Radioactive

Given all the panic and hyperbole in the media about the nuclear plants in Japan (I’m expecting CNN to report, with a straight face, the increased likelihood of Godzilla attacks caused by the radiation), here’s an explanation from someone who knows whereof he speaks:

I have been reading every news release on the incident since the earthquake. There has not been one single (!) report that was accurate and free of errors (and part of that problem is also a weakness in the Japanese crisis communication). By “not free of errors” I do not refer to tendentious anti-nuclear journalism – that is quite normal these days. By “not free of errors” I mean blatant errors regarding physics and natural law, as well as gross misinterpretation of facts, due to an obvious lack of fundamental and basic understanding of the way nuclear reactors are build and operated. I have read a 3 page report on CNN where every single paragraph contained an error. …
— Josef Oehmen PhD., MIT

(H/T: Soylent Green, which also has another piece entitled “Because the Greens Will Further Demonize Nuclear Power” about different types of reactors, and why we should be using thorium for nuclear fuel.)

Update: Some Democrats want the USA to “put the brakes” on nuclear power. (H/T: C2)

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) called for a temporary moratorium on the construction of nuclear power plants in the United States following the Japanese quake, which damaged two reactors at a nuclear facility in the country’s northeast.

There’s already been a de facto moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants, oil refineries, and so forth in the USA for years (if not decades) thanks to the Democrats and the Greens. (In fact, in at least one instance in Vermont, they tried to deny renewing the license for an existing, functioning plant.) If they plan to replace all of our existing automobiles (you know, the ones that work) with electic garage ornaments like the Chevy Volt, from exactly where do they plan to get the power to charge up these electric cars?