Quake-prone California questions nuclear safety

[Cleita]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-nuclear-usa-california-idUSTRE72E8NS20110315?page

By Nichola Groom
LOS ANGELES | Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:16pm EDT
(Reuters) - Californians have long had an uneasy relationship with their two nuclear power plants, and the crisis in Japan raises new doubts about how long nuclear power will survive in the earthquake-prone state.

The first test of the Golden State's support for nuclear power is coming soon, as the nuclear plants perched on the scenic but fault-laden California coastline since the early 1980s begin the process for 20-year license renewals.

California banned construction of new nuclear power plants in the 1970s, when the then-governor Jerry Brown joined "no-nukes" activists in opposing construction of Diablo Canyon nuclear station on the Central Coast. Seismic safety worries played a prominent part in the campaign. more at link

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The Obama administration has said it will press ahead with nuclear energy as an integral part of the U.S. "clean energy" mix. The Energy Department's budget includes $36 billion for loan guarantees to help build new nuclear reactors. The more than 100 reactors nationwide provide about 20 percent of U.S. energy.

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I find this disturbing. I don't know who is advising Obama but I'm suspicious it's energy lobbyists in Washington. He has also called part of the "clean energy mix" clean coal, an entity that exists only on paper.

[lob1]

1. "Clean coal" is literally nothing but a slogan, Coal is as

dirty as it ever has been. I notice Obama never says just "coal", he always says "Clean coal". He's pushing a fairy tale on us as science. It's not an accident.

[Cleita]

2. Ed's guest Christian Parenti just explained what it's all

about. It's about renewing the licenses of those existing facilities. It's all smoke and mirrors leading us to believe new and safe nuke plants would be built, but he says banks don't want to finance these facilities because they are losers so it's about getting them relicensed. I'm suspicious the clean coal business is along the same lines, just to keep the old facilities going because no one wants to finance "clean" coal facilities either because they know it's a fairy tale.

[SheilaT]

3. And when nuclear plants reach the end of their life span,

all that radioactivity is totally used up and now the former buildings can be remodelled into schools or condos?

Just asking.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. Greg Palast writes an expose on the real life Homer Simpsons

running US and Japanese nuclear power plants. I'd say the Californians have damned good reasons to be concerned.

The failure of emergency systems at Japan's nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.

Nuclear plants the world over must be certified for what is called "SQ" or "Seismic Qualification." That is, the owners swear that all components are designed for the maximum conceivable shaking event, be it from an earthquake or an exploding Christmas card from al-Qaeda.

The most inexpensive way to meet your SQ is to lie. The industry does it all the time. The government team I worked with caught them once, in 1988, at the Shoreham plant in New York. Correcting the SQ problem at Shoreham would have cost a cool billion, so engineers were told to change the tests from "failed" to "passed."

The company that put in the false safety report? Stone & Webster, now the nuclear unit of Shaw Construction, which will work with TEPCO to build the Texas plant. Lord help us.

snip

Back in the day, when we checked the emergency backup diesels in America, a mind-blowing number flunked. At the New York nuclear plant, for example, the builders swore under oath that their three diesel engines were ready for an emergency. They'd been tested. The tests were faked; the diesels run for just a short time at low speed. When the diesels were put through a real test under emergency-like conditions, the crankshaft on the first one snapped in about an hour, then the second and third. We nicknamed the diesels, "Snap, Crackle and Pop."

http://www.truth-out.org/tokyo-electric-build-us-nuclear-plants-the-no-bs-info-japans-disastrous-nuclear-operators68457

[Cleita]

5. Greg Palast knows what he's writing about. n/t

[Cleita]

6. ...

:kick: