Nuclear Power (spun off from Japan earthquake discussion)

[randolph]

Originally Posted by MistressStevie

In a couple years this disaster will be viewed as a fantastic learning opportunity for examining what to do right when every thing nature throws at you is outside any expected events. Tsunamis are rare at best. Earthquakes a bit ore. 9.0 earthquakes under your nuclear plant are what we in statistics call tail events.

Tokyo Electric is doing incredible work. Could they do better--you go try. What could they have done better? Everything. But with hindsight none of us would ever make bad decisions.

Time to clean up the mess, learn, and keep building as that is what humans do.
To Engineer is HUMAN! To mock and cry the sky is falling is worthless.

-mS

This is all fine if we don't have thousands exposed to radiation. Nuclear "accidents" are far more serious than any other kind of human disaster. Tsunamis can kill thousands. Volcanoes can kill thousands. Wars can kill thousands. But when they are over, they are over. Nuclear radiation can go on for generations.
Can we learn from this disaster? Actually, we (humans) knew early on what should have been done to prevent this debacle, but we didn't do it. Economics prevailed over maximum safety.