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+--- Thread: We've Lost Dayton (/thread-929.html)
- Ascendancy - 09-07-2013
<big>"We've lost Dayton."</big>
Editorial
<small>The Washington Post/Martin Lowe</small>
Electricity – produced from fossil, nuclear or renewable resources – is the backbone of a prosperous society. As electricity use increases, so does gross domestic product, a fundamental measure of economic health and prosperity. That is why America is building new power plants on a massive scale to ensure that there is sufficient electricity to encourage economic growth for the foreseeable future.
Critical reaction has already surfaced, saying the US nuclear industry has become completely profit driven & subject to poor regulatory supervision, factors which led to complacency. With the coming online of the recent plants in Georgia and Dayton, nuclear energy now constitutes 30% of the US power supply, with quickly diminishing coal reserves providing another 20%, and CCD sourced natural gas at 50%. In the next ten years, however, completion of additional nuclear plants across the country are estimated to overtake dependence on CCD fueled energy -- decreasing the need of import to a mere 20%. That future is now in jeopardy.
For most of the last century, US electrical grids were a symbol of progress. The inexpensive, abundant power they brought changed the way the world worked–filling homes, streets, businesses, towns and cities with energy.
But today's antique electrical grids reflect a time when energy was cheap, their impact on the natural environment wasn't a priority, and consumers weren't even part of the equation.
Consider what we are facing today: with this latest disaster, Congressional committees are evaluating the future of nuclear energy in America. Between the unanticipated pace of the accident, complete destruction of all containment sources, and technologically advanced high-power density of modern reactors, thousands have died, more are seeking treatment for radiation poisoning, and the state has essentially been lost.
The nuclear power initiative implemented in the 2020's guaranteed safety, but no technology provides no test-runs. The nature of the accident itself still puzzles scientists. Analyst Kevin Bressen went on to explain the characteristics of a reactor meltdown:
"The fuel rods are long uranium rods clad in a [zirconium alloy casing]. They're held in a cylindrical-shaped array. And the LiquiGel molten salt coolant covers all of that. In power plants of the last century, the coolant was pure water which when descended below the level of the fuel, then the temperature starts going up and the cladding bursts, releasing a lot of fission products. And eventually the core just starts slumping and melting. However the nature of the LiquiGel is such that evaporation from boiling is impossible short of temperatures sustained in the sun's core. As the coolant systems remained operational, therefore, overheating of the fuel rods was not triggered by a loss of coolant activity. What then did? Then the pressure vessels failed and overheated fuel burned through the interior steel chambers. Once containment was compromised, we had a worst-case scenario on our hands."
What is the exchange rate between the CCD dollar and a human life? Even if such a horrific scale could be written, it is better to maintain the integrity of our land even if we submerse ourselves beneath the home of another banner. For what is freedom if we perish walking from sea to shining sea?
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