Einstein

[Paz]

 
 Today is the anniversary of Albert Einstein's birth. He lived to see what Atomic power did to Japan at the end of WWII, and he was horrified.
 
 I wonder what he would say and how he would feel about what has happened in Japan today? A natural disaster of epic proportions, followed by a man-made problem.....the Nuclear power plants that are probably melting down, releasing radiation which will probably sicken the population for years to come.

 In 1954, a year before his death, Einstein said to his old friend, Linus Pauling, "I made one great mistake in my life — when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification — the danger that the Germans would make them..."

[D13C]

I have to start by saying I'm pro-nuclear power. There is one main arguement against it, it is mainly is/has been used to manufacture Plutonium. Another thing is the waste, this must be publically managed, then it seems to work somewhat okay. In America where the industry is totally private the waste problem is a disaster - Why dig a very deep hole when we can pay our shareholders an extra 50 cents this year? - We can put it off forever. The human race learnt nothing from the E.I.C. it would seem nothing has changed. (you learn history to see where we will fail again -people are stupid - one person generally isn't though)
Most of the problems of meltdowns can be alleiveated with HWR reactors (CANDU) but they are dearer to build. Building LWR reactors in Japan was really stupid if you ask me, there had to be a catostrophic failure sooner or later, LWR reactors can not be failsafe - especially in earthquake zones. But I guess it easy to be wise in the afterevent.
For the record solarcells kill more people than nuclear per MW/hr historically - people fall off the roof cleaning them.

Hope for the best there can be for the people in Japan. Things could get much worse unfortunately and they are bad enough already.

D13C.

[donna14]

I agree, why the hell would you build a light water reactor in a place that has almost constant tectonic plate movement and earthquakes?  Einstein would be pissed that people were so lazy in designing and building the reactors.  He felt a lot of remorse after the bombs were used but even without Einstein, Enrico Fermi would have led the program.