DO YOU LIVE IN ONE OF THESE STATES?

[Book]

General Electric-designed reactors in Fukushima have 23 sisters in U.S.

The General Electric-designed nuclear reactors involved in the Japanese emergency are very similar to 23 reactors in use in the United States, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission records.

The NRC database of nuclear power plants shows that 23 of the 104 nuclear plants in the U.S. are GE boiling-water reactors with GE's Mark I systems for containing radioactivity, the same containment system used by the reactors in trouble at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The U.S. reactors are in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Linky (http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/13/6256121-general-electric-designed-reactors-in-fukushima-have-23-sisters-in-us)

:o The Mark I systems are really old now

[joe_momma]

Well, when a tsunami washes away the redundant diesel generators from the Illinois power plant I'll get worried ....

[woodman]

When the New Madrid fault-line finally does again what it did back in 1811-12 then you won't have to worry about a tsunami. The quake will take care of everything.

[BrewTech]

My "local" reactor is supposed to be able to withstand a 7.0 directly underneath it, and it wasn't built by GE.

[oldmansmith]

I live within 20 miles of Vermont yankee. It has had an abysmal safety record, and the Vermont Legislature voted to not allow the license to be renewed next year (it was designed to run for 40 years and has requested a 20 year extension). Radioactive tritium in the groundwater (from pipes they said did not exist); collapsing cooling towers, the list goes on. Of course, our "protectors" in the NRC said that everything is fine and that the extension will be issued. This is going to end up in the courts; if anything good comes from this debacle in Japan it will be the closing of such aged plants.

[sunnyandseventy]

I don't see VT Yankee going anywhere. Seem to recall an interview in the Plattsburgh Press Republican that Shumlin would be OK with VY staying open as long as Entergy was no longer owner.
Can't seem to find the article now.

Glad I don't live within 20 miles of it!

[joe_momma]

For every nuclear plant closed there will need to be (at least) the equivalent power producing capability built.

The sh*tty nuclear plants built back in the '70's are reaching the end of their life (non-standard designs being the least of the issues with them) - there are not too many other energy producing options available - solar & wind are not yet scalable and reliable enough to replace traditional fossil fuel plants.

There's pretty much 4 options on the table for the next decade:
* keep the sh*tty plants open (while not having a viable solution for the spent fuel storage)
* build new coal plants (yeah sure, clean coal if you want to call it that - still the best immediate term choice)
* build new nuclear plants (granted the spent fuel storage issue remains)
* lower the standard of living in the US by ~20% (accept increased energy costs and economic decline)


Given the current administrations performance - I'll place my money that the last option is the one Mr Soetoro will embrace.

[ShortJohnSilver]

joe_mamma, you forgot the combo option:

a) lower the standard of living in the USA

b) liquidate some useless goyim, preferably older whites, in order to "balance the books" and make the decline in total energy usage easier

as it is, old folks are moving into retirement homes and thus lessening the amount of energy they use.