Steam explosion kills five in nuclear plant; everyone in Asia will die.

[NNadir]

In keeping with my series on how diligent our media is in covering sexy news with sexy dangerous words like "nuclear" in it, I am now reporting on CNN's report on the dangers of Japanese Nuclear power since some one has actually been killed in a Japanese Nuclear plant.

Pay no mind to the fact that this was a steam explosion that involved no nuclear components or that steam explosions occur in power plants of all types simply because steam whether produced by coal or gas or fission is energetic, pressurized (duh, it drives turbines), hot and corrosive, the important issue is that someone has died and we can put "nuclear" the sentence describing their deaths.

I feel so relieved.

Followers of this series will note that I usually attach the "Everyone in... ...will die" statement to a single nation when pointing out to our media's radar for nuclear accidents. Since for the first time in quite some time someone has actually died in a nuclear plant, I have decided to attach the irrelevantly connected statement to an entire continent.

And now a word from our "news" people at CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/08/09/japan.nuclear/index.html">Everyone will die in Asia and there was a "nuclear" accident in Asia. More than a coincidence?

[DODI]

1. Do these events get news coverage when people die in fossil plants?

I guess fossil isn't as exciting, they just kill more people.

[comradebillyboy]

2. you get more deaths in steam explosions from fossil plants,

cuz they are vastly more numerous than nukes, except in france and maybe japan. fossil plant steam explosions are more deadly as well, cuz in a coal palnt the steam is at a much higer temprature and pressure than at a nuke. this factor and certain other safety restrictions to minimize water contamination result in a lower thermal efficiency for the nuke vs coal plant.

i used to be a nuclear engineer in a past life

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lapfog_1]

3. And I'm guessing that you aren't at all bothered

by the fact that pipes at a nuclear power plant hadn't been
inspected for over 20 years.

Makes me all warm and fuzzy about the safety of nuclear power.

BTW, if any industrial accident here in the US had killed 5
people, it would be all over the news. Construction, power
plant, chemical plant or other.

[NNadir]

6. Nonsense.

http://www.hilbornlaw.com/RougePlant/explosion.htm

Until today I never heard of this one. OK, four dead, but certainly not international news.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/33094_boom28.shtml

I'm surprised anyone noticed this.

Here's a guy who makes a living on litigation on industrial accidents that certainly don't make international news:

http://www.drharrywest.com/litigation_support.htm

Here's a happy report that the US Coal mining deaths in 1997 hit an all time "low": 30.

http://www.msha.gov/MEDIA/PRESS/1997/NR971231.HTM

CNN didn't cover this OSHA report involving fly ash I'll bet:

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=626

According to this OSHA report (see page 5) we have this happy statistic not reported by CNN: "No detailed national data are available on the number of work ers killed each year by
contact with uncontrolled hazardous energy.
How ever, dur ing the pe riod 1982–1997,
NIOSH in vestigated 1,281 fatal incidents as
part of their FACE Program. Of these, 152
involved installation, maintenance, service,
or repair tasks on or near machines, equip -
ment, processes, or systems. Because the
FACE program was active in only 20 States
between 1982 and 1997, these fatalities
represent only a portion of the U.S. workers
who were killed by con tact with uncon -
trolled hazardous energy."

http://www.setonresourcecenter.com/safety/loto/publications/99-110.pdf

Here we have a nice list of uncovered industrial accidents used to advertise an OSHA training course:

"North Carolina Worker Crushed to Death
GASTONIA, N.C. - A factory employee was crushed to death as he worked on equipment at Rochling Engineered Plastics Co., ... (more)

Trench Collapse Kills Ohio Worker
One man died after a trench collapsed in Newark, OH. According to witnesses, Gary Dillon, 40, and ... (more)


Maumee, OH Bridge Collapse Report Released
Ohio Department of Transportation Assistant Director Richard Martinko Friday conducted a media briefing regarding the ... (more)

California Welder Burned in Pipe Accident
A worker suffered fatal burns Wednesday morning while welding inside a water pipe at a south Napa housing construction ... (more)

Molten Metal Burns Three Indy Workers
INDIANAPOLIS -- Three workers at a foundry were injured when molten metal splashed on them, an Indianapolis ... (more)

Pennsylvania Man Crushed by Boulder
A Saylorsburg, PA man was killed when a roughly 3-ton rock fell on him at the construction site of the Cumru ... (more)"

http://www.osha-trainer.com/

I didn't hear accounts of any of these 734 deaths from work related falls in 2000 in the United States, never mind Japan:

http://www.lion.com/Reference_Library/General/PressReleases/OSHA/2002Mar/mar15b.htm

Did you?

Happily no one died in this chemical plant explosion a few weeks ago in Elmira New York which was international news covered by all of the major networks in all of the major markets on the planet, just like this Japanese Steam Explosion:

http://www.safetyequipmenthq.com/article_061813.html

These 24,000 deaths don't count since radioactivity can't be used in articles describing them:

http://www.safetyequipmenthq.com/article_061536.html

I won't bother to discuss the other millions of people who died this year from air pollution completely unremarked by the media. The media is too busy. When they're not discussing "nuclear deaths in Japan" they have mostly focused on the sad demise of Lacy Peterson.

You hear about nuclear deaths only because they have the word "nuclear" next to them. The world simply doesn't give a shit about industrial accidents anywhere else on the planet from any other cause. This is called "selection pressure," and it's the mechanism by which the media keeps people away from critical thinking.

In fact, we've long stopped hearing about the deaths in Iraq, American or otherwise, all of which are related to oil. Why? Because the media's bored.

I could do this all night, except, to repeat, I expect that people just don't give a shit.

[lapfog_1]

8. Ok, you really want to go there...

Let's start with the Ford Rouge Plant... here is the CNN
article on it, and yeah, I do remember seeing it on the news.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/02/ford.explosion.03/

as for the second example, I don't remember it, and nobody died
apparently.

The other things you refer to are just silly.

Yes, there are industrial accidents, not everyone of which
is covered in the 6 o'clock news. But you were making the
assumption (I guess because you believe that nuclear power
is picked on by the lib'rl media) that the Japanese accident
ONLY made the news because it was a nuclear plant, not that
4 or 5 (you said 5, so that was the number I was using) people
died in an explosion. So fine, we are picking on the nukes.

Whatever.

Of course, that had nothing to do with my main point, which was
that APPARENTLY, these idiots hadn't bothered inspecting a pipe for
something like 20 years. Which gives me real confidence about
the safety of nuclear power facilities. Course, when you have
a major problem at a Natural Gas power plant, dozens of people
may die in the resulting explosion and fire but after the fire is out
and someone cleans up the mess, you aren't left with in uninhabitable
region for the next 1000 years (like the area around Chernobyl)

[NNadir]

9. Well you're new here. The thirty kilometer zone around Chernobyl

is NOT inhabitable for 1000 years. It is in fact one of the richest ecological zones in Europe, home to over 40 endangered species, the main reason being human beings are excluded from the area.

The number of deaths associated with the Chernobyl disaster is less than 1000, and number routinely exceeded in numbers of persons killed EVERY SINGLE DAMN year in Coal mining, gas explosions and other fossil fuel related accidents. Moreover, the amount of land permanently destroyed or damaged by oil, and coal operations exceeds the amount of land destroyed at Chernobyl also by a huge factor.



Mining tailing dam failures

Note that the failure of a coal slurry dam in Kentucky in 2000 destroyed 75 miles of the Big Tug River in Martin County Kentucky when 250 million gallons of coal slurry was released into the environment. I'm sure you spent as many nights contemplating this disaster as you've spent contemplating Chernobyl, right?

Energy decisions of any kind are NOT risk free. There is no absolutely safe form of energy. Time and time again, though, when analyzed in a comparitive sense, we learn, urban mythology and energy religions aside that the safest form of energy available on this planet, wind excepted, is nuclear energy.

[Kool Kitty]

12. I read that, too, about the non-inspection of the pipes.

Seems like they should be inspected a little more frequently. It's this "human error" stuff that makes me worry a bit about the plants. They seem to be safe if everyone does their job. Sometimes you can't count on everyone doing their job, though.

[ContraBass Black]

4. War! Famine! Disaster! Pestilence! Apocalypse!

Run for the hills!

[Cicero]

11. Human sacrifice!

Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!!!!

Later,

[Massacure]

5. I'll post the same thing I did in the Late Breaking News forum

http://www.nsnet.gr.jp/english/member/commerc/22.html

The above link says that the three reactors at Mihama Power Station are Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR).

http://www.nsnet.gr.jp/english/member/commerc/22.html

This gives a diagram of a basic PWR. They have three water loops. One is presurized water inside the reactor. This gathers the heat from the nuclear process, however the heat is transfered to a second water/steam loop. There is also a third cold water loop for cooling.

If there is no radioactivity, then it had to be the second loop, as the first one is radioactive, and the third one is cold water.

Btw, NNadir, your link doesn't work.

[NNadir]

7. Sorry. I'll try the link again.

Everyone will die in Asia and there was a "nuclear" accident in Asia. More than a coincidence?
>