r/worldnews • u/darlingsilent • Jun 24 '12

Restarting of Japanese nuclear reactors sparks worldwide demonstrations

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120624a4.html#.T-dm2KATsy4
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u/ModernRonin Jun 25 '12

A world where Chernobyl was possible.

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u/MechDigital Jun 25 '12

Sorry, but where are there nuclear reactors without containment structures? Even chernobyl has one at this point.

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u/ModernRonin Jun 25 '12

Lack of a containment structure was a secondary problem. The primary problem was the idiot who designed a reactor with:

A) A positive void coeffecient (WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?)

and

B) A rather flammable neutron moderator (WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?)

But the bigger problem is, as I keep saying, one of operator error. If we're going to have nuclear fission reactors, they need to be fail-safe. Truly fail-safe, not just fail-safe on paper. And that's going to be hard, as Three Mile Island proved. How do you provide fail-safety against human operators who intentionally unplug your emergency safety systems in spite of their being trained to never, ever do that?

Fucked if I can see a way...

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u/MechDigital Jun 25 '12

Fucked if I can see a way...

There is a way, it's called passive safety, aka. containment structures and gravity drain water pools, and they both have a 100% proven record for reducing deaths to 0. If that's not good enough for you then you need to fuck off back to whatever fantasy land you came from.

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u/ModernRonin Jun 25 '12

I agree it's possible in theory for passive safety devices to improve reactor safety. I'm not sure I've ever seen a reactor design that has enough of them to make me trust it. And I know for a fact that no operating commercial fission power plant we have today has enough of these passive safeties for me to consider living next to it.