25th Anniversary Of Three Mile Island

fbform writes "March 28, 2004 is the 25th anniversary of the Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA) at the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. It's a good time to reflect on the impact it has had on our nuclear safety policy and interface design in general."

Re:Fusion

[AvantLegion]

It's also a great blend of jazz and rock.

Don't know about you, but the Mahavishnu Orchestra surges more energy in me than any power source could!

Oh little isle, of 3 Mile...

[AtariAmarok]

"Oh little isle, of 3 Mile. How still you make us die.
Above the town of Middletown, the glowing clouds scud by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting glow.
We'll all mutate, and radiate. And then we'll die, you know"

Re:Consequences of cheap nuclear power?

[joelsanda]

Interesting - Austrailia must not have HOAs (Home Owners Associations) similar to those in the U.S.? My HOA policy is fairly forgiving on that piece: I can use a clothesline but it has to be a 'temporary' one that is taken down after it's use. Maybe I'll run a long extension cord from our laundry on the second floor of our house and put my dryer in the yard. Nothing in the HOA rules state running appliances can't be used in the yard! That way I can dry my clothes outside in the sunshine and still thumb my nose at the Kyoto Protocol. American Green ;-)

You evil man!!!

[Unknown Poltroon]

How DARE you suggest that we pollute the pristine magma of the earths core with your unnatural nuclear waste. It would be a crime against nature to bury radioactve material under the earths crust.

People like you make me sick.

from King Size Homer

[Anonymous Coward]

From 3F05: [snpp.com]

Burns: Homer, your bravery and quick thinking have turned a potential Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island. Bravo!

Arizona

[WillRobinson]

Well you could dry them outside, if you like to have your pockets full of dust when you bring them in.

Re:Consequences of cheap nuclear power?

[Anonymous Coward]

Arizona actually uses very little of the power generated by the Palo Verde nuclear power plant. We sell it to California to power their espresso machines. :)

As for drying your clothes outside, it fades your clothes very fast. It is hot and dry enough in AZ that all you need to do is put your clothes on a rack inside your house, and they'll dry while you are at work.

Hi. I'm Troy McClure

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such nuclear-plant disaster shows and films as "The Chynna Syndrome: WWE Goes Nuclear!", and a little show called "The Simpsons".

Reminds me of a quote

[Bish.dk]

Reminds me of a quote by Terry Pratchett [lspace.org]:

I once absend-mindedly ordered Three Mile Island dressing in a restaurant and, with great presence of mind, they brought Thousand Island Dressing and a bottle of chili sauce.

Nuclear Power, or Mistresses?

[handy_vandal]

... more people died at Chappaquiddick than Three Mile Island. From this we can naturally conclude that being associated with the Presidency of the USA (even by being related, or being the mistress of a relative) is more dangerous then a Nuclear Power Station (as long as everybody is awake).

On the other hand, nuclear power stations won't give you a drunken blowjob -- whereas the Presidency is a pretty sure path to extramarital nookie.

-kgj

Re:Shame

[Dun Malg]

You'd have to ditch the radwaste casks in the ocean, where they might be prone to leaking in a harsh, high pressure ocean environment. I suppose if the radwaste is significantly heavier than the water so it won't float, and it can be dropped into a trench so any leaking has no chance of washing up, it would be a viable idea.

Isn't radiation in the ocean just the sort of foolish plan that results in disatrous consequences? I seem to recall seeing a documentary with Raymond Burr about nuclear tests in the pacific fifty years ago waking up a giant radiation-breathing bipedal lizard-thing that went on to stomp Japan. They eventually got the lizard to be their friend, but the damage was pretty bad. I don't think we can risk waking any more monsters.

Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.

Your sig is so very funny because it's TRUE! "I'm running down to the ATF for some beer and a rifle-- you need smokes or anything?" heh

Re:Gotta call mom

[Anonymous Coward]

Does your pee light up the bowl when you go?

Re:Oh little isle, of 3 Mile...

[AtariAmarok]

You forgot to accuse me of marching at the Seattle WTO protests carrying a 15' tall marionette puppet of a mongoose.

Re:Your ignorance is a shame.

[Anonymous Coward]

in twenty five years since, no one has been able to prove that they were adversly affected by the accident, healthwise.

Slogan: Nuclear power, possibly safer than smoking.

Re:Shame

[Melantha_Bacchae]

If all you saw was a "lizard" and Raymond Burr, then all you saw was a bad hatchet job. The real thing will be in a few theaters this spring and summer in the US. (Otherwise, I agree with you, Dun Malg.)

On March 1st, 1954, the US exploded H-bomb Bravo on Bikini. Radioactive ash fell on the Japanese fishing boat "The Lucky Dragon No. 5", and Bravo's nuclear hurricane engulfed Rongelap. Children played in the "snow", and then began screaming as it burned and poisoned them. The Japanese newspapers ran with the headline "The Second Atomic Bombing of Mankind".

On September 23, 1954, "The Lucky Dragon No. 5" radioman Aikichi Kuboyama died, the first victim of the H-bomb.

On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel rampaged up the US east coast, up into the nation's capital. In its wake it left 95 deaths and over a quarter of a billion dollars in damages.

On November 3, 1954, with the sinking of fishing boats and the fury of a typhoon heralding his epiphany, the dinosaur god Gojira (Godzilla), Son of Bravo, God of the Atom, and King of Monsters appeared. Only the compassion of Emiko and the heroic sacrifice of Serizawa in his dedication to peace, could halt the rampage of the angry god.

Within a month of the 25th anniversary of Bravo, in the Silver Jubilee year of Godzilla, the Three Mile Island accident happened. As always, human stupidity was at least partly to blame.

It is now within a month of the 50th anniversary of Bravo, in the Golden Jubilee year of Godzilla. How many times does he have to tell you all?

Safe!?! Was Chernobyl safe? Maybe, until they turned off all the safety mechanisms to see what would happen!

Tokai? Well, if anybody qualified for the Phoenix awards, it is the idiots who invited the Godzilla crew over to film an attack on their plant, and then tossed out the safety measures while mixing a nice bowl of uranium and nitric acid. Gee, they couldn't wait for "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" to come out before having Japan's worst nuclear accident. (Toho took out the plant destruction footage and ran it in the next movie, set in 1966 when the thing was first built.)

Then there is David Besse, Ohio's very own Hole-in-the-Head reactor, holder of the distinction of America's 2nd and 3rd worst nuclear accidents. They are trying to restart it again. Last I heard, there were valve malfunctions. First Energy who runs the thing brought us the big blackout a while ago. Be sure to thank them for that.

Face it, nuclear plants aren't safe. Nuclear weapons can't be safely tested or used (Bush wants to do both). The world's only God of the Atom is only going to be your friend when you return the fire you stole from him. Until then, you have a gigantic, divine, and extremely territorial carnivorous dinosaur who is seriously mad at you.

What do you think all those Native American prophetic warning labels on sacred mountains located over uranium deposits were about? They told you so!

Shinoda: "Is Godzilla showing his hatred toward man-made energy?"
Godzilla: "Human! Impertinent! I rule the Atom!"
"Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)

The best part about Three Mile Island

[flimflam]

was when Jimmy Carter went there to say that nothing was wrong and then came out ten feet tall and glowing. That was classic.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Interface design

[arachnia]

Actually, I've always found it amusing that Sun has this in its binary code license for Solaris (and I've seen it in other places):

You acknowledge that Software is not designed, licensed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility.

(Solaris Binary Code License Agreement [sun.com])

Re:Shame

[magarity]

subduction zone disposal - return it to the earth's core, which is used to it. Does anybody know why this disappeared off the map?

Because the best subduction zone on the planet is the Marianas Trench off the east coast of Japan. And we all know why dumping radioactive material off the coast of Japan is bad [imdb.com].

Nucular power.

[rice_burners_suck]

Nucular power is a very bad idea. I mean, the friggen power plant could have an accident and take out the whole city. I'd feel much safer if they'd just make power from, like, sunlight or something. Yeah. This method works best at night, by the way, because the sun ain't there, and I think more power is needed at night than during the day. But I have a solution. All we'd have to do is put solar power stations all over the world, and from each time zone, run lots and lots of power lines to a timezone that's 12 hours off, or something like that. In other words, if it's daytime in, like, China or something, they'd make power and it would go over these power lines to, like, Brazil or something.

This would make all the nations of the world cooperate with each other, kind of like the story about the people sitting across from each other at a 2 meter wide table, with 2 meter long silverware, where they had to cooperate to feed the person across from them, because otherwise they couldn't eat with that kind of long silverware. Yes. This would definitely work. I can totally see Cuba supplying power to Egypt, and Iran supplying power to Mexico, etc.

Needless to say, it would also cut down on all kinds of pollution, especially since it takes more energy to produce a solar cell than that cell will ever produce in its useful life. And because producing all that wire will take even more energy, not to mention tons of money. And because there is energy loss as it travels over long lengths of power lines. Yes. This is a great idea, and we don't need no stinkin' nucular power.

Re:Consequences of cheap nuclear power?

[Anonymous Coward]

I imagine such associations would be ridiculed. Trying to tell people what they can and can't do with their own houses - yeah right.

"Mate, you can't paint yer house that shade of blue. And that lawn needs a mow. And that roof has to go."

"Mate?"

"Yair?"

"Fuck off."