should nuclear power be used or not

[Maka]

It should be used, but of course carefully. Japan did the wrong thing when building the nuclear plants in a zone where earthquakes occur very often.
But since nuclear reactors produce huge amounts of energy, and they produce so few of waste if treated properly I vote 'yes'.

... Earthquakes did not occur very often? Besides, that plant could've stood anywhere, the same thing would've happened.

[Darius]

... Earthquakes did not occur very often? Besides, that plant could've stood anywhere, the same thing would've happened.

.... Japan has way more earthquakes than most other places, they never built huge castles during samurai era because earthquakes would just take them down. Thats why their skyscrapers managed to stay up, they've built their buildings to withstand earthquakes because there so common in Japan

[Maka]

.... Japan has way more earthquakes than most other places, they never built huge castles during samurai era because earthquakes would just take them down. Thats why their skyscrapers managed to stay up, they've built their buildings to withstand earthquakes because there so common in Japan

Well, how much is 'very often'? I meant that if that plant stood anywhere else and the same earthquake or tsunami occurred, the same thing still would've happened.

[Jhon]

First off, I couldn't agree more with Maddolis lol, nuff said.

Second, I partially disagree with SilentBob's comment, the fact that "fewer" people died in the other ways of getting energy doesn't mean it is that safer. When things like you mentioned happen, it's more like an immediate effect. Now, when a nuclear disaster occurs, its effects remain there for years, look for example what happened in Chernobyl. Even 20+ years after its explosion, there's still people and children of people affected by it dying by cancer. And an area of x square kilometers became uninhabitable. When treated properly it can be very safe, of course, but when things like this, which go outta control happen, things change drastically.

I agree with Maka's comment about that it doesn't matter where: this demostrates once again that there's just no way for humans to stop the nature's power. At least not in the past, present, and the next x years. And yeah Maka, there's a lot of earthquakes in Japan which can be felt everyday. If I'm not wrong, it's the most active area in the planet seismically talking. It's just that they build their buildings very well and people got used to it, but this last earthquake was just extraordinary. To give you an example, compare what happened in Haiti and what happened in Chile, while Chile's earthquake was way more powerful.

Last but not least, durrrr, Japan is an island, and its entire territory has earthquakes everyday, so where else were they supposed to build it / them?

[jerico]

Maka,

just said it all. The alternatives are just a no go at this moment. Heatpumps and stuff like that are not reliable enought and don't live up the expectations. (they brake down a lot, and the effectivity is not as near the theoratical calculations tell us)

Solar panels are to expensive in combination with the size of the area that is needed to fulffil the energy bill.

Windmills, are in fact to expensive and the labor brought with it are bad for the environment.

Human kind is not able to live without nuclear power. Nuclear plants are becomming way more sofisticated and keep improving. Cherynobel is an example which nothing could compare with.

The problems occured in Japan has to do with the secundary processes running in the plant and in this case the cooling systems.(unfortunately one of the most important processes of the plant). You can't compare it with cherynobel and Japan has never been that close to such a meltdown.

People start whining about the nuclear plants and media keep feeding those people. Why don't we hear anything about the oil plant which has gone up into smoke? Do you think people could live further on that soiled ground? What do you think about the area that is hit by the tsunami in total?

The media keeps on feeding and feeding on that nuclear plant, like it's the only thing happening there right now. No, the nuclear plant has survived an earthquake of 8,9/9.0 on the schale of richter. Think about that.

People think they could own the world, but the world is owning us.

[durrrrr]

Well, how much is 'very often'? I meant that if that plant stood anywhere else and the same earthquake or tsunami occurred, the same thing still would've happened.

Japan is in the Pacific Ring of Fire. 90% of earthquakes in the world occur there. Japan should have thought about this before building a nuclear power plant.

[Daniel]

Japan is in the Pacific Ring of Fire. 90% of earthquakes in the world occur there. Japan should have thought about this before building a nuclear power plant.

True, actually japan is a line of earth quakes, few days before was an earth quake in Chili that caused the one in japan afaik.

[Maka]

Japan is in the Pacific Ring of Fire. 90% of earthquakes in the world occur there. Japan should have thought about this before building a nuclear power plant.

To Darius and yourself: I take my words about Japan's earthquakes back. Updated myself with a little more information, thank you. <;
Though, if I may mention, just like a lot of other countries, they put their plants on the border's of the country mostly. If you look at a lot of countries (note, I'm mainly speaking about Europe here), they will a lot of the time place their plants on the borders to the other countries.

[durrrrr]

To Darius and yourself: I take my words about Japan's earthquakes back. Updated myself with a little more information, thank you. <;
Though, if I may mention, just like a lot of other countries, they put their plants on the border's of the country mostly. If you look at a lot of countries (note, I'm mainly speaking about Europe here), they will a lot of the time place their plants on the borders to the other countries.

It's funny because I live in Lithuania, and now Belarus and Russia (Kaliningrad) are both planning to build their own nuclear plants. Those two plants are planned to be both like 20 km from the borders with Lithuania. Most people here don't like the idea of being in the middle of two nuclear reactors, especially after when we had closed our own one.

[Maka]

Heh, yeah. No one wants to be near the reactors of course. I myself wouldn't like it either. Hell, there's even people complaining about bloody windmills ruining their views.