Tornadoes And Nuclear Power In Alabama

YouTube – Tuscaloosa Tornado – Unedited Raw Version – 4/27/11

Tornadoes kill over 50 people today in the South.  The university and hospital complex in Tuscaloosa were nearly hit while the neighborhood where many students rent apartments was nearly totally leveled.  A nuclear power plant had to shut down and is now running its water on generators and one can only speculate what horrors would have happened if this category 4+ behemoth shifted just a little bit!  We see already that mega-powerful natural events can destroy nuclear power plants.

.

We also can see why we have a Federal Government that isn’t feeble or helpless.  Our problem right now is, our government is focused nearly totally overseas because the elites who run it are interested mainly in offshore events, not stuff here at home.  So we have the spectacle of cutting necessary services and situations here at home not to mention jobs, while being obsessively interested in events unfolding far, far away.  This myopia is a root cause of why our nation is heading towards deep troubles.

.

The tornadoes that are a common spring feature just as hurricanes are common in summer and fall and blizzards in winter, are the sorts of events we should have long range plans for our government.  We have spent a trillion dollars trying to secure and build Iraq and Afghanistan while at the same time, strangling necessary work that should be done here in America itself.

.

Tuscaloosa can’t rebuild itself easily!  Many businesses have been literally wiped off the map.  The electrical system has been severely damaged.  From 2009:  Nuclear power option revived | TuscaloosaNews.com but just two weeks ago, U.S. Nuclear Industry Faces New Uncertainty | TuscaloosaNews.com.

.

With the reminder that not just tsunamis can create a nuclear disaster, so could an F5 tornado:  Alabama Nuclear Plants –

.

There are two operating nuclear power plants in Alabama:.

The Browns Ferry nuclear plant is one of the largest electric plants in the nation in terms of nameplate capacity. Among nuclear plants, it is second only to Palo Verde in Arizona.

.

Browns Ferry unit 1 was disabled by a fire in 1975. It was repaired and operated from 1976 through 1985. In May 2002, TVA approved a plan to rebuild the reactor. In June 2007, unit 1 was restarted.

.

In 1985, TVA shut down its entire nuclear fleet, including all three units at Browns Ferry. TVA restarted unit 2 in 1991 and unit 3 in 1995.

.

On May 4, 2006, licenses were renewed for all three reactors at Browns Ferry.

As we see from this map, any nuclear meltdown event would force the possible evacuation and permanent abandonment not only of farms and small towns but possibly, a major city.

.

So, like Fukushima, there are multiple nuclear power plants in Alabama.  Like in Japan, natural forces menace this power complex, forces we cannot entirely contain if the high level events happen.  And like Fukushima, there have been problems in the past but they simply renew these older plants and keep them running because shutting them down is very expensive and we want more nuclear power.

.

Instead of pooh-poohing various nuclear accidents, we have to recognize that there is a fairly wide variety of events that can cause a nuclear catastrophe.  Just as cities are sitting ducks for floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes not to mention the ultimate big events caused by volcanic eruptions, so are nuclear power plants.  Even if the interior of the power plant is intact after an event, if the electricity is interrupted (a tornado can destroy that easily!) and the staff is killed or unable to access the electronics, we get an event such as Fukushima.

.

And it never really seems to return to normal or stop:  Forest fires around Chernobyl could release radiation, scientists warn | Environment | The Guardian

.

The fear is that fires in the zone could release clouds of radioactive particles that are, at the moment, locked up in trees, held mainly in the needles and bark of Scots pines.

.

The consortium says an automated fire detection and monitoring system and new firefighting and forestry equipment are needed to guarantee safe management of Chernobyl’s forests.

.

Since 1992, six years after the nuclear accident at the Ukrainian power plant which released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, there have been more than 1,000 wildfires inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone (CEZ), the 18-mile radius ring around the plant where access restrictions apply.

.

The tornadoes and line winds of the spring storm front is coming to my mountain here so I am going to be brief:  Atmospheric radiation leak underestimated : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

.

Data released by the government indicates radioactive material was leaking into the atmosphere from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in early April in greater quantities than previously estimated.

.

Radioactive material was being released into the atmosphere from the plant at an estimated rate of 154 terabecquerels per day as of April 5, according to data released by the Cabinet Office’s Nuclear Safety Commission on Saturday.

.

Along with the uncertainties of who will die or get sick or have dire genetic changes due to nuclear power disasters, along with the idea that exclusion zones are basically forever, we can’t monitor what is going on inside of these plants nor do we control it nor can we stop it once the meltdown occurs.  Each event is different from the previous event so we can’t even predict what will happen or why or where.  It will happen, that is all we know and it is a roll of the dice if it does or does not happen.

.

In England, the debate that is tearing the liberal left apart is raging between global warming fears leading to a desire to have zillions of dangerous nuclear power plants so we can be safe from being hotter while there is half of the liberal left pushing to end nuclear power.  The denialists who strive very hard to pretend nuclear power is safe and Chernobyl and Fukushima were not all that bad, the denialists who pretend we, who are worried about the very severe downside to nuclear power, are on the warpath.

.

The propaganda campaign to convince people that nukes are safe is not shamed into silence by Fukushima.  They are twice as aggressive as before and have resorted to outright lies to  push their own agenda.  This is very shortsighted.  If a global warming believer lies about nuclear power, they might be lying about global warming!  But the ideological need to push something along always swamps pure science.  This is called ‘bias’ and plagues scientists every bit as badly as any other mortal human agenda!

.

The dead of Fukushima are piling up.  Not just the displaced elderly who are dying rapidly, farmers are now committing suicide:  Tearful widow’s plea part of 350-person protest in front of TEPCO headquarters – The Mainichi Daily News.  They brought some cows to Tokyo and the suicide is now a rally point for these patient farming folk.  They have been destroyed by this nuclear disaster.

.

Finally, a Russian video about Chernobyl worth watching as the reporter does a ‘ghost story’ there:  YouTube – Chernobyl Fallout 25: Pripyat. Poste Restante

Email:

emeinel@fairpoint.net

MAILING ADDRESS:

EMS NEWS

P.O. BOX 483

BERLIN, NY 12022

Make checks out to ‘Elaine Supkis’

Click on the Pegasus icon on the right sidebar to donate via Paypal.