Comments on: More nuclear disaster talk

By: Teri Pittman

Teri Pittman — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:44:18 +0000

Just an FYI, internet bandwidth is being routed over to Japan. What this may mean to you is slower than normal traffic on the internet and in some cases, inability to get to certain sites. I work at an ISP and had several folks in Hawaii that couldn’t get to our website or email due to the internet issues. The main impact seems to be on the Cogent backbone.

By: Sergey

Sergey — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:43:54 +0000

On “Titanic” and failed rivets: not only probably, but most certainly using proper rivets would have prevented “Titanic” catastrophe. Rivets are the focal points where stresses concentrate. This was a blunder of the first order to use softer material to joint plates of harder metal. But this blunder was widespread these times, and so were steam explosions of boilers of steam machines. They happened at factories, steam boats and mills and these disasters were feared by public and covered in newspapers. Rivets were simply cut, like wire is cut by cutter, when pressure in boiler exceed certain level. To answer this problem, the steel rivets were introduced. But they were expensive, there was shortages of them and even more – of riveters capable to use them. They required higher qualification from workers using them.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:22:08 +0000

When the dust literally settles, the nuclear plant portion of the earthquake/tsunami disaster will pale in comparison to the rest of the story. Not that CNN, CBS et al will bother to cover it. They’ll be seeking hyperbolic transformation of an event into the apocalypse.
I dream of a contemporary Joseph Welch who can say to them: “Gentlemen, have you no sense of decency?”

By: JJ

JJ — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 05:47:05 +0000

So glad I was able to access neo’s blog. I’m in Kauai (yes, spent the night of the tsunami in the rental car. No damage here on the Garden Isle.) and the TV coverage has been abysmal. Even Fox News has been over the top all the time.

Nice to get some rational views. Now I can go snorkeling tomorrow safe in the knowledge that neo’s band of commenter’s is on the job, as usual.

By: Parker

Parker — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:10:10 +0000

I re-visited this thread and the later comments provoked this thought:

We can not know what may or may not happen, all we can do is take precautions and put into place redundant safe guards. This is true of any new, potentially hazardous thing we plan to accomplish. We can not, as a species, stand still. We have to keep innovating. Innovation involves risk. We are technological creatures. Every technological advance involves a variable degree of risk. We strive to keep risk at minimum but beyond a certain point we have to realize that risk is inherit to anything we undertake to achieve.

Raise your hand if you are a Luddite.

By: Random Thoughts » It’s all about us

Random Thoughts » It’s all about us — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:22:51 +0000

[…] so many of us, Neo-con has grown tired of the media hype over nuclear meltdowns. Talk shows, headlines, blogs, and demonstrators seem to think this is a disaster of terrible […]

By: Curtis

Curtis — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:04:58 +0000

Great info here. Thanks. I copied the whole thread comments and all and emailed it to some people to show them the nonsense of the media coverage.

By: Sergey

Sergey — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:30:12 +0000

To get some perspective, remember, that the reactors were shutdown 5 days ago. Since then, only residue heat from radioactive decay, not chain reaction of fission, takes place. And it fades out exponentially, so now the heat production is just 0.3% of full thermal power before shutdown. This is not enough for a major accident, like melting of the core through steel (4 inches thick) reactor vessel. So the bulk of radiation will be contained in every case. What was released from the vessel can not bring about significant contamination beyond the station itself.

By: Gray

Gray — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:21:07 +0000

Any “Plug the damn radiation!” statements yet from Obama?

By: Gray

Gray — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:17:29 +0000

My complaint was not against the Japanese. My complaint was against the AP and its commitment to ignorant misinformation. I regret the failure to be clear.

Oh. Sorry I was snippy. I think work is getting to me….