Six Ways Fukushima is Not Chernobyl

One list here; my list here:

1. The Chernobyl disaster took place in the Ukraine, in what was then the USSR. The Fukushima disaster is taking place in Japan, a much more densely populated country than the Ukraine.

2. The Fukushima plant's reactors have containment units, Chernobyl's didn't. (If containment units at Fukushima fail, please see "Five Ways Fukushima is Not Chernobyl.")

3. There wasn't a major catastrophe already happening in the region around Chernobyl.

4. Fukushima is on an ocean. Chernobyl wasn't.

5. Everybody already knew long before the Chernobyl accident that the people running the plant there dangerously skirted safety rules.

6. Fukushima starts with "F." Chernobyl starts with "C." Other words that start with "F" include fucked, fuuu-huuuu-ck!, FAIL, and four-year-olds.

The Message From Fukushima

News agencies have been bantering about the real message that should be learned from Japan's ailing nuke plants. Here it is: Nuclear energy would be awesome…if there were no such thing as earthquakes. Or tsunamis. Or humans.

Air pressure inside the No.2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, located 250 kilometres north of Tokyo, rose suddenly when the air flow gauge was accidentally turned off, its operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said.

Japan's Nuclear Plant

I'm just going to say that calling this Japan's Chernobyl has to be overblown. The USSR's nuke plants were nowhere near as safe as plants in Japan (and in many other countries) today.

But, that said, this guy knows a bit more about it than I do:

“The electrical grid is down. The emergency diesel generators have been damaged. The multi-reactor Fukushima atomic power plant is now relying on battery power, which will only last around eight hours. The danger is, the very thermally hot reactor cores at the plant must be continuously cooled for 24 to 48 hours. Without any electricity, the pumps won’t be able to pump water through the hot reactor cores to cool them. Once electricity is lost, the irradiated nuclear fuel could begin to melt down. If the containment systems fail, a catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment could occur.”

Are we supposed to believe that they can't pretty easily get replacement generators in there? Why?

"New-Clear" Energy: On the Teleprompter

Sarah Palin's teleprompter. And in the handouts of her speech. They forgot to fix it.

That's just funny.

U.S. Submarine Leaked Radiation for Two Years

Two years? Don't they get checked now and then?