There are a number of questions about what may have caused the explosion at the Unit 3 reactor, that made it so much more violent than the other explosions we witnessed. In the absence of good information, which is clearly being withheld, speculation is rampant – Arnie Gunderson explains why.
Month: April 2011
If you visit Fukushima, you’ll want to have this Map
A contamination map revealing radiation levels at about 150 places in the Fukushima No. 1 power plant was released Saturday by troubled Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The beleaguered utility, known as Tepco, updates the data periodically to help its workers navigate radiation hazards at the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture. The power plant lost its cooling systems when it was hit by the mega-quake and tsunami on March 11.
The updated maps and data on areas near the four crisis-hit reactors are also sent to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and posted at its crisis center in the prefecture.
One finding acquired from the map’s data as of Wednesday night is that a piece of concrete debris near the No. 3 reactor was emitting a nearly lethal 900 millisieverts per hour of radiation.
So don’t pass up northeast Japan’s spectacular scenery – just plug these coordinates into your GPS to avoid the occasional lethal concrete lumps.
Biomimicry, Nanotech, and the Virus powered Prius
MIT materials scientist Angela Belcher speaking at a CalTech Tedx event in honor of Richard Feynman.
This will probably bear multiple listenings – but at the very least, a mind blowing 11 minutes is guaranteed.
The Deep Future: An Interview with Curt Stager
A “reformed climate skeptic”, Curt Stager is a paleoclimatologist who’s latest book, Deep Future, is a look forward at the next 100,000 years of life on earth.
He’s interviewed by the indispensable Thom Hartmann.
Arnie Gunderson: Lessons from Fukushima
In Texas: Nukes Out, Wind In.
It’s hard to justify fantastically expensive new nuclear plants when you already have a surplus of power, much of it coming from wind – with more on the way.
Texas has more wind power than it can use, and that partly explains why NRG Energy, Inc. has backed out of a plan to build two new nuclear reactorsin the state. To be clear, the stated motivation for the decision was thenuclear disaster resulting from last month’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which among other things has affected the regulatory landscape here in the U.S. However, it’s also clear that rapid growth in the alternative energy field is rapidly chipping away at nuclear power, helped along by new grid and energy storage technologies. This triple threat is undermining the foundational reason for investing in nuclear power, which is (or should be) to get the most abundant and reliable energy bang for the buck.
Renewable Energy Beating Nuclear
On a global scale, energy capacity from renewable sources passed up nuclear for the first time last year, which was long before the tsunami damaged Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. The problem, of course, is to get energy from renewable-rich areas to those without. That’s a problem that certainly hasn’t stopped the fossil fuel industry, given the shipment of coal and petroleum around the world. For renewable energy, massive transmission projects like DESERTEC are at hand. The future could also bring advanced energy storage technologies that would enable renewable energy to be shipped in battery-type devices (reusable or recyclable ones, of course).
US Military Continues to Go Green
Every day is Earth Day at Fort Irwin!
They get it that continued dependence on fossil fuels costs money, and blood.
Don’t ask when Fox News and the Tea Party will catch on…
Water Load makes Reactor’s more unstable, Vulnerable to Quakes
TEPCO insists that tons of water will not undermine the stability of the reactors. Japanese government officials not so sure.
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Sleep: Not just for Air Traffic Controllers – Nuclear Security Guards like a nap, too..
Recent stories about sleeping Air Traffic controllers brought to mind this forgotten CBS video of sleeping guards at Peach Bottom Nuclear power plant.
I feel secure knowing that Wackenhutt is on the job.
Solar Roofs Pump House Values in California
New research by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds strong evidence that homes with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sell for a premium over homes without solar systems.
“We find compelling evidence that solar PV systems in California have boosted home sales prices,” says Ben Hoen, the lead researcher on the study and a Principal Research Associate at Berkeley Lab.
Continue reading “Solar Roofs Pump House Values in California”