YO! ..... ....Pro nuke DUers!

[Webster Green]

Talk me down, man! talk me down.

I'm freaking out.

I'm thinking these latest developments are less than ideal.

[buddysmellgood]

1. Well...I got nothin'

[still_one]

2. No one knows what is happening, and whether you are pro or con it will only be speculation /nt

[truedelphi]

3. One thing I do know - get a hold of some iodine tablets.

If you live in Hawai'i or the West Coast, whatever is in the air in Japan will be coming down on us soon and the particulate mater will be coming down as well.

For the cost of some iodine tablets, or some kelp, and various seaweeds available at health food stores or Japanese markets, you can protect yourself and your family from any radiation.

If your thyroid has enough iodine, it will not latch onto the radioactive particles that
may or may not be coming down on us.

Outside of getting totally freaked, and living in your fallout shelter for the next six months, that is about the best thing I can think of.

[flamingdem]

5. Pharmacies don't have it in stock and health food stores are overwhelmed w/calls

OK I admit I called around. Got the same story everywhere, many are calling on the West coast.

[markpkessinger]

7. Potassium Iodide -- NOT Iodine tablets!!!

Iodine tablets will make your thyroid happy, but will do absolutely nothing to protect you against radiation. It's potassium iodide tablets that you need!

[truedelphi]

10. Right you are. Thanks for the clarification. n/t

[Webster Green]

9. I ordered some online yesterday.

Many of the online places were out of stock, but I did find some.

[flamingdem]

14. What company?

btw, the guest on Rachel's show is saying the best way to protect the thyroid is to avoid milk. Iodide tablets not so much, according to him.

[Webster Green]

18. Link..

http://www.ihealthtree.com/potassium-iodide-60-tabs-source-naturals.html

[Webster Green]

19. I think that would refer to milk produced by cows that have received radiation.

From what I've read, the idea is to fill up the thyroid with the potassium iodide before exposure.

[flamingdem]

23. Thanks.

Another idea is to pick up some powdered milk, um, assuming things continue on this current trend

[Webster Green]

32. Yes, or condensed milk in cans.

Check out the date. Anything on the shelves now is OK.

[Statistical]

12. Iodine would do nothing.

Potasium Iodide is what you are looking for.
Sadly people are rushing out to GNC and buying up bunches of iodine which will do absolutely nothing.

On edit: Didn't see the it already corrected above.

[truedelphi]

25. Never any harm trying to do some good. Thank you

For offering more correct information!

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. The pro nukers have left the building, it appears.

Probably tired from all their jeering for the last 3 days.

[Obamanaut]

6. No, 'talk me down' is in the same category as 'just sayin'. There's no

response that can be given.

[Webster Green]

11. Totally.

I was being a wise-ass.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Not to worry. Nuclear Power is safe, clean, and reliable. Except when it isn't.

[PhillySane]

13. Problem is

the pro nuke community has been out on the airwaves for the last four days trying TO talk everyone down. We need to hear some rational thoughts from experts on the other side of this.
What about our President? Doesn't he know people are concerned and freaking out? Somebody needs to step to the plate. Call Batman. I don't care. Get someone out there for Christ's sake!

EDIT-Sorry, didn't mean to post on ya. Was just trying to post the general thread. :)

[CommonSensePLZ]

41. LOL /nt

[denem]

15. I'm anti-nuke but these reactors built 1970 from the 1960s GE Mk 1 design.

are hardly state of the art and not indicative of the risk of deploying current designs. China's doing 24 from 2013.

Chernobyl was a graphite separation design abandoned by the west in the 60's.

TMI was a Babcock & Wilcox PWR design found to be fundamentally flawed from scratch.

Fukushima No.1 was due to be decommissioned last month, having reached the end of it's operational life, but won a ten year extension, notwithstanding vocal, informed opposition.

[catenary]

29. Sane people could use more "anti-nuke" folks like you. Thanks for that.

For all the hysteria, nobody seems to come up with any viable substitute for nuclear-generated electricity in the foreseeable future.

[rucky]

42. Would modern designs have prevented something like this?

Has earthquake-proofing been taken into consideration with the more modern plants? This would be good to know.

[Saboburns]

16. OK

Here's what I think based on available info.

The workers inside the building are getting large doses, possible lethal doses of radiation. Outside the plant living things are still just getting low radiation doses.

[PhillySane]

17. What workers in the buildings?

They've been vaporized. Something like 2000 degrees in there. One of the problems they have is they can't get close enough to the damn things to be effective.

[PhillySane]

20. Love the unrecs!

People may need to get some information to protect themselves here, and assholes are unreccing. There are as many as 9 reactors that could be melting down. We've never had this kind of environmental disaster happen before on the planet.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2011%2F03%2F14%2Fnational%2Fa173533D80.DTL

Proudly K&R'd

[Webster Green]

22. Maybe they think it's a bad time to call out other DUers.

Perhaps they are right.

Fucked if I know.

Like I said...I'm freaking out.

[Thegonagle]

21. I can't do it--I'm not exactly pro-nuke, more of a pro-diversified portfolio pragmatist

I can't defend the continued operation of power plants as old and prone to catastrophic failure as the ones we run in the United States and other countries.

The only way I would be ok with any new nuclear power plants being built is if there's a 1 for 1 trade: in order to build a new, more powerful one of a safer design, an old one must be dismantled. For political expediency, new plants would probably be built on the same sites as old ones. The only "safer" design that would be acceptable is one that can cool its residual heat passively after it is shut down, since the reactors that are melting right now WERE "shut down." The shut down reactors were still hot enough to melt once their massive cooling systems lost power. A meltdown after shut-down must be a technical impossibility.

[catenary]

24. As of yet nobody has been hurt much less killed by the Fukushima events.

Maybe chill a bit until or unless that happens. :-)

[truedelphi]

27. The families of the workers inside the number one

Fukushima plant are not as optimistic about this as you are.

The life expectancy of the workers will no doubt be shortened.

And if it is true that the Japanese government has moved this to a "Level Five" event, then it means that at least several people have died.

Or else, are in very critical condition.

[catenary]

37. Okay, I defer to your apparent direct connection with those people.

Had no idea you were so intimately involved.

[truedelphi]

39. Thanks for deferring.

Doesn't happen a lot around here.

[Thegonagle]

28. BS. There were at least 11 injuries reported in the 2nd explosion,

and the people working frantically to prevent a triple meltdown are likely "dead men walking" as we speak.

[Webster Green]

31. I'm sure there must be hundreds of people with very high radiation exposure.

They may be alive today, but....

[cleanhippie]

26. Talk you down from what? try turning off the TV.

[Webster Green]

38. I haven't had a TV for years.

I hate them.

[yourout]

30. I am not a fan of current designs but I am a proponent of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors.

The main problem is the pressurized primary cooling system.

Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor(LFTR)s do not have a highly pressurized reactor and a Chernobyl type event is virtually impossible.

And they use Thorium which is among the most abundant fissile materials on the planet.

They also would burn up retired weapons grade fuel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor

http://energyfromthorium.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=63

Current reactor sites could be retrofited with these eliminating the most problematic element of current designs.

[Lastactiongyro]

33. Go an Play STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl. It will make you feel better.

or watch this:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-battle-of-chernobyl/#

[Webster Green]

36. Will I have to upgrade my graphics card?

:P

[Safetykitten]

34. Nothing from me.

[grahamhgreen]

35. Let me do it for them, "You are a luddite, STFU."

:sarcasm:

[truedelphi]

40. And now, back to today's important stories -

"Radical protesters still want workers to have decent wages and health benefits, as though they work for those wages or something."

"God continues to assault areas of the world with heavy storms, earthquakes, winds and high waters, all on account of lax regulation and no imprisonment of gays."

"Gas is up, and so are food prices, while inflation holds steady at usual low levels. Unemployment would be down, as well, but those on unemployment have been too lazy and aren't looking for work."

<also sarcasm>

[CommonSensePLZ]

43. I don't understand them

Nuclear power is a CONCEPT, but pro-nukers defend it like a religion - Pointing out the fact that if anything goes wrong we end up flirting with genocide-level danger just to generate a few watts to keep the lights on is blasphemous to them.

I think it makes more sense to just put nuclear power in the "maybe pile" with the other alternative energy methods and weigh the pros and cons fairly, which is to say that as far as their beloved idea I'm neutral! (c wut i did there?) Well, slightly more opposed. Can't for the life of me understand why they're so hell-bent to convince us that an energy method that relies on such unstable main components is supposed to be so perfect.