chainmailleman
Any nuclear reactor isn't safe. The reason is how they work. They are steam boilers. They use the heat from the reaction to boil water and push the blades on the turbines. Just like in the 19th century with all of those steam boiler failures.....
No. The reason for frequent boiler failure in the 1800's, was the fact that they didn't know how to build an adequate feedback control system. The boilers didn't adjust themselves. As such, people had to keep a constant eye on them, with the result that most boiler failures were due to user error, either people were running them too high, or they weren't being adequately attended.
If you look at the data, nuclear power is actually the second safest method of power generation (only hydroelectric is safer, with the fewest deaths per kilowatt hour.)
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Fukushima and Chernobyl were no different. It was a big release of built up pressure.
Fukushima wasn't designed adequately to withstand local hazards (IE tidal waves.) Chernobyl was built out of mud and spit.
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Thorium is "Safer" than Uranium only in the fact that Thorium does not sustain it's own reaction. It requires an outside source of Neutrons. Therefore not requiring control rods to absorb stray neutrons. Thats it. Don't believe me? Google this s**t. Every reactor is built on the same principles. San Onofre just lost it's cooling radiators a few months ago releasing a fairly large portion of radiation into the pacific.
If you're going to use google, try and fact check.
Yes, they discovered a minor radioactive steam leak. It was at a rate of six hundredths of a gallon per minute, and was automatically detected, and vented into an auxiliary building. NO radiation was released into the pacific.
See, this is what modern engineering gets us. The problem was found immediately, and stopped before anyone could get hurt.
Compare this with oil, where it seems once a year, we have a major spill, explosions, malfunctions, etc.
Ironically, because people are so worried about nuclear, nuclear plants have to be MUCH safer than oil plants.