Xpost: Fukushima: Consequences of Systemic Problems in Nuclear Plant Design

[kristopher]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x316970#316970

This is a bit dated (post Fukushima pre-Italian referendum) but the refutation of the two claims made by nuclear proponents about safety in the afterglow of Fukushima are well worth reading.

François Diaz Maurin (Francois.Diaz@uab. cat) is a former engineer of the French and US nuclear industries who has worked on the development of new nuclear power plant designs. He is now doing a doctorate on energy and society at ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.

The paper is Fukushima: Consequences of Systemic Problems in Nuclear Plant Design

In it Maurin identifies the two primary claims made by nuclear proponents who are attempting to persuade the public that nuclear power is safe.
Argument #1: “The accidents at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant are due to a unique occurrence of two natural disasters – an earthquake and a tsunami”.
Argument #2: “New reactor designs would stand such natural events”.

The rebuttals take a few pages so I'll just post the conclusion:

The rest at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x316970#316970