That in mind, let there be no mistake: I am not an abolisher of nuclear power. I believe that nuclear power is but one in a series of major steps that can be made in assuring our electrical generation future.
You just have to be smart about it.
Because there is no “one” solution for electrical generation, save that of fusion, which is not yet embraced or technologically viable in a mass fashion. Yet.
And “smart” about nuclear power includes not placing plants on fault lines, in areas of known tsunami paths or at the bottom of avalanche sites.
At one very brief point I worked for Vanguard Security in the 70s at the Rancho Seco nuclear complex. It was a Babcock & Wilcox design similar to Three Mile Island. My fellow guards and I would plan and identify points of assault and weakness. It was our job. The one that management didn’t want to admit existed.
We were armed with .38 caliber revolvers carrying high-efficacy round-nosed lead bullets and supplanted with our grim miens. We wore roentgen badges for personal dosimetry. Our graveyard perimeter vehicle was a cheap-ass Chevrolet LUV pickup. The low areas of various metal industrial water lines were tagged for collective points of radioactivity. I actually stood and looked into the moon pool within the containment building. I paged through industry magazines that identified suits for safely “diving” the moon pool. I thought that was insane.
I carried a round security guard’s tour verification watchman’s clock where the keys were inserted for time validation. I stood on the upper turbine deck and watched the hair on my head and arms stand on end as I neared the sight portal. I identified a young female security guard with large breasts who drove an elder Chrysler product and we rampantly enjoyed frequent fornication. Great fun. I found that my Lieutenant wanted me to stay and apply for a supervisory position. I left two weeks later when I found another job in actual law enforcement. You do what you can when you can and why you must in order to keep the paychecks coming.
I, in retrospect, didn’t really wonder why I never had children; I suspect I was manually rendered sterile via my associations with nuclear power and to the massive amount of RF emanating from the Walnut Grove radio tower when I worked for the 50,000-watt AM flamethrower KFBK and climbed said tower, exposing myself there for hours. Truly, I threw my sperm far and wide into an extended spectrum of females, as an idiot, and was never made to pay. Except in later years with cancer. Now I know why.
A Fukushima revelation:
And there you have it. Nuclear power was a God-send and now it’s not. But here’s the difference: when Rancho Seco was powered down, it was due to the incompetence of SMUD and systems unrelated to the nuclear aspect. Control room operators smoked dope. That was proven. Why else did we check the briefcases and bags and purses of the civilians who entered and left the facility?
The people of Sacramento County voted to keep or dismiss their nuclear plant. I worked there. I voted no. Not because of the nuclear aspect, but because of the incompetent administrative aspect.
You have to be smarter than the rads.
BZ
