Interesting nuclear article on the BBC

[hutch--]

Fukushima: Nuclear power's VHS relic?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14060913

Its good to read an article on nuclear technology that is not full of histrionics and bullsh*t.

[anunitu]

I think the problem with Nukes isn't the technology, it is a matter of short cutting the building process. When a contractor cuts corners in order to raise their profit that we run into danger. Built to the actual specs, a nuke plant should never fail.

[MichaelW]

You still have the problem with idiot operators. Many/most of the nuclear catastrophes have "idiot" written all over them.

[donkey]

Interesting article, we have heavy water reactors here in Canada, if there is a coolant issue the reactor shuts down as a matter of physics (no moderator no reaction) not as a failsafe, and though the Candu now has enriched fuel at reactors in China, it can use natural uranium which is a little safer than the other choices. Don't know much about the gas cooled variety.

[anunitu]

The Idiot factor does come into play more often than it should.  :red

[hutch--]

I agree with Michael's comment here, the old Chernobyl event apparently was one phukup after another and instead of turning as much of it off as possible, they had the worst case result with a core meltdown that then started to sink into the ground below it.

The Fukushima plant was far better in the way it was run and had many failsafes but a tsumani on that scale would have been hard to beat. It apparently shut down auromatically but after the water wrecked the backup power they ran into cooling problems with both the cores and the spent rod storage.

The article was interesting in that it referenced reactor designs that are fundamentally safer than many of the old ones and in the coming era of global warming making the planet colder (yes irony) a large scale technique of generating base load power will have to be put in place to take up that shortfall.