Are you a heart surgeon? Are you a brain specialist? Are you a car mechanic? Are you a lawyer? Are you a rocket scientist? Are you a house wife? OR are you a “working woman”?

If you would not write or blurt out your uneducated opinion on any of the above areas, why if you are a NUCLEAR ENGINEER or NUCLEAR PHYSICIST would you take it upon yourself the challenge of even remotely trying to write about anything Nuclear?

Yes I am a Nuclear Engineer and Yes I have experience in the field and Yes the little I claim to know is more then most people would care to know about the topic. I agree that its not all moon shine an roses but the picture you paint is like trying to perform a fine piece of classical music by bashing a few rocks together.

Your information is grossly inaccurate and as for using the “truth” found in a wiki article, now that is just plain “fuddlyheadedness”…

Are you a heart surgeon? Are you a brain specialist? Are you a car mechanic? Are you a lawyer? Are you a rocket scientist? Are you a house wife? OR are you a “working woman”?

I beg of you the answer… If you would not write or blurt out your uneducated opinion on any of the above areas, why if you are a NUCLEAR ENGINEER or NUCLEAR PHYSICIST would you take it upon yourself the challenge of even remotely trying to write about anything Nuclear? The statistical chances of core damage or large release of radiation are almost zero…

Yes I am a Nuclear Engineer and Yes I have experience in the field and Yes the little I claim to know is more then most people would care to know about the topic. I agree that its not all moon shine an roses but the picture you paint is like trying to perform a fine piece of classical music by bashing a few rocks together.

Your information is grossly inaccurate and as for using the “truth” found in a wiki article, now that is just plain “fuddlyheadedness”…

Are you a heart surgeon? Are you a brain specialist? Are you a car mechanic? Are you a lawyer? Are you a rocket scientist? Are you a house wife? OR are you a “working woman”?

I beg of you the answer… If you would not write or blurt out your uneducated opinion on any of the above areas, why if you are a NUCLEAR ENGINEER or NUCLEAR PHYSICIST would you take it upon yourself the challange of even remotely trying to write about anything Nuclear? The statistical chances of core damage or large release of radiation are almost zero…

Yes I am a Nuclear Engineer and Yes I have experience in the field and Yes the little I claim to know is more then most people would care to know about te topic. I agree that its not all moon shine an roses but the picture you paint is like trying to perform a fine piece of classical music by bashing a few rocks together.

Your information is grossley inaccurate and your as for using the “truth” found in a wiki article, now that is just plain “fuddlyheadedness”…

1. Evacuation/ Emergency response

The blogger asserts that the government/energy company have no plans or resources to deal with an emergency.

2. Reactor safety of Koeberg

The blogger asserts that the reactor is old and outdated. The design of the reactor is insufficient.

3. Nuclear power

The blogger is obviously against the use of nuclear power in any way or form.

4. Bizarre signature

The blogger has a signature which suggests he sees nuclear power as connected to racism and anti-democratic government. What have you been smoking man?

Perhaps responses limited to these issues would speed the debate.

Personally I think that nuclear power is necessary, all over the world. There are to many people and fossil fuels are insufficient and undesirable. Alternative sources are innefficient (imagine how much land you need to make a wind farm as powerful as a reactor, and then hope the wind blows…) Fusion is more desirable as there is no waste save heat dissipation but we are stuck with fission. How do make fission viable and safe? I propose that new technologies like pebble bed be furthered as it promises more self-controlled reactions. Furthermore it allows the use of multiple fuel types enabling to dispose of some forms of “waste” from warheads. Additionaly I propose an IAEA governed fuelbank which would be solely responsible and authoritative for design standards and fuel rod distribution and enrichement. This would allay fears of nuclear research wandering off the peaceful path. Such an institution would house the worlds best experts and hence by collaborating would yield better results than bootstrap methods currently used by some countries, nuclear fission is a tad to dangerous to completely leave to market economics..

As to emergency issues, reactors should be moved away from cities and built in confinable and secure locations, deep in a mountain range or in a desert, if only to keep it off the target list of terrorists but also to ensure that if anything does go awry, you don’t have millions of people rushing about stampeding themselves.. Current reactors in populated areas should be phased out and replaced with new designs under control and regulation of the international body.

So there’s my 2 cents, and uh, the original blogger should grow up.

“Reactor Scram or Reactor Trip refers to the insertion of the control rods. … related to shutting down the reactor, mitigating the effects of a loss of reactor coolant accident” …www.nucleartourist.com/systems/rp.htm

The operative word here is “accident”. Yet another accident at a plant known for its leaks, and cover-ups.

Scram
… Scram. A scram is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor, though the term has been extended … to drop a control rod into a reactor to shut it down …www.worldhistory.com/wiki/S/Scram.htm -

The operative word here is “emergency”. Does Cape Town have the capacity to deal with a nuclear reactor meltdown, and a radiative emergency evacuation? Answer: NO!

One doesn’t have to be a nuclear engineer or Homer Simpson to understand that fission is dangerous and any activity beyond the norm can cause a critical and uncontrolled chain reaction that may not be stopped by fallible designs and human “engineering”. I’m reminded of the asbestos industry telling us that asbestos is safe. I’ve challenged nuclear officials to eat U235 and other isotopes to prove the safety of their nuclear sandwhich, but they still insist that every home should have a nuclear oven, a nuclear toaster, a nuclear television set.

Telling us that Koeberg “Scrammed” only confirms the fact that systems went haywire and that the plant was out of control, if not for minutes, then seconds. They way particles react, I wouldn’t like to be a homeowner in Melkbostrand or Tableview right now, because this is bound to depreciate property values.

As for people dissing the environmental movement, where would we be now without “sustainable development”, a buzz word I introduced to South African’s way back in the 1990s after the Rio Conference. What’s the bet that I am the first journalist in this country to talk about Sustainable Development in a meaningful way?

Thats all for now you lying bastards.

FORWARD TO A NUCLEAR-FREE, NON-RACIST, NON-SEXIST SOUTH AFRICA.

I’d put my money on fossil fuel health effects being a number of orders more dire than nuclear power, borne out by the climate tipping point we now find ourselves at the top of.

Anyway, Koeberg :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koeberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressurized_water_reactor

No idea if that’s a totally accurate summary, but at least it is unbiased.

I think our only hope to slow down our reliance on fossil fuels are Pebble Bed Reactors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor

I’ve read bits ‘n bobs over the years about various other forms of energy generation and the general consensus amongst experts is that they can only supply a fraction of a countries power needs due to simple physics and therefore economics.

The medium term solution is nuclear power.

When I read prominent Green Peace members and top environmentalists indicating that nuclear power is the only viable medium term energy solution and then witness the political shit storm against them, I can only conclude that they are right.

Those who control the fossil fuels are so defensive of their power base, they go to war to protect it and easily squash anything which may cut into their profit margins. The worlds economy has become so reliant on fossil fuels, we’ve got a problem on our hands.