Environment & Energy

Last edited Fri Apr 26, 2024, 09:28 AM - Edit history (1)

The core at Fukushima vaporized? Who knew?

I note the switch from every nuclear reactor for this made up figure (with no units) of 5000 "degrees" to the big, big, big, big Bogeyman at Fukushima.

It would be interesting to learn of something called a reference from a reputable source for this extraordinary claim of 5000 "degrees" but I'm familiar, certainly, over all the years of antinukes cheering for the destruction of the planet by the application of fear and ignorance, with which only antivaxxers can compare in terms of death tolls, although Covid never killed roughly 19,000 people day like air pollution - not even counting climate change - does. In most cases antinukes don't have references. It's easier to make stuff up. However, if one relies on "making stuff up" one risks confronting people with legitimate real knowledge of the case.

Here is something called a reference, with textual commentary from a reputable source (the premier medical journal Lancet) for the number of people killed by air pollution egged on by antinukism:

I keep this handy to point out how little antinukes care for stuff that matters, be it climate change, or the other effects of fossil fuel use, about which antinukes couldn't care less.

Here also, is something called a reference to the number of deaths caused by radiation at Fukushima, as opposed to the number of people killed by fear of radiation at the same event:



I also keep this text handy as well whenever people are carrying on insipidly about the big, big, big, big, big Bogeyman at Fukushima on their computers, powered by electricity that overwhelming comes from fossil fuels, with fossil fuel waste killing millions of people per year, roughly 80 to 90 million people since people began whining about Fukushima 13 years ago.

As for the commentary on how solar cells work, let me say this: I am used to contempt for science, in particular the laws of thermodynamics, among the "renewable energy will save us" crowd, although it's very clear after 50 years of such chanting, the world is not saved. Climate change is getting worse faster, and one reason is the trillions of dollars spent uselessly on solar and wind energy with the effect of entrenching the use of fossil fuels. It is antinuke fear and ignorance that has left the planet in flames. The evocation of wishful thinking about magical batteries is, as I often point out, an expression of contempt for the second law of thermodynamics, which is slightly arcane, but accessible to anyone of reasonable intelligence now that rational explanations exist, developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is unusual however, for antinukes, as badly educated as they generally are, to hold the first law of thermodynamics in contempt, as is happening in this exchange. It's a much simpler law.

As for nuclear energy:

Nuclear energy saves lives.

Here is something called a reference, coauthored by one of the world's leading (and famous) climate scientists, making the point, which I also keep handy:

Prevented Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Historical and Projected Nuclear Power (Pushker A. Kharecha* and James E. Hansen Environ. Sci. Technol., 2013, 47 (9), pp 4889–4895)

The problem, as I see it, is a persistent refusal to have a simple sense of decency, for the elevation of dogma entrenching ignorance. I have seen here, among the antinukes, people citing the toxic idiot Helen Caldicott's unreferenced writings rather like right wing Christian Fundamentalists quoting the Book of Genesis in the Bible to explain the existence of the universe. One really doesn't want to believe that this sort of thing goes on, but it does.

No amount of information can change the rhetoric of a cult, not religious cults, not antinuke cults, not political cults like Trumpism, Nazism or the like. Cult thinking kills people, every time, all the time. The current case is no different.

Have a very pleasant Friday.