Actually, why so quiet on nuclear reactors in general?

There's been hardly anything on Japan recently so it must all be as if it didn't happen eh?

Oh and there's the matter of 2 nuclear plants in the US that are in danger of being flooded NYTimes clicky.

Considering the drivel we often get in the news I would have thought they would have at least been mentioned.

I've read several articles about various reactors in the last couple of weeks. You must be looking in the wrong places.

I was reading about the US "it's not a problem" the other day on a related article to something posted here, so it is being reported. It's just not being hyped up.

Should we worry? Quite frankly, I have a lot more faith in Japan's technical and logistical ability to handle an "incident" than the Americans... although neither country is famous for being overly honest with "foreigners".

In the end though, I figure it doesn't make any difference how honest the reporting is. The people that actually matter are the engineers on the ground, and I like to think they'll be doing whatever it takes to keep their neighbourhood safe.

Official view of some recent events:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-colle ... ml#en46932

The anti-nuclear protest marches have been a major theme here and the government is looking at closing them all down.

The Green want them all taken offline immediately, but if they do that, where are we going to get our electricity from, until they get alternatives in there to make up the difference?

It's probably because the American situation isn't very serious. But then, Fukushima was rather more hype than actual danger.

The reactors in question aren't RBMKs; one is a PWR and the other a BWR - much safer.

I was speaking more of the main news, you can obviously find information if you dig for it.


Possibly, just surprised when you can get headline mainstream "news" concerning a WAGs new shoes but nothing that would portray the nuclear industry in a less than rosy light.

I would however find it hard to imagine that Fukushima will have no long lasting effects on the people of Japan.


Very true, whatever we do will take time. They should stop wasting time and money on the odd wind turbine that will make sod all difference and throw it all into making clean, relatively safe, thorium nuclear reactors to replace the ones we have. That or something better, we need to be aiming high.

The anti-nuclear protest marches have been a major theme here and the government is looking at closing them all down.

The Green want them all taken offline immediately, but if they do that, where are we going to get our electricity from, until they get alternatives in there to make up the difference?[/quote]

The news I read said it was already a done deal. Apparently the shortfall will be provided by the French using their nuclear reactors. It really beggars belief that both us and Germany can't go big on nuclear, when our neighbour's got loads of reactors and not only that, is selling us electricity from them.

I haven't dug for it, it's just been there.

Oh FFS, ok on the main evening UK news. That specific enough?

The butterfly mainstream media drop stories that drag on too long or don't fit their agenda.

Like another regular here, I discovered NHK World on our FreeSat box a while ago, and it's quite refreshing to see news from an Asian perspective. Anyone really interested in seeing what's going on in a global fashion really needs - and this isn't meant personally to anyone, just an observation - to watch Al Jazeera, Russia Today, and others outside the UK.

Then we need to deconstruct the news to see what's really going on out there.

I think its an elephant in the room situation. If the coverage is minimal then the masses won't be concerned. As renewables can't pick up the load and have other environmental impacts, and coal/oil/gas are getting more and more expensive and will always polute, what options are there other than nuclear?

Unless of course we all do the sensable thing and reduce consumption. Oh, but we're talking USA.

as an aside, my understanding is that much of the Japan problem was related to spent fule rods that shouldn't have been stored thre anyway. That and not anticipating that the cooling pumps needed electricity which was not available. Just shows the importance of good backups. In this case generators.

And the new ones being built in Poland - So Germany will instead of having reactors it can control (set their own safety standards etc) will reply on ones in France and Poland and hope that thier safety stadards are good enough

I'd just point out the France and Polland are both member states of the EU. Doesn't the EU take a bit of an interest in nuclear regulation (I'd be very surprised if it didn't).

Yup but even in the States they're now saying they're too close to the nuclear industry and have been letting too much fly.

So Germany is going to shut down its reactors and then import the electricity from countries that are going to use nuclear reactors. Its a good thing that if there is a major issue the radiation will observe national borders.