Great post by Rod Adams: "Stop Worrying About 'Spent' Fuel Pool Fires. Zirconium Tubes Do Not Burn"

[bananas]

http://theenergycollective.com/rodadams/53997/stop-worrying-about-spent-fuel-pool-fires-zirconium-tubes-do-not-burn

Stop Worrying About 'Spent' Fuel Pool Fires. Zirconium Tubes Do Not Burn

Posted March 20, 2011 by Rod Adams

The contents of this post were incorrect. I acknowledge the error and apologize.

What an idiot.

[Vanje]

1. Dont worry

Be happy!
Dont worry, be happy!

[jpak]

2. It's not "burning" but "rapid catastrophic oxidation" !!!11

The Happy Talk - it burns

yup

[Tesha]

16. It doesn't "burn"; it "exothermalizes!". (NT)

[rhett o rick]

3. Can you spell "China Syndrome"? nm

[Gregorian]

4. Did anyone note the posters bio- modular reactors. I mention this because of something I've heard

I just put up a building on my property that uses the same siding that Halliburton uses. The company does primarily commercial buildings. When I asked them how business was going, they mentioned that they had sold to a business that was installing modular nuclear reactors in the this country. I now have to wonder whether it's true, since supposedly we haven't built "nuclear reactors" for years. I haven't googled a thing, since I'm beat up after a long day of work. But it sure makes one wonder if we really have started building suburban reactors.

[Gregorian]

5. Here's a "wonderful" article describing what I was talking about.

Not happy days.

http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/nuclear-power-investments-ride-new-designs-to-big-profits/3049

[bananas]

12. This is weird - they got a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission

Why is the Virginia Tobacco Commission funding this research project?
Are these things going to be regulated by the BATF instead of the NRC?

http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/283030

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Experimental nuclear reactor gets $5 million in Virginia funds
The Bedford County site is getting money from the tobacco commission.
By Brian Kelley
981-3116

An effort to finish a scaled prototype of a new, smaller version of an electricity-generating nuclear reactor in Bedford County has received a $5 million grant from the state's tobacco commission, officials announced Monday.

Babcock & Wilcox Co. is building a test facility at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research beside U.S. 460 in New London. The prototype will be powered by electricity, rather than generating it through nuclear fission.

But company officials hope to use it to test the reactor's design and safety performance as B&W pursues a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a next generation of nuclear power plants with what the company calls mPower reactor technology.

The Virginia Tobacco Commission last year awarded a grant of $2.4 million to support construction of the test facility. The $5 million announced Monday will pay for testing components that will be necessary for the day-to-day operations at the facility, company spokesman Jud Simmons said.

The building with the B&W facility also includes a section where another nuclear technology company, Areva, will conduct research into its fourth-generation reactor with digital controls.

The building is slated to be finished by the end of May, and researchers will move equipment in during the summer.

[FBaggins]

14. I had the same thought... but it makes some sense.

It turns out that the fund's purpose is to encourage economic activity in communities that used to run on tobacco.

So it isn't pro-nuclear per se... it's pro-anyone-who-will-bring-new-jobs-to-our-town.

[kristopher]

7. That's the newest "nukular will save us" tech they're trotting out since the current failure.

There is little reason to believe this approach will amount to anything, but there is some initial funding to build a couple of prototypes. If the are "interesting" there will be a process that will probably take at least 15 or so years to get through before it is even possible to make an informed estimate of the costs. The problem is that it is still a fission-based technology and so far no single technological approach has been able to deal with:
The 4 Horsemen of Fission
costs are high because of safety and security requirements;
waste disposal at a scale where nuclear is meaningful globally;
safety and the consequences of failures;
nuclear proliferation.

[girl gone mad]

6. So much arrogance coupled with so little real knowledge.

I simply don't understand this attitude, yet I have witnessed it time and time again from those attempting to downplay this accident.

We are in a scary place when people who claim to be members of the scientific community ignore the scientific process and choose instead to pretend that being a supporter of nuclear energy automatically gives them super powers of cognition. In reality, their strong biases have clearly poisoned their ability to reason and engage in critical thinking. That's not science, it's dogma.

[FBaggins]

10. I don't know why you "don't understand this attitude"

The only difference I can see between his and yours is that he acknowledged his error an apologized.

You either continue to insist on your errors or (even more entertaining), you shift to the opposite position and insist (despite evidence) that it's what you held from the beginning.

Remember that old classic where you said it isn't possible for decay heat to cause a meltdown?

Ah... memories. :rofl:

[SpoonFed]

11. uh, pot, kettle, black. n/t

[FBaggins]

13. Find a few examples

Go ahead... I'll wait.

I'm happy to own any actual errors. I already did with the only one I made with GGM.

[democratXX]

8. And, don't forget

Radioisotopes are good for us and cure cancer!!

[Kalun D]

9. Rod Adams, Nuclear Death Industry Shill

just what we need, someone that doesn't even know that Zirconium can burn designing modular nuclear reactors

one of his previous posts even claims that the amount of nuclear regulation in Japan is overkill

[rhett o rick]

15. We have lots of "spent fuel pools" around the US. We also are storing our spent fuel

in containers by the thousands in parking lots near the private reactors. Since there is no fucking plan as to what to do with spent fuel, we are "temporarily" storing it in containers parked in lots. How long before temporary storage becomes permanent storage? While we point fingers at Japan, we should be looking around our own backyards.