- Lay on, McDuff!

Submitted: Mar 12, 2012 7:42 AM
One year after Fukushima, nuclear energy remains essential,
Published On Sat Mar 10 2012
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1144127--one-year-after-fukushima-nuclear-energy-remains-essential

"The good news is that what is caused by human error can be fixed, if the proper steps are taken."

There are a number of flaws with this logic.

First, human error is identified post factum - i.e. after the meltdown - perhaps next time that 'human error' will be addressed and the odds reduced, but what about the damage done.

This is not trite since it then becomes purely a question of number
and this leads to the second flaw in the logic.

There is no eliminating 'human error' it is simply another way of saying we don't know everything, we can't think of everything and we're not perfect.

Hence, no matter what the odds or how low they are, how long it will be before that particular 'human error' causes melt down is simply directly proportional to the number of reactors.

Also, I can't think of a better military target than a nuclear reactor. It seems to me that they pretty much must be out in the open - the research facilities may be bunkered, but not the reactors themselves. Even if they were it would be pretty cost ineffective to bury all those high tension cables running from them which would pretty much be like pointers to the hidden location.

Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html