Fukushima, Off the map.

Fukushima Daiichi was unknown to almost all the world a week ago. So too was the thought of a set of nuclear power reactors being abandoned in a major industrial country as fires rage, casings crack and radio-active steam pours out. When will we ever learn,...... when will we ever learn?

This issue seems to me to be so important and yet there is little coverage locally that it reminded me of "think Globally act locally" and the need to put up a second posting to the one on Tuesday..

At one stage I used to wonder why nuclear power stations were on the coast, in France there are a battery of them facing us in southern England.

Was it to help cool the system, like Shoreham?

or to allow fuel to come by sea , so necessary for coal powered stations?

Was it to be less visible avoiding the noise of the Nimbys?

or to provide jobs in more remote areas like Dungeness?

Was it for staff to have a beautiful outlook?

or to give the power station a beautiful natural image like the change of the name From Windscale to Sellafield. , sometime after the long forgotten fire in 1957?

Twelve Miles Island

The disaster at Fukushima nuclear power stations is apparently considerably worse already than the infamous Twelve mile island (USA) melt down though less horrific at present than Chernobyl (Soviet Union)catastrophe. The Japan experience shows why nuclear power stations do love to be beside the seaside.

If there is an explosion only half the radius of 20 Km/12 Miles has inhabitants. Placing it in a more remote area crucially reduces numbers significantly, while if the wind is blowing in the right direction the radio-active pollution may be blown out to sea and not across densely populated areas.

This seems to be one of the few glimmers of good news in Japan for their remarkably stoical and practical people surviving the Tsunami.

Gravelines

Its not so good news for Sussex facing French nuclear power stations in Gravelines (Yes its real name!), Penly, Paluel or even Flamanville. Would they be as stoical and well organised as the Japanese? I love their cuisine but not this kind of french cooker. The earth may not move for them, but their bureaucracy is quite capable of blundering and bungling in a crisis.

Priorities

Next week there is the budget, where every interest group will be looking at its specific concern, its specific priorities for the next year or two. Where will global warming be ranked?

Am I a cynic to believe that there will be little thought to the next decade or two and the importance of massive investments needed in wind farms and safe renewable energy? When will we ever learn? Don Quixote is alive and well.

I know what my organic Lottie would prefer to face from the sea and what I would prefer to be off the map.

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