Nuclear perspective

[near horse]

With all of the concern of late, both the valid and the unfounded, I thought I would inject a bit of humor to “take the edge off” – please pardon me if you think it inappropriate at this time.

So here’s a quote from the venerable Mr. Burns, owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant on The Simpsons –

“Oh, meltdown. It’s one of these annoying buzzwords. We prefer to call it an ‘unrequested fission surplus’.” 😮

[dominiquer60]

Remembering the Simpsons and Mr. burns certainly brought a smile to my face, I needed that today. thanks

Despite all of my problems I am certainly happy to have them compared to the what the people of Japan are going through. At the very least it gives us a sense, again, of what could wrong with nuclear energy, it may be cleaner when working proper, but when it fails, it fails miserably.

Hoping for the best possible out come for Japan,

Erika

[near horse]

Amen, Erika. Nuclear fission – could we make boiling water any more difficult?

[dominiquer60]

May physics friends could answer that one, but I can’t imagine anything more complicated.

Right now I feel like we are in the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns creates a shield to block Springfield from getting sunlight, and he wants money in order to remove it. That combined with the “tomacco” one, Homer becomes a farmer and grows tomatoes crossed with tobacco, an addicting episode.

I was a fan back in the day:)

Erika

[Tim Harrigan]

Remember when Bart caught Blinkey the three-eyed fish in the pond near the nuclear power plant? Well, maybe Blinkey lives on…

[john plowden]

My son is on a US navy ship in Japan now dealing with the horrific situation – I find it hard
to laugh –

[Tim Harrigan]

I guess I did not see this as a ha ha type of exchange, more of an OMG our worst fears are coming true. 100000 people lost…no humor there.

[john plowden]

I guess I’m caught in a parents blinding fears and shouldnt have posted –

[Jim Garvin]

Hat’s off to your son, John….we’ll keep him in our thoughts!!

[Tim Harrigan]

@john plowden 25718 wrote:

I guess I’m caught in a parents blinding fears and shouldnt have posted –

No, I think we are all freaking out. Now this possible nuclear disaster and right from the start they assured us it was not going to be a problem.

[near horse]

Hi John,

My sincerest apology for any discomfort I may have caused. It was certainly not my intention to down play the risk and tragedy that many, including your son, may be experiencing. It is more out of frustration at being able to do nothing but watch that I hoped a little tongue in cheek humor would reduce the stress – but I was wrong. I’m sorry.

I hope your son can stay safely out of the “hot zone” – I know the US navy moved off from the close proximity they were in originally and even relocated to west of Japan to stay upwind of the radioactivity.
Here in the PNW there’s been a “run” on potassium iodide tablets out of fear that the radioactivity will drift this way – theoretically to protect from potential thyroid cancer risk.

I’ve heard that the amount released currently from these reactors peaked at 400 milliseiverts(?) (so far) whereas the exposures in Chernobyl were in the millions of milliseiverts – not that 400 isn’t an issue but not near a million.

May your son be stay safe.

Geoff

[dominiquer60]

I apologize for any discomfort as well. I can only hope for the best case scenario for all involved, unfortunately that only means that it doesn’t get worse than it is now. My sincerest thanks to those that sacrificed their health and probably lives in those power plants to try to prevent the worst from happening to the rest of us. John my best for your son and all the others that are serving our country.

Erika

[jac]

Hi John.. My thoughts are with at this time ..As a parent with a daughter who is joining the RAF I can totally feel your concern. These guys an gals all say the same thing “its our job, we trained for this” God bless them all…
John

[bivol]

oh, that’s what i needed, thanks Geoff!!

John, don’t worry, i think the army knows to keep its troops away from damage it can avoid. and this damage it CAN avoid! japan is the best equiped country to deal with this sort of crisis, and i dont think it needs any foreign help near anywhere dangerous.

personally prefer to laugh it out – the situation in the neighborhood is not pretty – we have a nuclear waste depo (open type) in the middle of the capital city where we live, whole neighboring Serbia is radiated (and still operates fine), and we have an old obsolete soviet “ready-to-blow” nuclear power plant some maybe 200 kilometers north, in Hungary (all we need is a Homer Simpson!)
oh, and another one just up the stream in Slovenia…

…AND we’re on an earthquake prone territory.
(+ we’ve already been glowed up a bit in ’86. (didn’t help much though)…)

should we sulk?

…why not laugh about it instead?

so, thanks, Geoff made my day!

[Tim Harrigan]

Bivol, we call it gallows humor, laughing at the hangman.

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