For the NUKEMAN

[jimbo]

I suppose you have seen the news recently from San Onofre? They had a heat exchanger tube leak. They said it ultimately causes " just a little " release of radioactivity to the environment...."not to worry". That's what they said at Fukishima! And last week, a worker FELL INTO the pool. There were not spend rods in it at the time , so they said the levels were low, "not to worry" and besides, he was "wearing protective equipment"! By that , I suppose they must mean a lead-lined Speedo!

You can't make this stuff up! Unbelievable!@

[nukeman]

I did hear about that. I did not see the info on the tube leak or what might have been released, but I suspect that it was quite low. You certainly wouldn't want to swim in the spent fuel pool, but the water does offer a lot of shielding from direct radiation. There are accidents in every field. The number in the nuclear industry is very low, but things do happen. The media does make even minor things into something major when "nuclear" is mentioned. You wonder how many people are killed/hurt in accidents relating to coal, nat. gas, and other power sources that you just never hear about. It is almost expected that people get hurt (especially in the mines) in these other fields, so it isn't news worthy. It is sad, but it is the way it is.

Radiation scares people because they can't see it. Explosions, mine collapse, fires, etc. in other areas can be seen and people know where the damage radius is. Personally, I would rather get a bit of dose versus getting black lung, stuck in a collapsed mine, etc. Also, burning coal releases more radiation than a nuke plant does (uranium, etc. in the coal). Radiation is everywhere at all times. People just don't see it or feel it, so they don't know it is there.

[jimbo]

I don't get too excited about radiation. I have no problem with humans growing a 3rd elbow out the side of their head!\

I was actually surprised by how low key the coverage has been. There was an actual release to the atmoshere, and the paper seems content to accept the "not to worry" explanation. And where the heck is OSHA if you can just walk up to the pool, and stumble in? The don't have rails or chains? It would cause a bigger stir if a trainer fell into the Shamu tank at Sea World!

[Dana]

I did hear about that. I did not see the info on the tube leak or what might have been released, but I suspect that it was quite low. You certainly wouldn't want to swim in the spent fuel pool, but the water does offer a lot of shielding from direct radiation. There are accidents in every field. The number in the nuclear industry is very low, but things do happen. The media does make even minor things into something major when "nuclear" is mentioned. You wonder how many people are killed/hurt in accidents relating to coal, nat. gas, and other power sources that you just never hear about. It is almost expected that people get hurt (especially in the mines) in these other fields, so it isn't news worthy. It is sad, but it is the way it is.

Radiation scares people because they can't see it. Explosions, mine collapse, fires, etc. in other areas can be seen and people know where the damage radius is. Personally, I would rather get a bit of dose versus getting black lung, stuck in a collapsed mine, etc. Also, burning coal releases more radiation than a nuke plant does (uranium, etc. in the coal). Radiation is everywhere at all times. People just don't see it or feel it, so they don't know it is there.

I dunno, there's a lot of media coverage when fires break out on drilling rigs and PLENTY of media surrounding both the real & imagined enviro hazards related to fracking- it's not just a radiation thing. Somebody taking a dip in the spent-fuel-heated pool is pretty small potatoes, and a gazillion orders of magnitude lower potential risk to the public compared to events like Fukushima, TMI, etc.

Seepage of radioactive water into the groundwater in VT didn't get a whole lot of national media coverage- about the same as the frack-water related earthquake stuff. Most of this stuff has become something of a yawn to people who aren't directly affected. We're several generations beyond the duck & cover kids and Japanese creature feature exploitations of fears that followed REAL radiation exposures of the 1940s.

[jadnashua]

For the average person, living at altitude (our atmosphere shields us, but those living in places like, say Denver are getting LOTS more radiation than people in say New Orleans on the coast), flying long distance, going through airport security, or living in a state with predominate granite outcroppings (radon) may be a bigger, long-term problem. Course, I've been through a couple courses of radiation threatments, and received probably a couple of million times what the average person gets in their lifetime. Who knows how long I'll last!

Our DNA is constantly being zapped...it's a remarkable feat that our bodies can often respond without apparant harm to correct the problem. It's often when there's too much at once that overwhelms us that is the tripping point. Course, it doesn't help to have it happening long-term at low doses, either. Don't go live in your cave...that may be worse!

[ballvalve]

The parts at issue are 3 or so year old exotic stainless steel heat exchange tubes provided by Mitsubishi to replace earlier corroded or soon to be compromised tubes.

Turns out the new great japanese tubes have lost 2/3 of their wall thickness, and some perforated, about 25 years ahead of time.

Maybe Mitsubishi should stick to bulldozers and cars - and perhaps they are the ones that put the spent cores on the ROOF of Crapafushi reactor. Hello!

A nice 25 million judgement might make them up quality control at the tube plant.

Duck and cover drills are coming back unless we vaporize a large part of Iran with Israels help.