While looking at some of the organizations that our “amateur Wikipedia grapher cum UNEP cited as peer reviewed source” belongs to I came across the German webpage of “Friends of the Earth”. This is an organization that Hanno Sandvik says he himself belongs to.
This is what I found on the German “Friends of the Earth” page:
Main link here Translated link here
The absurd Atom-Alarm game shows airplanes crashing into the pressure vessel, nuclear waste casks spewing out directly into the ground, and the cooling towers cracking. In other words, things that haven’t happened in real life operation of nuclear plants. The Nuclear Energy Institute has a report about what would happen if a plane crashed (Boeing 767) into a nuclear power plant here. They write:
The containment structure was not breached, despite some crushing and spalling (chipping of material at the impact point) of the concrete.
They’ve even done crash tests with a fighter jet into the wall segments of a nuclear plant. Would a nuclear power plant withstand a 9/11 style terrorist attack? Yes.
According to the Atom-Alarm game instructions, your task, as one individual, is to keep any of this happening for a period of a million years. This of course is impossible, since the game is rigged to ensure failure.
Here’s what they say about it (via Google Translation which is broadly imperfect):
Nuclear waste casks, terrorist pilots, temperature fluctuations
As an operator of a fictional nuclear power plants will be after you press the start button immediately often claimed. Some appear as routine – as if the increasing number of dangerous nuclear waste drums to be disposed of brilliant. It is important to keep risky temperature fluctuations under control. Or the unexpected happens, when it comes to earthquakes, and the aging nuclear power plant in cracked concrete. No sooner are the cracks forming, then a bomber pilot on the horizon and wants to throw himself on the reactors.
Power plant management, desperately overstretched
A million years is to ensure the safety of the players of the nuclear plant. For this purpose a counter runs backwards. Even after ten or twenty years ago – played three, and felt hectic 15 minutes – is the infernal noise of sonicated power plant management, desperately overstretched. Damp hands cramp the finger and a steadily increasing accident rate can rise to serious doubts – first at the response and later on his own megalomania to try to keep such a risky technology and the ever-radiant nuclear waste for millennia under control.
Yeah, whatever. So that you can remain terrorized on the go, or terrorize nearby people at the bus/train/plane station, you can download and install the iPhone app direct from Apple’s app store. Here’s what it looks like in use:
Atomic Alarm for iPhone and iPod (for free)
- Direct link Atomic Alarm in the App Store (Apple’s iTunes software installed required)
- Or just type in the App Store “Atomic Alert” as a search
There’s a recent alarmist film out called “The Age of Stupid”. When I see things like this, I agree that we certainly seem to be living in it.
Of course the engineering testing proving that planes don’t actually penetrate the pressure vessels of nuclear plants doesn’t stop organizations like Greenpeace from spreading more stupid:
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TerryBixler (17:21:21) : “I wonder how they propose to process sewage without power.”
Terry, that is quite a conundrum for those of us living in the Washington, DC area.
since atomic power started being used there have been 3 deaths directly attributed to nuclear accidents all three were near where i live in Idaho only 2 were due to radiation the third was impaled by a control rod to the ceiling. this is where we learned to clean up messes when they happen. people work in the area every day and nobody suffers from any radiation caused problems. life goes on and nobody remembers the real accident while everyone remembers the anti-accident TMI.
H.R. @ur momisugly 18:14:31:
No worries old bean! She ejected before takeoff!
On a more sombre note; Lazlo Manchuk, a young native of Newfoundland, who’s life ambition was to be a stud, was driven into a snow tire by his girlfriends irate father.
Sorry. A bit OT for sure eh?
Seriously though. The game Anthony highlights is just one of thousands of little propaganda pieces assailing the young and feeble minded. Have you seen the latest version of Monopoly where you can ruin your neighbor’s property value by putting a “big stinky polluting power plant” next door?
This is only slightly off-topic, but IMAO, even more outrageous fear mongering.
http://cbullitt.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/science-news-agw-indoctrination-for-kids/
“I don’t agree with your claim that the game is near smart. Since when is cartoonish propaganda like this “smart”? – A”
Unfortunately, cartoons appeal to infantile minds.
“Mike McMillan (16:43:51) :
Chernobyl was an on-the-cheap no-containment graphite reactor, unlike anything in the west, and its total, calamitous failure has so far produced what, 50 fatals?”
I believe the guy who had to crawl under the reactor, and was splashed with contaminated water (A vague recollection), is still alive and kicking. Don’t recall his name however.
It’s just a game…if you don’t like it don’t play it.
You sure did enough to advertise it though 😉
“Richard Sharpe (17:16:13) :
Norman Rubin says:
Warnings about an accident like TMI
More people died in the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car than died in TMI.”
I also understand TMI didn’t sell a single watt of power before being dismantled.
A Romaininan colleague of mine used to work in a nuclear power plant, he did tell me but I don’t recall which one. He said the control centre was 400km from the main reactor plant.
I do not dispute that nuclear power is expensive.
I do dispute that it is dangerous: for instance it’s death toll is a fraction that of miners digging for coal per Kwh produced. As is its pollution, mines are a very messy business.
Even where major incidents have occurred such as Chernobyl deaths, injuries and local pollution hve been far less than than catastrophic failures of chemical plants: mine collapases and underground fires or for that matter even aeroplane crashes.
Given that the USA has enormous reserves of natural gas, and that gas/steam power stations are cheap and quick to build that is by far and away the cheapest source of electric power for the next hundred years or so.
And given too that the USA has oil reserves for the next hundred years too the cheapest and simplest solution is to drill, extract and refine.
So what’s the problem?
Kindest Regards.
TonyS (15:40:36) :
Tony,
Read this publication about the future of nuclear power which could even bring a solution for all our resources.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/hogan3.1.1.html
The short term future nuclear technology will be based on “Thorium Reactors”:
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/348/
and the so called “Traveling Wave Reactor”.
http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=266&channel=tr10
The latter is a solid state reactor (think battery) that allows us to clean up our nuclear deposits in a safe manner, generating cheap energy for “off grid” and “closed grid” applications.
The first technology is more suitable for larger plants.
Both technologies are safe and without the need for Uranium which is a limited resource.
Nuclear energy would allow us to make the transfer to a hydrogen economy or if we have the right battery technology (a matter of price and high energy density versus weight) make the switch to electric.
Just to keep the discussion about energy clear, we are far from a ‘PEAK OIL’ situation and new scientific insights in regard to the process that generates oil and gas, indicate there never will be a peak oil situation.
Read this publication about abiotic oil and gas:
http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2009/09/abiotic-oil-part-3/
Unless the current doctrine of Extreme Greens that hold our societies hostage with with scary stories and flawed science about our climate succeed with their plot to put the brakes on the development of humanity, energy will be the last problem to worry about.
I am an optimist so I think the Green schemes will fail.
Ron de Haan (19:24:59)
Thanks for posting that article. Very informative.
The events at climate audit may merit a posting? Surely this is one that may brake the camels back?
one of the byproducts of Chernobyl was that they closed off the land surrounding the facility and special permission was required to enter the area.
The consequence was the plethora of wildlife that turned up (now that man wasn’t around) and they’ve found species they thought were endangered thriving in the closed off area.
Mike McMillan (16:43:51) : 50 fatals?
The question mark is a good idea as the problems from Chernobyl continue as you will learn if you follow this link:
http://www.cofcusa.org/
Still, there are problems with any significant energy system so there is little sense in focusing on the evil of nuclear reactors. I don’t think anything is gained by being complacent with respect to the problems of any of them.
Oh dear.
Ihave heard all this about alternative nuclear reactors for forty years.
The only practical one, and we will see how it does, is the high pressure steam moderated reactor: which if it works will do all that is required.
And a very safe design it is too, and at a very affordable price.
So we will see how it does over the next few years.
Kindest Regards.
Tony S.
” I live in Hamburg/Germany and I can say nuclear power is no fun. Nearby is the now infamous nuclear power plant “Krümmel”, which had to be switched off two years ago after a transformer burned down (which looked quite spectacular, as I might add). In the wake of this accident, they “found” several serious weaknesses in the safety of this power plant. It was like “How would have thought, this and that is not up to spec!” – only it supplying power for over twenty years! And this one of the more “modern” nuclear power plants.
So they had to fix the most important problems over the course of the last two years. When they finally switched it on again it was preceded and followed by a number of accidents.
Less then two weeks after switch on they had an emergency shutdown. I was currently shopping and the lights went briefly out in the supermarket where I was. I need half an hour to get home (for a five minute ride), because a quarter of the traffic lights switch off. A couple of power mains ruptured and flooded streets due to pumps stopping and starting again. Oh, what fun it was.
So again, this is a modern power plant. I say, the companies running them only look for the bucks they can make and they give a chicken shit about safety. All nuclear power plants should be shut down, ASAP, and the companies running them (including the profits they made over the last ten years) should be socialized.
And I haven’t even started talking about the problem with the nuclear waste…”
AWWWW, gee, Tony. Have a schnapps and a lie down. What happened to German industry, intelligence, work habits, national identity, education, logic, pride, confidence, and manhood in the sixty plus years that you have safely survived under the American nuclear umbrella? Germans can’t operate a nuclear plant? Why? Could it possibly be because your brains have been softened by the overweening motherhood of the European Socialist movement? Do you believe that the government can do it better? Cite me an example.
Absolutely nothing you named here has anything to do with the reactor. These are all peripheral component failures. What you refer to as nuclear waste should really be viewed as a nuclear resource since through reprocessing up to 90% can be recycled and used again.
TMI unit 1 or unit 2?
TMI reactor Unit 1 is showing to be operating at 100% according to the NRC nuke status website as of Friday (9-25-2009).
TMI reactor Unit 2 received its operating license on 8 February 1978 and began commercial operation on 30 December 1978. On March 29, 1979, there was a cooling system malfunction that caused a partial melt-down of the reactor core. (This bit per Wicked-pedia.)
Perhaps he was referring to some other component in power generation/regional power coordination operations? Seems a little far to tele-connect sensors, metering and control lines (180 miles worth of mircowave links or ‘phone lines’ with analog – digital encoding on each end? Seems … unlikely.)
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.
.
I still believe that fusion is the future for energy , safe and clean as far as radiation goes.
It amazes me that governments are not pushing full steam ahead on the construction of ITER . JET demonstrated the break even point, the rest is mainly engineering and will to get a working fusion reactor.
As an analogy, JET was like the invention of the two cylinder engine and ITER is the 16. Not a bad analogy if you realize that the common auto engine is a controlled explosion of what otherwise would be a Molotov bomb.
“_Jim (21:52:29) : ”
Interesting points Jim, I can’t find my reference (It may have been a late night documentary a while back which had this stuck in my mind). I’ll have to do some more searching (Not on Wiki) if I have the time.
As to my ex-Romaninan colleague, I have only what he said to go on. At the time he mentioned it I did think it odd, but given the nature of Eastern-block cost cutting, I figured 400 from the reactor is where I’d want to be too.
Sort of OT, but OnT too, ie, the age of stupid;
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/google-earth-climate-change-3d-map-unveiled-20090928-g8de.html?autostart=1
More scaremongering.
Patrick Davis (22:39:08) :
Oh Dear
they are really pulling all the stops.
I will start wishing/witching for the Thames to Freeze over by the Copenhagen meeting :).
Quote TerryBixler (17:21:21) :
Hanno Sandvik, Lisa Jackson are on the Obama agenda to drive the cost of non endorsed energy into the stratosphere. No nukes no coal! No heat, no power, very ‘green’, not very human. I wonder how they propose to process sewage without power.
There are already sewage treatment plants that don’t use any power at all – Not a problem anymore see http://www.biorock-uk.com
“Sewage Treatment without power (23:54:26) :
There are already sewage treatment plants that don’t use any power at all – Not a problem anymore see http://www.biorock-uk.com”
So, how exactly, will this work in a multi storey apartment complex?
This is slightly OT to the anti- nuke theme of this thread, but is at least related to the title. The following is a link to a post on Mark Perry’s econ blog Carpe Diem which includes a YouTube video of a journalist trying to quiz the attendees at the NYC premiere of the new AGW propaganda opus “The Age of Stupid” about how they traveled to the premiere, with the thuggery that you would expect to ensue clearly shown. Well, not to clearly, as they made every effort to block the camera after bumrushing him away from the celebs
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/09/inconvenient-question-did-you-fly-to.html
BTW, the choice of title for this “terrific” new film demonstrates how humor challenged the alarmist crowd is, since even a relatively short continuation of recent events in the global climate is going to make their title choice wonderfully and ironically appropriate for a multitude of reasons that they don’t even seem to have considered.