" 8 " GE Designed Nuclear Reactors in Stages meltdown in Japan. Could fallout from Japan explosion reach U.S. West Coast?

Yes I saw that too.... I was shocked... With this going on and he is talking Basketball? That says so much about who this man is deep inside...

Obama... What an Embarrassment and, Colossal Disappointment !!!! And ~ I voted for him...

We all need to Organize our own "Pro Democracy Movement" and get all these "Phony Corporate paid-off Impostures out of our Government- !

If Egypt Can Do it ~ Then... WE CAN TOO !!!

(1) We need to Get our Money Back From the 1% of the Industrialists & Bankers that stole it and ripped off all the citizens... and US Treasury.= FREEZE ALL THEIR ASSITS-!!!

and then,

(2) Throw the All the Corporate Criminals that ripped us all off in Real Prison...

(3) Then... balance our Books, Re-hire teachers and rebuild an economy for all the People not just for the 1%.

Organize!

GA

WeAreWi

~

And gerardange, you can edit your headline to reflect the correct number.

dangerous levels of radiation are now leaking. if you think there is nothing to worry about Arch, carry on like everything is rainbows and butterflies.

Perhaps it evaporates ?

That's what I'm wondering.

^'d Yes! The salt water is a problem because it has been evaporating- basically turning to steam as it cools the reactors, creating another problem of a build-up of radioactive salt. This is going to be one of those problems in which the solutions cause more problems, too.

Another aspect that I have not heard one single person mention, is that the radioactive material can be used to make a dirty bomb. Obviously, anyone who tried to collect it would be exposing themselves to a lethal level- but would a suicide bomber care about that? They'd just grab it, turn it over to the bomb makers, then go off and die a martyr.

Karma sometimes takes the slow road...

Most of the airplanes in use are way too old to be flying but they're kept in the air by vigilant maintenance- just like the reactors that are in use. Old things fall apart, even with the best of care. Corporations and governments are just playing the odds with our lives.

Thanks for the link. i'll spend time checking it out tomorrow after I've bought another bottle of cognac.

8 Reactors... and spent fuel storage tanks that is also not being cooled.

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

I hate to sound like a spoil-sport, but I'm learning way more about nuclear power plants than I ever wanted to.

kudos to you for keeping a rational head to you the best of luck

not that you should believe everything without question but i think they will be more honest simply because in 86 and 79 we didn't have the information highway just look at where your at i have been reading every thing from almost every where and even though there is alot of attention grabbing head lines even the crazy sites come back to what the main stream news is saying that it is bad that what reaches the us if any is beyond small and poses no real threat and that this still is not as bad as chernobyl

These reactors are in totally uncharted territory. Everything that is happening and being said is now in the realm of theory, no wait except for the part that is actually happening. The how to solve it part is theoretical.
The seawater is destroying the casing rods that have the nuclear material contained it is a race to shut all fission down or have the tubes corrode and then what happens is a guess.

Correction: One is a Breeder Reactor that is failing has Plutonium the others have uranium fuel. This is a extremely bad situation that is getting worse...

The Nuclear Industry has populated the all media with PR professionals that are spinning the truth = they are everywhere.

THE JAPANESE HAVE BEEN NUKED ALL OVER AGAIN, and by a US corporation too! They didn't require the services of the US military this time!!!

=> Corporatocracy has the Power to NUKE CIVILIANS!
=> Corporatocracy has the Power to NUKE CIVILIANS!
=> Corporatocracy has the Power to NUKE CIVILIANS!
=> Corporatocracy has the Power to NUKE CIVILIANS!

Science Officer Spock to Captain Kirk => Jim, California, in danger.

When insanely high temperature materials melt down into the ground and then hit the water table, they are on the ocean it is not very far down, the result is a massive build up of steam pressure and it expands rapidly, sort of like an explosion, and blows the core pieces up into the surrounding area. This will spread the radiation just as if the core exploded, with the added plus of going into the water table.

According to reports, these reactors were built to prevent that kind of tunneling from the molten fuel, AKA "China Syndrome" effect.

Yes they were designed for earthquakes and tsunamis too, don't forget that the systems for cooling were so redundant that they wouldn't be able to all fail at the same time. So I guess none of this is actually happening .

awesome!!!

two words, Solar Towers, two more, La Paz, Arizona.

Where is Japan supposed to put solar towers? Your talking about a country that has to utilize every arable foot of land for food production. Furthermore...do you even recognize the climate of the country might not facilitate the usage of solar towers?

Tidal power generators . There are some off the Washington coast .

For a country dependent on shipping and the ocean to meet its food requirements, blocking off large sections of access to the oceans is not an easy solution. Furthermore, as much as people here seem to love tidal generators, your placing industrial equipment in very sensitive marine life zones. Most of the life in the ocean are pretty close to shore (within 5 miles). Your going to cause major disruptions in migration, breeding, and feeding grounds.

Its not that easy to make a choice for a nation without consideration for all the potential negatives and the costs.

Dear puke , Not aware of the current designs , are you ? Well here , from the evergreen state ! http://www.hydrovolts.com/PR?WIREC%20Hamner%20Tidal%20Power%20Show.pdf These turbans are vertical . They are far beneath surface . 100 thousand homes can be powered . MY point , is we have not developed this to its potential . At all . Combine it with solar and wind , we may not even need nuclear power . Until we try , we cannot know . The reason truly renewable energy is not being pursued , is money . Real renewables all have decentralization in common . Power and influence cannot be concentrated . This is the greatest corporate fear , for them to be irrelevant .

Actually I am. I currently am a fifth year mechanical engineering student and have worked with the Department of the Army in regards to alternative power sources. The actual technology that your attempting to push is so far in its infancy that it is decades away from full implementation.

Furthermore, you seem perfectly willing to ignore a major issue with these systems, they are more effective the larger the amount of water flow they interfere with. Basically, for the system to work on a large scale, your going to end up with an environmental impact similar to the effect of a damn.

Furthermore, the power generated would be very cyclic...just like the tides. You would not be able to get a consistent power generation throughout the day and night. This would greatly complicate things as the system could not effectively respond to changes in demand as other sources of power do.

Generating power is not the issue at all. Its effectively delivering it to meet demand. Unfortunately we are much more effective at generating power than delivering it. A prime example of this is the massive amount of energy that is wasted throughout the world through losses just in high power lines. Just as problematic is our massive consumption of energy which we are all guilty of.

Maybe huge solar platforms can be stationed offshore, like oil rigs?

^'d That's exactly it- money. Oil needs to be constantly pumped out of the ground, constantly refined, constantly transported, generating trillions of dollars all along the process. Solar panels are installed- and that's it. Aside from occasionally needing some maintenance or a repair, it's a one-time cost that will become cheaper and cheaper as production volume increases. You can already buy solar powered landscaping lights for a buck each. $300 solar phone chargers are already going for about eight bucks on Ebay. Solar panels used to be crazy-expensive, but when you think about the relatively recent trend right before the economy crashed- everybody redoing their kitchens in travertine marble- for about the same price, they could have put solar panels on the roof. It's a matter of priorities, and educating the public that the prices are coming down. That's something the oil companies don't want us to know.

Check out the tidal generators off Scotland and Washington state , japan is in a good position to have those ..... Stay safe .

There are energy storage devices , i have posted about them here , they are in peoples homes . The days of centralized energy is over . It is NOT sustainable , never was . No one is to blame for your unfortunate choice of degree , you will have to adapt . Good luck to you .

You are so right , we have reached the tipping point , and people are starting to realize this . You can get a solar charger for your e car or bike , one that you can park it under . I live it a conservative test market area . E cars are popping up even here . In ten years , They will be everywhere . Power to the people !

on every roof and parking lot ...

yah, unfortunately that is the sole purpose of companies, well most, but not all. check out environmission.com.au something like that.

You cannot get a dam built in this country. Since the 60's the US has been demolishing dams. If you build one, your essentially killing off the ecosystem of the river. Almost all dams currently in use in the US were built around the great depression. Its impossible to build one today without violating a half a dozen EPA rules.

Solar and wind are not quite the answer either. A big issue with power supply is that we have to produce a consistent amount of electricity at all times. Our power network cannot store large amounts of power. You simply cannot build a battery large enough to store power during the day to consume at night.

The big issue is that Americans are power hogs. We consume massive amounts of energy for our daily lives. Its not enough to just walk instead of driving. Our entire economic, industrial, and communication systems are based on consuming large amounts of power. I mean...lets be honest with ourselves, how much energy are we consuming right now leaving messages to each other on this website?

You can build a battery big enough, it's called hydrogen gas, which you make in the day via solar power and use in the dark. Concentrated solar tower power stations can keep generating electricity for up to 5 hours after dark. We can compress air into tanks or underground caverns during the day and release it at night, etc.

Think outside the box.

Conservation can accomplish a lot, you're right about that.

No...you can't. We are talking on a scale of gigawatts. The fact that you even suggest that underground tanks of compressed air could work shows you don't even understand the scale. Even if we had your magical hydrogen gas batteries (which I am assuming your butchering the concept of a fuel cell), our power grid is not designed to function in such a way. I think most people's concept of the power grid is based on the items they use everyday but that doesn't reflect reality. You can't just make massive batteries to store this much energy. These substances don't exist. You also can't just hook up batteries indefinitely. You can try this at home. Try hooking up about 100 AA batteries to run your TV and see what happens.

Also, if underground tanks work so well as containment vessels, why do gas stations pollute ground water all the time? Furthermore, why would we put them underground (your compressed tanks)? So that it would be impossible to inspect or maintain them? Or perhaps to make a potential explosion thousands of times? The scale of the tank your talking about would be thousands of miles in volume...how would we even design such a theoretical vessel. The hoop and linear stresses alone (assuming we are talking about a typical compressed cylinder just magnified to the billion, billion size would alone put it past any known structural material. Care to explain what magical material your going to make this out of?

Also, great idea...let's take a threatened ecosystems, underground caverns, filled with an ecosystem found no where else on the planet, and destroy it by filling it with high pressure air...never mind the simple fact that caverns aren't air tight.

"Thinking outside of the box" and just saying random silly stuff not based in any sort of reality are not the same thing.

It is cool you got to see the solar hydrogen combo up close . I like the future sustainable power , to an energy mosaic . Decentralized . Combined with radical conservation , the process will be improved over time , as all things are . It is a reality , that we are late for our best destiny , because the bouncer would not let us in to the party , trying to squeeze out as much money as he could . All while poisoning the future for generations . I have had enough . I think we all have .

Because people creating their own energy means the most profitable industry in the history of human civilization will have to find a new way to make money, and they would rather squeeze this current system for as long as they can while they build up a way out. That's why companies like GE, who produced the power plants in Japan currently in meltdown, are investing in wind and solar production plants. When they finally run out of the methods they know best, they want to be there to own the next century, too.