Too Hot for Nuclear
Chernobyl was a disaster of human error, Fukushima a natural disaster worsened by human error, but this is a whole other situation. The water in Long Island Sound is so warm that even with emergency rules that loosen the safety standards, the Millstone Nuclear Power Station had toshut down one of its units…
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut’s nuclear power plant has shut down one of two units because water from Long Island Sound used to operate the plant is too hot following the hottest July on record.
Just 2 days ago ‘The Day’ reported that the NRC juggled the numbers to allow the plant to continue operating…
Waterford – Because water temperatures in Long Island Sound have been averaging 1.7 degrees above normal this summer, the Millstone Power Station has been granted an emergency amendment to its license related to cooling water used for Unit 2.
The amendment, issued Friday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, gives Millstone permission to use an average of three temperatures from three locations to ensure that the water drawn into the plant to cool instruments in the nuclear reactor building and the emergency diesel generators is no higher than 75 degrees. Previously the company was required to use a single measure of the highest temperature.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency agreed that taking an average would be a valid way to ensure the temperature was within safety limits. If the water exceeds 75 degrees, Millstone would be required to scale back operations, and if the water reaches 77 degrees, the plants would be required to shut down.
Water that is 77 degrees or higher does not sufficiently cool the plant to keep it within the margin of safety, Millstone spokesman Ken Holt said.
I’ve seen online arguments that a few Chernobyls may be the price we have to pay for stopping the carbon pollution inherent in other forms of energy production. That’s more honest than pretending that human error, acts of nature and unforeseen events will somehow bypass nuclear.
We are in a crisis, I’m feeling three days of exhausting heat and humidity as I write this. But in this crisis we have tools we did not have in the 20th Century, and denial is running out. Conservation, a smart grid, diverse power sources and questioning a ‘lifestyle’ based on geometrically increasing demand for manufactured needs are where we need to start. I don’t see so many Hummers on the road these days, and I’m doing more teleconferencing to save us time and fuel. I’m not very confident in our leaders from either party, this change will have to come from the people.
Bill Nye the Science Guy Channels Darwin
Just kind of in the way that Darwin said stuff that was evidence-based and got on the wrong side of a lot of people. Bill Nye says that there are not two sides to the climate change debate…
Science educator Bill Nye on Monday told CNN that they weren’t doing the public any favors by giving climate change deniers equal airtime because “the two sides aren’t equal.”
“There are a couple of things that you can’t really dispute,” Nye explained to CNN’s Carol Costello. “Sixteen of the last 17 years have been the hottest years on record. That’s just how it is.”
“I appreciate that we want to show two sides of the stories — there’s a tradition in journalism that goes back quite a ways, I guess — but the two sides aren’t equal here. You have tens of thousands of scientists who are very concerned and you have a few people who are in business of equating or drawing attention to the idea that uncertainty is the same as doubt. When you have a plus or minus percentage, that’s not the same thing as not believing the whole thing at all.”
There’s a need for leadership here, and it’s not coming from the politicians. I guess it will have to come from the people, smart people welcome to join in.
Scary pix of receding glacial ice are here.
2012 Storm Season Breaks Record
I saw a tweet from Bill McKibben, author of the climate change book, Eaarth and speaker at Netroots 2012, that we were about to make weather history with the first-ever fourth named storm before July…
Here’s the news from Pennsacola,
Tropical Storm Debby formed on June 23rd about 220 miles SSE of the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Central Gulf of Mexico. Debby was the 4th named storm to form…making history. It was the first time in recorded history that a 4th named storm has ever formed before July 1st.
There are many in the Sunshine State who see these kinds of things as signs of The End Times, so it might be a good time to sell them Rapture Pet Insurance.
Kmareka’s readers know that anomalies happen. And anyway, what is meant by ‘recorded history’? NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is studying records from the mid-1800′s, which is piddling in geographic time.
NOAA is predicting a relatively mild hurricane season. Whether this early start is an outlier or a result of climate change will take a few decades to evaluate.
Doomsday Clock
The Doomsday Clock has been moved back a minute, to six minutes to midnight.
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