Chaos in Japan - Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear plant on fire...

This needs to be updated as they are still having problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/world/asia/28japan.html

Tainted Water at Two Reactors Increases Alarm for Japanese

TOKYO ? Japan?s troubled effort to contain the nuclear contamination crisis at its stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant suffered a setback on Sunday when alarmingly high radiation levels were discovered in a flooded area inside the complex, raising new questions about how and when cleanup workers could resume their tasks.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator, said the elevated radiation levels in the water, which had flooded the turbine buildings adjacent to the reactors at the plant, were at least four times the permissible exposure levels for workers at the plant and 100,000 times more than water ordinarily found at a nuclear facility.

That could mean crews seeking to determine damage and fix the problems at the plant, hit by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and a tsunami more than two weeks ago, may not be able to even approach the most troubled parts of the complex until the water can be safely removed.

Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University, said that at the sharply elevated levels of radiation, workers would be able to remain on the site for only about 15 minutes before health considerations required them to leave. That could hamper their efforts to restore power at the reactors, compromising attempts to bring the crisis under control.

Alarm over the radiation levels first intensified Thursday when two workers were burned after they stepped into highly radioactive water inside reactor No. 3 of the plant. Late Saturday, a worker trying to measure radiation levels of the water at another reactor, No. 2, saw the reading on his dosimeter jump beyond 1,000 millisieverts per hour, the highest reading so far. The worker left the scene immediately, said Takeo Iwamoto, a spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power.

Michiaki Furukawa, a nuclear chemist and a board member of the Citizens? Nuclear Information Center, a Tokyo-based watchdog group, said exposure to 1,000 millisieverts of radiation would induce nausea and vomiting, while exposure to triple that amount could be lethal.

There was no evacuation of the roughly 1,000 workers stationed at Daiichi after the high radiation levels were discovered. Naoki Sunoda, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power, said that since the crisis began, 19 workers had been exposed to radiation levels of 100 millisieverts.

Despite the new problem, Mr. Sunoda said, workers on Monday were still trying to determine a way to approach reactor No. 2, considered to be most troubled of the six.

?Radiation levels are high, but nothing will be resolved if we stay away,? Mr. Sunoda said. ?Our objective is to restore power to all reactors so cooling functions can be restored.?

The Japanese government?s top spokesman, Yukio Edano, said in an afternoon press briefing on Sunday that it appeared the radioactive water had appeared when the No. 2 unit?s fuel rods had been exposed to air, but that ?we don?t at this time believe they are melting. We?re confident that we are able to keep them cool.?

The higher levels may have suggested a leak from the reactor?s fuel rods ? from either the suppression chamber under the rods or various piping ? or even a breach in the pressure vessel that houses the rods, the Japanese nuclear regulator said earlier.

There was also deep concern early Sunday about initial readings of radioactive iodine 134, which has a half life of only 53 minutes and would not be present in large quantities unless fission had restarted. That would present the alarming possibility of an out-of-control reactor. Several hours after releasing the initial results, the plant operator said that those readings had been in error, and that retesting had shown negligible amounts of the isotope.

But the revised readings confirmed the overall high radiation readings at the plant, and utility officials continued to search for the exact source. And they still may need to retest for other radioactive isotopes that had been found in the seawater around the No. 2 reactor, including troubling quantities of cesium, barium, cobalt and lanthanum. The company has not yet been able to determine the source of those leaks, and confirming the isotopes? exact levels could take much longer.

Sunday?s developments came after the world?s chief nuclear inspector said that Japan was ?still far from the end of the accident? that struck the plant. Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, acknowledged that the authorities were still unsure about whether the reactor cores and spent fuel were covered with the water needed to cool them and end the crisis.

Mr. Amano, taking care to say that he was not criticizing Japan?s response under extraordinary circumstances, said, ?More efforts should be done to put an end to the accident.?

He cautioned that the nuclear emergency could still go on for weeks, if not months, given the enormous damage to the plant.

Asked on Sunday at a news conference what was the company?s projected timeline for emerging from the crisis, Sakae Muto, a vice president for Tokyo Electric Power, said, ?We don?t have a concrete schedule.?

Mr. Muto declined to answer a journalist?s question about a possible worst-case scenario, saying, ?The important thing is to keep cooling the reactor and prevent the current situation from getting worse.?

Hidehiko Nishiyama, the deputy director general of the Japanese nuclear safety agency, said that it was likely that radiation was leaking from the pipes or the suppression chamber, and not directly from the pressure vessel, because water levels and pressure in the vessel were relatively stable.

All Sunday, the government and company officials fielded questions from the Japanese media about whether plutonium might have escaped from one of the damaged facilities. Mr. Edano said the area around the reactors was being tested for plutonium, but ?this is not an easy process.? He said that if the presence of plutonium was confirmed, ?we will take measures depending on the situation.?

The I.A.E.A. cited information from Prime Minister Naoto Kan?s office on Sunday that Tokyo Electric had begun pumping water out of some of the turbine buildings at the Fukushima plant.

Workers were pumping water from the No. 1 unit turbine to its main condenser and were making preparations to do the same at the No. 2 unit, the I.A.E.A. said, noting that a main condenser?s function in a nuclear power plant is to condense and recover steam that passes through the turbine. The company also was considering ways to remove water from the turbine buildings of the No. 3 and No. 4 units, the agency said.

The No. 5 and No. 6 units are thought to be out of harm?s way.

Japan?s National Police Agency said on Sunday that the death toll from the quake and tsunami had risen to 10,668, with 16,574 people still missing.

Meanwhile, radiation in the Tokyo water supply continued to diminish on Sunday, the authorities said. At two of three monitoring stations operated by the municipal waterworks bureau, no radiation was detected. At a third, the level was 27 becquerels per liter, well below the maximum recommended limits for both infants and adults.

The elevated levels of radiation at and around the Fukushima plant will require careful monitoring of seafood in Japan, said Kimberlee J. Kearfott, a professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at the University of Michigan.

?It is extremely important that seafood be carefully monitored,? she said in an e-mail. ?This is because many of the radionuclides are concentrated in the environment,? she added. ?For example, iodines are concentrated in kelp (a Japanese food, seaweed) and shrimp.

?Iodines, cesium and strontium are concentrated in other types of seafood,? she continued. ?Fish can act like tea or coffee presses. When you push down the plungers, the grounds all end up on one side. In this case, that is the fish.?

Another article

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110327/wl_nm/us_japan_quake

And one more that shows that TEPCO was warned of geologic data that showed larger waves have hit there.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110327/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_quake_tsunami_risk
 
They are now confirming that Plutonium is leaking from the plant. This is not good news to say the least.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/plutonium-seeps-from-nuclear-plant-2256030.html

Plutonium seeps from nuclear plant

Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said.

Plutonium has been detected in small amounts at several spots outside the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant for the first time, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said.

Safety chiefs said the amounts were not a risk to humans but supported suspicions that dangerously radioactive water was leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods - a worrying development in the race to bring the power plant under control.


"The situation is very grave," chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said. "We are doing our utmost efforts to contain the damage."


A tsunami spawned by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake on March 11 destroyed the power systems needed to cool the nuclear fuel rods in the complex, 140 miles north east of Tokyo.


Since then, three of the complex's six reactors are believed to have partially melted down and emergency crews have grappled with everything from malfunctioning pumps to dangerous spikes in radiation that have sent workers fleeing.


Radiation seeping from the plant has made its way into produce, raw milk and even tap water as far away as Tokyo, prompting some nations to halt imports from the region. Residents within a 12-mile radius of the plant have been urged to leave or stay indoors.


The troubles have eclipsed Pennsylvania's 1979 crisis at Three Mile Island, when a partial meltdown raised fears of widespread radiation release. But it is still well short of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed at least 31 people with radiation sickness, raised long-term cancer rates and spewed radiation across much of the northern hemisphere.


A series of missteps and accidents, meanwhile, have raised questions about the handling of the disaster, with the government revealing growing frustration with Tepco.


The Yomiuri daily newspaper reported that the government was considering temporarily nationalising the troubled nuclear plant operator, but Edano and Tepco officials denied holding any such discussions.


The nuclear crisis has complicated the government's ability to address the humanitarian situation facing hundreds of thousands left homeless by the twin disasters. The official number of dead surpassed 11,000 today, police said, and the final figure is expected to top 18,000.


The urgent mission to stabilise the Fukushima plant has been fraught with setbacks.


Workers succeeded last week in reconnecting some parts of the plant to the power grid. But as they pumped water into units to cool the reactors down, they discovered pools of contaminated water in numerous spots, including the basements of several buildings and in tunnels outside them.


The contaminated water has been emitting radiation exposures more than four times the amount the government considers safe for workers and must be pumped out before electricity can be restored to the cooling system.


That has left officials struggling with two crucial but sometimes-contradictory efforts: pumping in water to keep the fuel rods cool and pumping out - and then safely storing - contaminated water.


Nuclear safety official Hidehiko Nishiyama called it "delicate work" and acknowledged that cooling the reactors took precedence over concerns about leakage.


"The removal of the contaminated water is the most urgent task now and hopefully we can adjust the amount of cooling water going in," he said, adding that workers were building makeshift dykes with sandbags to keep contaminated water from seeping into the soil outside.


The discovery of plutonium, released from fuel rods only when temperatures are extremely high, confirms the severity of the damage, Mr Nishiyama said.


Of the five soil samples showing plutonium, two appeared to be coming from leaking reactors while the rest were probably the result of years of nuclear tests that left trace amounts of plutonium in many places around the world, Tepco said.


Plutonium is a heavy element that does not readily combine with other elements, so it is less likely to spread than some of the lighter, more volatile radioactive materials detected around the site, such as the radioactive forms of cesium and iodine.


"The relative toxicity of plutonium is much higher than that of iodine or cesium but the chance of people getting a dose of it is much lower," said Robert Henkin, professor emeritus of radiology at Loyola University's Stritch School of Medicine. "Plutonium just sits there and is a nasty actor."


When plutonium decays, it emits what is known as an alpha particle, a relatively big particle that carries a lot of energy. When an alpha particle hits body tissue, it can damage the DNA of a cell and lead to a cancer-causing mutation.


Plutonium also breaks down very slowly so it remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.


"If you inhale it, it's there and it stays there forever," said Alan Lockwood, a professor of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the University at Buffalo and a member of the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group.
 
Setbacks mount in Japan at leaking nuclear plant

TOKYO ? Setbacks mounted Wednesday in the crisis over Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear facility, with nearby seawater testing at its highest radiation levels yet and the president of the plant operator checking into a hospital with hypertension.

Nearly three weeks after a March 11 tsunami engulfed the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, knocking out power to the cooling system that keeps nuclear fuel rods from overheating, Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still struggling to bring the facility in northeastern Japan under control.

Radiation leaking from the plant has seeped into the soil and seawater nearby and made its way into produce, raw milk and even tap water as far as Tokyo, 140 miles (220 kilometers) to the south.

The stress of reining in Japan's worst crisis since World War II has taken its toll on TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, who was sent to a hospital late Tuesday.

Shimizu, 66, has not been seen in public since a March 13 news conference in Tokyo, raising speculation that he had suffered a breakdown. For days, officials deflected questions about Shimizu's whereabouts, saying he was "resting" at company headquarters.

Spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said Wednesday that Shimizu had been admitted to a Tokyo hospital after suffering dizziness and high blood pressure.

The leadership vacuum follows growing criticism of TEPCO for its failure to halt the radiation leaks. Bowing deeply, arms at his side, Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata announced at a news conference that he would step in and apologized for the delay.

"We must do everything we can to end this situation as soon as possible for the sake of everyone who has been affected," said Yuhei Sato, governor of Fukushima prefecture. "I am extremely disappointed and saddened by the suggestion that this might drag out longer."

TEPCO acknowledged publicly for the first time that at least four of the plant's six reactors will have to be decommissioned once the crisis subsides, citing the corrosive seawater used to cool reactors and spent fuel pools.

"After pouring seawater on them ... I believe we cannot use them anymore," Katsumata said.

Japan's government has been saying since March 20 that the entire plant must be scrapped.

On Wednesday, nuclear safety officials said seawater 300 yards (meters) outside the plant contained 3,355 times the legal limit for the amount of radioactive iodine ? the highest rate yet and a sign that more contaminated water was making its way into the ocean.

The amount of iodine-131 found south of the plant does not pose an immediate threat to human health but was a "concern," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official. He said there was no fishing in the area.

Radioactive iodine is short-lived, with a half-life of just eight days, and in any case was expected to dissipate quickly in the ocean. It does not tend to accumulate in shellfish.

"We will nail down the cause, and will do our utmost to prevent it from rising further," he said.

Highly toxic plutonium also has been detected in the soil outside the plant, TEPCO said. Safety officials said the amounts did not pose a risk to humans, but the finding supports suspicions that dangerously radioactive water is leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods. There have been no reports of plutonium being found in seawater.

The latest findings on radioactive iodine highlighted the urgent need to power up the power plant's cooling system. Workers succeeded last week in reconnecting some parts of the plant to the power grid.

But as they pumped in water to cool the reactors and nuclear fuel, they found pools of radioactive water in the basements of several buildings and in trenches outside.

The contaminated water has been emitting many times the amount of radiation that the government considers safe for workers, making it a priority to pump the water out before electricity can be restored.

TEPCO plans to spray resin on the ground around the plant to keep radioactive particles from spreading or seeping into the ocean. The company will test the method Thursday in one section of the plant before using it elsewhere, Nishiyama said.

"The idea is to glue them to the ground," he said. But it would be too sticky to use inside buildings or on sensitive equipment.

The government also is considering covering some reactors with cloth tenting, TEPCO said. If successful, that could allow workers to spend longer periods of time in other areas of the plant.

The spread of radiation has raised concerns about the safety of Japan's seafood, even though experts say the low levels suggest radiation won't accumulate in fish at unsafe levels. Trace amounts of radioactive cesium-137 have been found in anchovies as far afield as Chiba, near Tokyo, but at less than 1 percent of acceptable levels.

Experts say the Pacific is so vast that any radiation will be quickly diluted before it becomes problematic. Citing dilution, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has played down the risks of seafood contamination.

As officials seek to bring an end to the nuclear crisis, hundreds of thousands in the northeast are trying to put their lives back together. The official death toll stood at 11,257 on Wednesday, with the final toll likely surpassing 18,000.

The government said damage is expected to cost $310 billion, making it the most costly natural disaster on record.

In the town of Rizukentakata, one 24-year-old said she's been searching every day for a missing friend but will have to return to her job at a nursing home because she has run out of cash.

Life is far from back to normal, she said.

"Our family posted a sign in our house: Stay positive," Eri Ishikawa said. But she said it's a struggle.
 
The folks, who used to explain to us, why this isn't all that bad, have become very quiet by now...

Symptomatic is, that yesterday Tepco said the radiation levels in the ground water were tne thousand times higher than normal. And then the authorities said "No, the measurements are wrong" -- without giving the right numbers.

Anybody else got the feeling, that important informations are still being held back and that you cannot trust a single word of what is announced by Tepco and/or from official side?
 
The folks, who used to explain to us, why this isn't all that bad, have become very quiet by now...

Don't really care for that comment.

Perhaps we've been getting on with our lives and the thread has slowed as the flow of news has slowed and the urgency of the situation has lessened.

What exactly does, "all that bad" mean anyway. I do remember Chernobyl being brought up a number of times, and talk of radioactive plumes making their way all over the world, so yeah, I guess it still isn't all that bad.

Edit: I assumed by folks you meant posters. I see you might have meant analysts. Whatever. If things do get that bad then I won't be posting because I'm too busy trying to get my family somewhere safe, not because I think I lost an argument.
 
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Don't really care for that comment.

Perhaps we've been getting on with our lives and the thread has slowed as the flow of news has slowed and the urgency of the situation has lessened.

What exactly does, "all that bad" mean anyway. I do remember Chernobyl being brought up a number of times, and talk of radioactive plumes making their way all over the world, so yeah, I guess it still isn't all that bad.

I must admit that I have been one of the people who think it so far wasen't that bad. As long as it was only radioactive Iodine and cesium that was released the polution would wear off in a matter of weeks or a few months due to their short half lifes.

The release of plutonium in the enviroment makes it a whole other story. It will make the area inhabitable for hundreds of years. But it still seems to be a local problem, so yes it could still be worse...
 
The folks, who used to explain to us, why this isn't all that bad, have become very quiet by now...

Symptomatic is, that yesterday Tepco said the radiation levels in the ground water were tne thousand times higher than normal. And then the authorities said "No, the measurements are wrong" -- without giving the right numbers.

Anybody else got the feeling, that important informations are still being held back and that you cannot trust a single word of what is announced by Tepco and/or from official side?

It is sad the "folks" have neglected to continue telling us how things are going. But it is no longer good, and some of the numbers are getting bad, with no clear end in site. They really don't want to admit that this is probably not going to end well, and that this will probably see the end of this style of nuclear power plants being built.

There are several groups that are in Japan taking readings, and Greenpeace gets told their readings are biased when they seem to be the same, or similar readings that the TEPCO peeps put out, but at a very different distance. The nuclear specialist also keep saying that the evacuation range is not enough and should be increased sooner rather than later. There was also a report I can't find, they don't know what to do with all of the radioactive water that is currently there, with much more to come. So I don't know if the Japanese are trying to keep from causing a panic, and hoping for the best, or if they are simply ignorant of how bad things are, and hoping for the best.

It is also interesting that here in the US, there are several plant inspections going on at plants that have a history of having some shutdown problems. When Chernobyl happened, the spin doctors told us repeatedly, "this can not happen here, we use superior technology and it is simply not possible". I know that was mostly "we are better than them Russians" puffery, but that arrogance is now being questioned. This is that technology failing because of human arrogance meeting the impossible events.

I really hope that this is the worst that we will hear, and it will soon be resolved. But I really doubt it is anywhere near over.
 
The longer this lasts, the worse it will get. An expert here said "No, it's not like Tchernobyl. Because Tchernobyl happened with a big bang. Fukushima will become as serious and disastrous as Tchernobyl -- but in slow motion."

When Chernobyl happened, the spin doctors told us repeatedly, "this can not happen here, we use superior technology and it is simply not possible". I know that was mostly "we are better than them Russians" puffery, but that arrogance is now being questioned. This is that technology failing because of human arrogance meeting the impossible events.

That's the point. People said "it cannot happen here, because our technology is better". Arrogance at its best, because the problem with Tchernobyl was human failure in the first place. The technology was bad, yeah, but the accident was started by people malfunctioning, not machines. The human factor will always be the weak link in the whole systems -- on all levels, from the management down to the janitor.

The thing is, that nuclear reactors get older. They might be rather safe, when they are brandnew. But they are supposed to run for 50 or 60 years. And even the best technology today will be old-fashioned and outdated in 50 years. And then it will be a danger. Because like a car getting old, there will be problems. Small ones first, then bigger ones. Then there will be "incidents" and finally, there could be a massive accident.

In most parts of the world everyone still seems to be okay with nuclear power -- because so far the disasters have happened far away from them. People don't care, when disasters happen far away. "Oooh, look, a meteor hit an island in the Pacific. Those poor people. But it happened far away, so let's go on with mowing the lawn."

Back in the 70's they said, that statistically seen, a heavy accident in a nuclear power plant will only happen every 100,000 years or so.

Man, how time flies...
 
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Nobody has died.* Not so bad.

(*except one at crane accident, afaik, but that can happen at a wind mill)
 
I hope you are joking. If yes, don't read on. If not, go ahead and read:

Do they teach you anything at all about the dangers of nuclear power in Finland?

The thing about radioactive poisoning is, that people don't suddenly drop down dead. Instead the contamination is a slow and agonizing process and the effects might show not before months, years or decades from now.

After being exposed to heavy radiation, you will develop symptoms like nausea, vomitting, diarrhea, headaches and fever within a few hours, which will last for a couple of hours or a day. Then you'll get better again and have a latent period, which can last up to 4 weeks or so.

Then the sickness comes back with a vengeance, because it had time to spread inside the body, and is heaving a wild party in your metabolism. It effects especially those parts in your body, which are busy with splitting and regenerating, e.g. producing blood cells, because those are much more prone for radiation. Also that's the reason why children are effected a lot more, than adults.

By the way: It gets worse, when you eat or drink contaminated food and fluids. And radioactivity really makes itself at home in animals and plants. So how about a nice haunch of venision from the woods around Tchernobyl? The animal life has renegerated there, after all, as some people here happily pointet out. So dig in. Hmmm.... yummy.

Seriously: Nobody knows for sure, how much radiation those guys at Fukushima were exposed to in the compound and the reactor building, because there are no medical reports so far. But it's a good guess, that their chances of survival are about 50:50 even with the best medical treatment.
 
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Nobody has died yet.* Not so bad.

(*except one at crane accident, afaik, but that can happen at a wind mill)
FTFY

Some of the workers attempting the clean-up reportedly said that they've accepted their fate. Which is death from radiation sickness.

I presume that as long as this disaster can conceivably become even worse, there will be people telling us that it's "not so bad".
 
Do they teach you anything at all about the dangers of nuclear power in Finland?

Apparently not.

I was partly joking, and yeah, it was a bad one. But my point is that the "zone" around Fukushima won't be nearly as big as Chernobyl, and worst case scenario is that 150 people (50% of the workforce) die in the future due to this accident.
Sorry this may sound cold hearted, but if these disasters happen, say every 30 years, I can live with that. Benefits of nuclear power (no co2, powreful, reliable in a way that you get max power 95% of the time) are in my mind greater. Now only alternative, fossil fuels, kills more people.

Btw. I think we need to invest more to fusion power. The second someone invents a better base load power plant, I'll turn anti-fission.

edit: and one thing, if there's any other form available than nuclear and fossil, I'd take that. If there's only those two, then nuclear.
 
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Apparently not.

I was partly joking, and yeah, it was a bad one. But my point is that the "zone" around Fukushima won't be nearly as big as Chernobyl, and worst case scenario is that 150 people (50% of the workforce) die in the future due to this accident.
Sorry this may sound cold hearted, but if these disasters happen, say every 30 years, I can live with that.

Could you also live with the risk, if the next accident of that kind happened in your vicinity?

For the current disaster at Fukushima it's really hard to make any prediction for the future, because I dare saying, that details and reliable information about it will only leak out sparsely and only in hindsight it will be possible to see, how many victims the Fukushima accident really had. Much depends on how it goes on, if the meltdown can be stopped or not.

Also it's a legend, that we need nuclear energy. That legend is spread mainly by those, who based their energy supply completely on nuclear energy and are now dependant on it. In Germany currently 7 reactors have been switched off due to safety concerns after Fukushima. And guess what? The lights are still on, my PC is still running and we didn't have a power failure. Things look different in France, though, since they produce about 80 % of the electricity in nuclear powet plants and cannot compensate with something else.

However, reality will create the facts. And reality is, that most of the roughly 440 currently active nuclear reactors in the world are decades old and will go offline in the near future, because they have reached the end of their life cycle. But only a fraction of those is going to be replaced by new ones. And most of those new ones have been under construction or in planning for years and years and only exist on paper so far.

So what are the options? Prolonging the lifetimes of ancient reactors until 2050? I think not.
 
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Seriously: Nobody knows for sure, how much radiation those guys at Fukushima were exposed to in the compound and the reactor building,

But it's a good guess, that their chances of survival are about 50:50 even with the best medical treatment.

You can make predictions without any info? Are you a soothsayer?!

Also it's a legend, that we need nuclear energy. That legend is spread mainly by those, who based their energy supply completely on nuclear energy and are now dependant on it.

It's more complicated than that. Some countries have no/very little resources and don't want to be dependent on other countries for their energy supply (Japan is already dependent on other countries for their food, the US for their military defence). Wars are fought over oil, didn't you know.
 
Could you also live with the risk, if the next accident of that kind happened in your vicinity?

Yes.

Also it's a legend, that we need nuclear energy. That legend is spread mainly by those, who based their energy supply completely on nuclear energy and are now dependant on it. In Germany currently 7 reactors have been switched off due to safety concerns after Fukushima. And guess what? The lights are still on, my PC is still running and we didn't have a power failure. Things look different in France, though, since they produce about 80 % of the electricity in nuclear powet plants and cannot compensate with something else.

You live in Germany, lots of coal, not so much nuclear energy. And every grid has some extra for peak consumption, planned maintenances etc. We import nearly a fifth of our electricity, most of it from Russia. Can you guess with what it's produced? Nuclear power, not just any nuclear power, RBMK-reactors. Yes, the same kind that in Chernobyl.
Now I much rather get my electricity from brand new EPR than from those monsters.

So what are the options? Prolonging the lifetimes of ancient reactors until 2050? I think not.

Some can surely be replaced with renewables. Finland's solution is to make three, possibly five new reactors, with two oldest going offline.

What's your solution, polluting the air with more particulates?
 
Do you also want the nuclear waste in your backyard? There are large amounts available for you to take care of if you wish.
 
We have plans for our nuclear waste, thank you very much. Importing or exporting it is illegal, so you have to find yours. Gen4 reactors would be a much more elegant solution, but I don't think we ever see those with current politics.

Now, if you excuse me, I'm losing interest in this conversation. I think nuclear energy is still better than this, and you guys think the disadvantages out the advantages. I can't change your minds, and I'm pretty sure you can't change my mind, so let's just agree that we disagree.
 
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Suit yourself. But I find it strange, that you are willing to accept such numbers as in your link without questioning, while being completely unaware or ignoring the dangers of nuclear power.

Also all those arguments pro nuclear energy always have the whiff of "We didn't even try to look for serious alternatives" to me. It's so convenient to just go on like always without seriously thinking about alternatives, simply saying "There is no alternative, period." But that's okay for me. Here in my region is a company, which is the technological leader in the area of wind turbines. Power from renewable sources is a future technology, so having the technological edge is good for us.

And by the way: They are also "planning" a nuclear waste disposal for decades here. Problem is, that you have to find a location, that is guaranteed to be geologically stabile for about a million years or so. As far as I know, nobody in the world has found such a location yet.
 
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