when a power plant running on outdated equipment gets fucked by a tidal wave and an earthquake at the same time?[/QUOTE] Public ignorance and fear of the entire concept. It's the whole "invisible threat" factor, along with the lack of education on the topic. Not to mention associations with nuclear weapons, due to the ignorance.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;44383288]Worst nuclear accident in the USA and one of the worst in the world, and no-one even died and there was no long-term harm to anything. Why is fear of nuclear power so prevalent? I'm not sure of the cause of 3 mile, but Chernobyl was caused by idiotic measures to override the safety systems of the plant and Fukushima, what'd you expect when a power plant running on outdated equipment gets fucked by a tidal wave and an earthquake at the same time?[/QUOTE] Could have been prevented, the seawall was no where near high enough, even though the owner was advised to make it higher. The backup generators were also in a vulnerable section of the building, and were flooded. Could have easily avoided the whole goddamn thing but they decided not to listen to sound advice.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;44383288]Worst nuclear accident in the USA and one of the worst in the world, and no-one even died and there was no long-term harm to anything. Why is fear of nuclear power so prevalent? I'm not sure of the cause of 3 mile, but Chernobyl was caused by idiotic measures to override the safety systems of the plant and Fukushima, what'd you expect when a power plant running on outdated equipment gets fucked by a tidal wave and an earthquake at the same time?[/QUOTE] because ~fear mongering~ people are fucking dumb, you get a few meltdowns a decade and everyone is running back to fossil fuels.
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;44383451]because ~fear mongering~ people are fucking dumb, you get a few meltdowns events a decade and everyone is running back to fossil fuels.[/QUOTE] Which is a lot more lethal just while operating than nuclear ever will be. It would take one hell of a nuclear disaster to catch up with coals death toll.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;44383288]Worst nuclear accident in the USA and one of the worst in the world, and no-one even died and there was no long-term harm to anything. Why is fear of nuclear power so prevalent? I'm not sure of the cause of 3 mile, but Chernobyl was caused by idiotic measures to override the safety systems of the plant and Fukushima, what'd you expect when a power plant running on outdated equipment gets fucked by a tidal wave and an earthquake at the same time?[/QUOTE] People are afraid of nuclear power because coal power groups misled people by conflating nuclear power with nuclear weapons, and during the time (the 70s) most people though of radiation as a glowing green cloud of death. Sadly proponents of green technology have bought into the rhetoric that nuclear power is harmful and now we have a situation where everyone is misinformed about nuclear power but are willfully blind to the problems caused by fossil fuels. I remember when I was in secondary school some group suggested building a nuclear reactor here in Ireland and idiots fucking marched against it because "duh nukular is bad." [editline]28th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=OvB;44383461]Which is a lot more lethal just while operating than nuclear ever will be. It would take one hell of a nuclear disaster to catch up with coals death toll.[/QUOTE] I made a post a couple of weeks ago which explained the death tolls of power production, in 50 years oil and coal would kill over 2,000 people each but nuclear power would kill 2 people.
The reason people think radiation as glowing green ooze is probably because Radium actually does glow green. The ooze part probably comes from a generic interpretation of toxic waste. So logically to someone who has no idea, radioactive waste would be green glowing ooze.
Remember that one guy in the thread about the Gen IV reactors who said that nuclear was the worst thing to ever happen to humanity and then he cited this, chernobyl, and fukushima as why and then proceeded to get absolutely and totally rekt by the thread? Gigabyte, that was his name, I remember now.
[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;44383770]Remember that one guy in the thread about the Gen IV reactors who said that nuclear was the worst thing to ever happen to humanity and then he cited this, chernobyl, and fukushima as why and then proceeded to get absolutely and totally rekt by the thread? Gigabyte, that was his name, I remember now.[/QUOTE] Then Snowmew burned him so bad he scorched the entire western hemisphere.
Foooound it [url]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1336387&p=43252922&viewfull=1#post43252922[/url]
Worlds worst one... i never heard about? i know of the one in japan and Chynobel... but not this one.
[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;44383847]Worlds worst one... i never heard about? i know of the one in japan and Chynobel... but not this one.[/QUOTE] Not world's worst. Worst in the US.
[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;44383770]Remember that one guy in the thread about the Gen IV reactors who said that nuclear was the worst thing to ever happen to humanity and then he cited this, chernobyl, and fukushima as why and then proceeded to get absolutely and totally rekt by the thread? Gigabyte, that was his name, I remember now.[/QUOTE] I hear the local hospital named the burn ward after him.
This thread went from commemorating TMI to remembering how bad Gigabyte got trashed by Snowmew. To be fair, it was a trashing of epic proportions. Someone had it right when they said that Snowmew deployed the tsar bomba of counter-arguments. :v:
What made Chernobyl so disastrous is the fact that it wasn't just a meltdown, but one of the reactors literally exploded. The explosion created a massive cloud of radioactive material that contaminated a huge area, spreading the radiation much further.
God these comments hurt. [QUOTE]The safest, cleanest energy comes from a nuclear reactor 90 million miles from Earth called the sun.[/QUOTE] Except for the fact that over its lifetime, solar power has caused 5x more deaths per kWh than nuclear power, right? [QUOTE]Researchers saw a statistically significant increase in birth defects, cancers and deaths after TMI.[/QUOTE] Except for the fact that there were [i]no[/i] "statistically significant" increases to birth defects in the area compared to averaged rates worldwide, [i]no[/i] increases of cancer rates in the area, nor were any deaths [i]at all[/i] (direct or indirect) linked to radioactive releases from the accident, right? [QUOTE=Solo Wing;44384927]This thread went from commemorating TMI to remembering how bad Gigabyte got trashed by Snowmew. To be fair, it was a trashing of epic proportions. Someone had it right when they said that Snowmew deployed the tsar bomba of counter-arguments. :v:[/QUOTE] I hold a weekly memorial service for Gigabyte's dignity. His poor irradiated dignity.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;44383288]Worst nuclear accident in the USA and one of the worst in the world, and no-one even died and there was no long-term harm to anything. Why is fear of nuclear power so prevalent? [/QUOTE] Here's people's main thought process, in steps, when they hear the word "nuclear". Nuclear. Nuclear radiation. Nuclear bomb. NUCLEAR BAD
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;44384927]This thread went from commemorating TMI to remembering how bad Gigabyte got trashed by Snowmew. To be fair, it was a trashing of epic proportions. Someone had it right when they said that Snowmew deployed the tsar bomba of counter-arguments. :v:[/QUOTE] As soon as I saw "Three Mile Island" that was the only thing I could thing of. :v:
Thorium's the future of nuclear power, that's for sure.
[QUOTE=Snowmew;44389240] I hold a weekly memorial service for Gigabyte's dignity. His poor irradiated dignity.[/QUOTE]Oh shit, its the lord of radiation. Remind me not to piss you off. :P God....I've been here since 2006 and I don't think I've ever witnessed a thrashing that bad.
Three Mile Island didn't even affect anyone physically.
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;44389293]Oh shit, its the lord of radiation. Remind me not to piss you off. :P God....I've been here since 2006 and I don't think I've ever witnessed a thrashing that bad.[/QUOTE] The irony being I'm not a nuclear physicist or anything. I got a C in (normal) Physics 101 for that matter. My only experience in the field is visiting the [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvOUoM3XXGA"]SONGS plant[/URL] in Southern California (the concrete boobs in The Naked Gun) only a year or so before it closed. I was lucky enough to live around 20 miles away from it so we passed by it on the I-5 a lot, which inspired me to get interested in nuclear energy for school research projects, where I've learned a hell of a lot more than the idiots that ferret anti-nuclear propaganda from biased conspiracy sites. They don't let you in to anywhere even potentially dangerous (it took a year for my dad to be given security clearance just to do repairs on an auxiliary pump building) but they did let us take a look at the control room simulator. It is [i]incredibly[/i] spooky to watch everything in a [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swr74_CDyLk"]semi-controlled (albeit simulated) failure[/URL].
[QUOTE=Snowmew;44389309]The irony being I'm not a nuclear physicist or anything. I got a C in (normal) Physics 101 for that matter. My only experience in the field is visiting the SONGS plant in Southern California (the concrete boobs in The Naked Gun) only a year or so before it closed. I was lucky enough to live around 20 miles away from it so we passed by it on the I-5 a lot, which inspired me to get interested in nuclear energy for school research projects, where I've learned a hell of a lot more than the idiots that ferret anti-nuclear propaganda from biased conspiracy sites.[/QUOTE]If life were based on facts, life would be alot simpler. Unfortunately, idiots buy into fear mongering far too easily. If people could think for themselves, maybe the US wouldn't have such shitty politicians, but I digress. Nuclear power has such amazing potential, its a shame that its wasted by people going "hurr durr, nukular is bad."
[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;44383820]Foooound it [url]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1336387&p=43252922&viewfull=1#post43252922[/url][/QUOTE] there should be a system in here that automatically finds buzzwords like "meltdown" and "nuclear" in the same topic, and automatically copies posts like this as the second reply.
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