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[Darvi]

It would be kind of a shame if all of this went up in flames.


Coming from me, that means something.

[SalmonGod]

Shared this on my facebook.  Those stories deserve to be spread far and wide.  I'll just repeat what I said there.  Thanks Vector.

"... There are still good places in the world. I've always loved Japanese culture, but now I'm truly in awe. This is a thread from the Dwarf Fortress forums that's been following news of the disasters over there, and discussing nuclear politics. Sudden detour on this page into praise for the numerous stories of integrity and compassion that are apparently common in Japan right now.

There have been a lot of natural disasters around the world over the last 10 years. This is one of the worst, and ironically the first that hasn't resulted in people showing their ugliest. I've been surrounded my entire life by cynical claims that only sparse individuals have any potential for goodness, and those people are only doomed by their natures. Finally, here is proof otherwise. We are capable of so much more."

[ChairmanPoo]

Updates on the reactor incident?

[Armok]

Those are extremely touching Vector. I had a crappy day but this brightened it a fair bit. It even made me gain some hope in humanity. Sharing this.

... I get the feeling that our western culture is quite barbaric compared to things like this. It's a pretty amazing work of social engineering I think.

[PenguinOverlord]

[Kogut]

For all people with "it is second Chernobyl" talk:

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_disaster:

"received fatal dose of radiation during attempt to manually lower the control rods as he looked directly to the open reactor core"

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
 
"Shortly after the accident, firefighters arrived to try to extinguish the fires. First on the scene was a Chernobyl Power Station firefighter brigade under the command of Lieutenant Volodymyr Pravik, who died on 9 May 1986 of acute radiation sickness. They were not told how dangerously radioactive the smoke and the debris were, and may not even have known that the accident was anything more than a regular electrical fire: "We didn't know it was the reactor. No one had told us."[29]"

[Darvi]

Only 4 likes? Needs moar.

[nenjin]

Let's put that in perspective though. Sure, the seal didn't break, a nuclear holocaust in Japan hasn't occurred.

Yet it's going to be at least 5 years before they even get around to cleaning up the cores. Those plants are dead, and potentially toxic for the next decade or more.

Compare that to traditional energy sources. If an Earthquake and Tsunami wrecked a natural gas, coal or oil power plant, there'd be explosions. Loss of life. Some environmental damage. But the site wouldn't basically on lock down for 5 years. They could clean up and rebuild pretty quickly.

So nuclear power is "safe." But it's also looking like a massive investment that is fragile, and once it breaks, the amount of effort to restore it safely is huge. It's a great power source until something goes wrong, and then you have long-term consequences that aren't necessarily measured in global catastrophes and lives lost. I don't know if that makes it the best choice for power, given how much the Earth seems to hate us lately.

[Vector]

This is the original link if you want to share it on social networking sites


You're welcome, everyone, and I'm glad that I could brighten your days a little.

[Darvi]

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/jun-shiomitsu/japan-quake-as-seen-from-twitter-translated-by-me-so-quality-questionable/10150121176733830


You're welcome, everyone, and I'm glad that I could brighten your days a little.

Er, linking fail?


Also, no FB account xP

[Aklyon]

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/jun-shiomitsu/japan-quake-as-seen-from-twitter-translated-by-me-so-quality-questionable/10150121176733830


You're welcome, everyone, and I'm glad that I could brighten your days a little.

Er, linking fail?

You has it backwards, Vector.

[Bouchart]

The real danger at this point are the exposed spent fuel pools.

[Vector]

I--wow.  I don't even know how I did that >_>

Fixed.

[olemars]

I find those statements as painfully annoying as the chernobyl doomsday news articles.

What we have is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world slowly and gradually self destructing because it lost, well, power. Nuclear power (as used with current technology anyway) isn't inherently safe, it's inherently deadly dangerous, only kept in check by a long list of safety measures. But there will always be some weakness or something "unthinkable", like all backup diesel generators failing.

I'm actually a proponent of nuclear power, but it's got a long way to go before we can call it truly safe. If you look at the list of nuclear accidents and near-accidents the 60 years reactors have been around it's actually quite staggering considering the damage potential.

[ChairmanPoo]

any updates?