Feds Cutting Back On Nuclear Power Plant Safety Because Honestly, Why Bother
The last few years has been pretty much a nonstop ride of positive safety PR for the nuclear power industry, right? I mean, this is an technology that absorbed an enormous earthquake and tsunami and barely even killed anyone/left whole towns uninhabitable/terrified the world. Nuclear power couldn't even bring harm to erstwhile Wonkette scribe Jack Stuef ! So really, why should Americans be spending our precious tax dollars on making our own nuclear power plants safer, when that money could be diverted to more pressing needs (tax cuts for billionaires, hott new missile defense systems, capital gains tax cuts ... just spitballing here). But don't worry, we don't need those gridlocked crumbums in Congress to make these important decisions, since they were already put into place by updates to obscure federal regulations six months ago.
You know what really sucks and is boring is practicing stuff, as we remember very clearly from high school band, where we had to go to rehearsal every morning before school and lessons and (theoretically) practice on our own during the week and yet never once did we become a prominent jazz trombonist! Therefore practice is for losers, and there's no point in practicing for what would happen if a nuclear plant released a "significant amount of radiation," which totally works out because now you can have training exercises at nuclear plants that don't deal with that at all !
Also, anyone who has ever tried to maintain an old broken down car knows what a pain it is to keep ancient equipment going past its prime. That's why you'll be relieved to hear that the Feds have relaxed the safety regulations for nuclear power plants operating beyond their design life, since living up those regulations would be hard and it's not like we don't still need the electricity even though those plants are like 50 years old now, amiright?
Anyway, don't worry too much about this, because the number of Americans living within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant has really dropped in the last few decades. Oh, wait, did we say dropped, we meant "ballooned by as much as 4 1/2 times since 1980." Enjoy the circa 1998 stylings of the Associated Press's website ("Best viewed in Netscape Navigator 4!") while your Wonkette turns the basement into an air-tight, lead-lined safety chamber. [ AP ]
OK, now you done pissed off this gay Democrat nuclear plant engineer. Ah, where to start....<br />Yes Josh (MY HERO!!), we drill more on external attacks now than on internal accidents, because probabalistic risk analysis has determined that they are more likely to occur. (Yes, there are jobs for math majors outside of insurance and baseball.) It really is more likely that some dingus will set up 200 yds from a plant with a shoulder rocket launcher, or load a bread truck full of fertilizer, than it is that an internal accident will occur. Why? Because there are a lot of dinguses out there.<br />&quot;..the Feds have relaxed the safety regulations for nuclear power plants operating beyond their design life&quot; - no idea where you&#039;re getting that. License extension from 40 yrs to 60 yrs is a reality, but we have hundreds of issues to address to justify it before it&#039;s granted. Fewer than 10 units (of 103) have reached 40 yrs so far, average age is ~30.<br />
I have a dozen or so friends who are flight attendants, and all of them get more radiation dose in a year than I have received total in my nuclear career (24 yrs). They just don&#039;t realize it. Americans get 620 mR per year of natural radiation from the earth and sun (or 6.2 mSv for you metric weirdos), more if you live in PA mine country or in Denver. Average airline flight crew annual dose is 219 mR. Nuclear plant workers are allowed 5000 mR per year, maybe 5% approach 500 mR. Most get &lt;10 mR. &lt;BR&gt;People are afraid of what they don&#039;t understand. I live 6.6 miles by road from a nuclear plant, probably 3 miles as the crow flies. I couldn&#039;t care less. Many of my neighbors apparently are unaware of its existence. And you know what - they need not be. I would be more concerned about what chemicals are in my processed meat meals (ugh!!) than that.