‘What’s behind our conflicted feelings on nukes?’
25th March 2011
I don’t have conflicted feelings on nukes. Do you have conflicted feelings on nukes?
Perhaps the Crust has conflicted feelings on nukes … but, then, they have conflicted feelings on anything that was invented after 1900.
Perhaps if someone developed a nuclear-powered high-speed commuter train, they’d get over it.
March 25th, 2011 at 11:16
Having had some peripheral experience with nukes, I have to say that I do have come conflicting opinions. The crustaceans don’t like nukes because of feelings, and that’s total BS. The facts do indicate a few problems.
Nukes cost a LOT of money to build. Nobody would build one if they actually added up the cost. So, like all good institutions, the supporters lie. Then, when they try to build and staff it, they are always vastly over budget. The reaction to that is to look for cuts. The CEO’s salary is not an option, so they cut engineers, technicians, and shortcut construction and materials. All of those are very bad choices at a nuke plant.
Then, the government gets involved. That has the same positive impact as an infestation of slugs in your strawberry patch.
The same problems exist once the plant is built. For example, a friend of mine was hired to inspect the security at a large nuke. He presented a very thorough report with a long list of recommendations. The CEO told him they were very disappointed with the report and probably wouldn’t use it. Why? “We were looking for security improvements that wouldn’t cost any money.”