With the earthquake and tsunami in Japan triggering the subsequent "meltdown" at one of Japan's nuclear facilities, questions have been raised about the United States and our use of nuclear power. What should the United States do with nuclear enrgy as we face rising gas prices, potential health threatening concerns in the wake of Japan's crisis, increasing global demands for fossil fuels and a limited supply of them, questions about how to dispose of nuclear material safely after it has been used, etc? The link to an article you may be interested in as governments try to answer these questions. The article also has several links within it that can access some video and other news stories that may be of interest.
Mr. Thompson
This is like a movie, very unbelievable. I'm pretty sure that a movie about this event will be made in the near or far future. Nuclear plants are dangerous. That is not new news. I believe that nuclear plants should be used only with the permission of a community and area of the radius that it could effect, with 75% approval. Having nuclear plants would allow the U.S. to stop reling on other countries totally.
ReplyDeleteI think in this article that people are reacting to this earthquack because we all ready knew about it before it would get to us. we can be prepared to this situation by keeping are nuclear plants cool with water going through it.
ReplyDeleteCollin
Hr.5
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIt really is devistating what's happening in the world today. After seeing images and videos of the destruction this earthquake has caused, I think this is a large eye-opener for the world. There is really not much we can do to help Japan at the moment, but they will definitely need our help financially and supportively as things start to settle down. We all should participate in any way we can to help the people of Japan. As far as our own nuclear situation goes, like I said before, this should be a large red-flag for the people of the United States. Seeing this happen to a very populated country should make us realize that our own nuclear plants may very well become a problem in the future. To prevent this, we should seriously consider to re-locate our current nuclear plants to safer ground, because as much as we would like to think we won't encounter a powerful earthquake, there really is no way for us to know.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very reassured about the United States preparedness for a similar natural disaster, as the one in Japan. According to professor Dallas "We have a lot of exercises here. They exercise these crews all the time, and we have a culture of preparedness here," he said. "It's their background, the way they think, the way they operate. And they drill all the time." but that just sounds like a lot of fluff to me. I'm sure that Japan had similar safety systems in place and they didn't work perfectly. You can "drill" all you want but if the controls for the plant do not work, then you can't control the reactor.
ReplyDeleteMax Dylla
Hr. 1
i think that the necular power plants should all be examined and there should be some money thrown down to update them so if something simlar happens like the earthquake over in japan we will be ready and at least have a better chance then japan did.
ReplyDeleteAlex Ziemann
Hour 3
I think that in this situation the nuclear power plants should do more research on the effects of earth quakes that are stronger then what is expected and that they should update and advance their facilites. Japan was a good example and reason for the updates because japan was more prepared for a earth quake of this scale. I think that they should prepare for the worse and not what is expected.
ReplyDeleteMelanie Stock
Hour 7
I feel that no one can be ready for a natural disaster. By us experimenting and creating dangerous things is asking for a disaster. While it is dangerous to have nuclear plants on coastal regions which are susceptible to earthquakes or tsunamis,having them other places in the world is just as dangerous. Tornadoes hit the mid west, flooding can occur anywhere, heavy snow just collapsed the roof at the dome in the cities, mudslides effect the west coast. Nature is dangerous and by us creating dangerous buildings we are asking for a disaster.
ReplyDeleteSarah Armstrong
hr. 7
I am actually not too worried about the safety of the U.S. nuclear facilities. Since the Japan incident, I think the U.S. now has time to re-examine their nuclear plants and create new safely measures to add on to the ones that are already there. Given that it is indeed dangerous to have nuclear facilities in any part of the world, I think that if the U.S. learns from Japans accident, we will be able to strengthen our saftety features and be all right!
ReplyDeleteJeanne Depman
I think what recently happened in Japan was a huge eye opener to everyone. We all know mother nature is completely unpredictable, but I think the US sahould think about taking more precautions to our plants in California. While we have flooding and tornadoes in the mid-west, California is way more likely to get hit by a tsunami, an earthquake, and even wild fires. We need to ensure that if an earthquake hits the US like it did Japan, that we did everything to minimize the effects if anything happens to the plants.
ReplyDeletekayla, 5h hour
A few people have been saying that we should relocate our nuclear plants off of the our coasts. Sarah made a good point, natural disasters happen everywhere. I am not too concerned with it. Can anyone name a location in the United States of the same area(square miles) as Japan with as many Nuclear plants as Japan did? I cant remember when we had 3 or 4 Nuclear Power Plants in the United States explode due to a tsunami or earthquake. Max also made a good point. People can take as many precautions as they want, but when push comes to shove people will mentally break down because they will get complacent, thinking "Oh this will never happen to us, we are prepared." When it actually does happen it is an eye opener and everyone is surprised.
ReplyDeleteLogan O.
Hr. 5
I think what happened in Japan was big eye opener. Everything seemed to happen so unexpectidly, that hopefully since this has happened people will be more aware and have more things planned out for when it could happen again. I think the US needs to start looking deeper into our plants in California. Since California can have the same type of issues, we need to make sure we did what we could to get the least amount of damage to the plants in US.
ReplyDeleteIt's safe to say that the earthquake in Japan was a devastating event that was life changing for many people. The scariest part of it all is that we can't control something like this. Yes, there are ways to make their enviroment more safe, if this should ever happen again but how could we ever repare the permanent damages scarred them for life? Well we cant exactly do that, but because were the United States, we're obviously going to do something. What that might be is still up in the air because we don't want to end up wasting money or on the other hand, not doing enough for Japan. The intersting thing about Japan is that through this whole tramatic event, they haven't even begged for help from other countries. They have acted very proud and independent throughout the experience which I think should encourage people to see where they're coming from and feel more obligued to help out. I mean it's hard to relate if you've never experienced something life this for yourself, but people just need to try to put themselves in their shoes and reach out the best they can.
ReplyDeleteMegan Kingsley
Hour 3
The Japan explosions of their nuclear power plant is a major disaster in the world. Oviously, we can't do anything to fix what happened over there, we can still prepair for perhaps a similar situation over here in the US. Because we have nuclear facilities in the US just like the ones in Japan, we should get ready in case there is a natural disaster so we don't run into the same situation as Japan.
ReplyDeleteBryan King
With what happen in Japan raised eyebrows all around the world. We have to look at the whole picture in my eyes and remember that it was a natural disaster and we cannot stop those from happening, We can try to improve our power plants in America to help the blow if this were to happen here. My thoughts is to put this in the back of our minds and lets work on some options in time of need if this ever comes upon us, the people here in the US. We can help Japan in rebuilding and maybe we can all come together in helping build and rebuild our power plants to become more safe!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a time for the U.S. to learn from their mistakes. Since this happened in Japan, now we have the time and the experience from what just happened to fix these power plants so it won't happen again. Yes it shocked everyone, but now if we put more money into the power plants and examining the power plants, it shouldn't be an issue and hopefully they get it fixed and we will be ready and expect the unexpected, unlike Japan.
ReplyDeleteAllison Gangelhoff
Hr.3
With all the tragedies that are happening in Japan right now people are starting to worry more about what would happen if it happened where they lived. When talking about the public worrying about the nuclear plants Gil Alexander of Southern California Edison said, "So we designed the plant to exceed the maximum threat. It's designed to withstand a 7.0." Even though nuclear plants are built to withstand such a high magnitude the nuclear plant still would have been damaged because the Japan earthquake was 8.9. No matter how well these plants are built we never know how strong the earthquakes or other natural disasters are going to be.
ReplyDeleteEric Nelson
1st Hour
Sure Japan is like the center of attention right now, but what about U.S.? We are having a problem with gas prices that could put people out of their homes. If we give our time to Japan and not worry about the gas prices then the gas prices will rise. With high gas prices people will probably protest to stop helping Japan. Im not saying to not help Japan at all im just saying to help Japan half and do the other half about U.S's gas prices.
ReplyDeleteSanel Zahirovic
Hour: 1
i think that the us government should not put up more nuclear plants to make energy. instead they should use more of those windmill things... but if there is no alternative i guess we would have to go nuclear
ReplyDeleteNo matter where we have our nuclear plant, we will never be ready for a natural disaster. There are other things like tornado's that can cause damage. Even though earthquakes and tsunamis are a concern to this nuclear plant, the article said the plant was prepared for up to a 7.0 earthquake. I am not concerned at all for our safety. We have learned from Japan to be cautious and we have checked the nuclear plant to make sure it is safe. Changing the location won't necessarily make it safer. No matter where we have this building there are always things that could happen to it.
ReplyDeleteKatie Fuoss
Hr. 1
No one could tell what is going to happen in the future, just like earthquake and tsunami in Japan a few weeks ago, thousands of people lost their lives, and thousand others are still missing. The worst is the radiation leak are really harmful to not only Japanese but also the whole nations in the world. I think USA should get rid of all the nuclear plants in the country. Imaging what if all those 104 plants have something wrong just like Japan, then who will be responsible, who is going to be in charge of this horrible disaster? Is that worthy to risk millions of lives for these plants?
ReplyDeletePavchay
Hr.5
With the increase rise in the prices of fossil fuels I think we should just shut down nuclear power plants along the East and West coasts near the ocean. I think we should put a bunch of wind farms along the coasts and use the winds from the oceans to power them. We could make a lot of energy without the danger of radiation, and the reactors blowing up.
ReplyDeletei believe that we should have something like a nuclear power plant it helps the way we enjoy living. BUT i also see it as a danger to society therefore it should be kept away.. and put somewhere were it will and could harm no one like build a giant platform out in the ocean that can transfer energy to main land through maybe a plastic coated bar with a tube inside to move the power to the mainland to be used. have this platform a few miles outside the country were it can harm no one.
ReplyDeleteDylan Arends
Hr.3
I think that the disaster in Japan, as devistating as it was to their country, may prove to be beneficial to our country. The companies that run our nuclear plants say they run many drills and are prepared for a disaster, but I'm sure Japan thought they were just as prepared. As everyone has now seen, damage can occur anyway. I hope that in response to the the numerous nuclear problems in Japan following the recent earthquake and tsunami, the U.S. will look into how to make their nuclear plants safer to prevent a similar situation in our country. New safety features should be added to nuclear plants and if new ones are to be built they should be located away from fault lines and further inland. The fact that the Japanese nuclear plants with the most problems are the same age as our nuclear plants is also worrying. By re-doing our plants and making them more modern we could also prevent distruction in our nation.
ReplyDeleteCaitlyn Burke
hour 7
In my opinion we dont need nuclear reactors, there are much safer ways to get power, but I am not to worried about our nuclear reactors either. The crisis in Japan should be a warning for us to make sure that our plants in regions like california are safe. I think that plants in very hazardous areas such as near the ocean, or in heavily seismic zones should be relocated inland were they would be safer from hard hitting natural disaster. We will however never find a place that is 100% safe to have nuclear reactors.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion we dont need nuclear reactors, there are much safer ways to get power, but I am not to worried about our nuclear reactors either. The crisis in Japan should be a warning for us to make sure that our plants in regions like california are safe. I think that plants in very hazardous areas such as near the ocean, or in heavily seismic zones should be relocated inland were they would be safer from hard hitting natural disaster. We will however never find a place that is 100% safe to have nuclear reactors.
ReplyDeleteReed Klompenhower
hour 7 sorry Mr Thompson
In my opinion the crisis in Japan was a big suprise to everyone and the U.S, this disaster made people believe that we have to make better nuclear reacters when really nothing can stop something this powerful. I think that we should not use the nuclear reactors and instead use the windmillers to be safe.
ReplyDeleteCourtney Taylor
hr 5
If a major earthquake like this were to happen to the U.S. we wouldn't be prepared. In the article, they stated that when there was an earthqauke in California it lasted 15 seconds and was very damaging. The earthquake in Japan lasted 2.5 minutes, if that large of an earthquake were to happen here people wouldn't know how to react. It would make everyone more prepared if they shut down the nuclear plants for awhile and focused on other energy sources.
ReplyDeleteMegan Soland
hr. 3
i think there should have been a back up plain in case something happened like this in Japan they cant keep puting water to cool the reators down it might help now, but whats going to happen when they dont work. Maybe the US should have there own nuclear plants or maybe not!
ReplyDeletemariea
1st hr
Its interesting that Japan is the World'd third largest economy and has almost no natural oil. It seems to be that. Seems like to help Japan the US can switch nuclear for demanding of oil.
ReplyDeletealso, "predicting the destructive power of nature" (speaking of predictions) in my opinion this quote here reminds me of this saying in the holly book (Quran) that said there will be 3 earth quakes. One in the west, (Hati); one in the East (Japan) and one in the Middle East. Scary pattern. scary perdictions
Mariam M. 3rd HR.
I am not very worried about the united states nuclear security. The crisis in japan was not very expected allowing them not much time to be prepared. I think that because of japans incident it has actually helped us to be aware of the problem, and do the best to our power to not let it happen to our nuclear facility.
ReplyDelete-Ryan McKey
I think that the United States should improve requirements and not put reactors close to an earthquake fault. Japan had many of their reactors close to their coast which makes it dangerous when a tsunami comes. Because the tsunami shorted out the power and that made the reactors overheat and become unstable. So in the United States case we shouldn’t put any of our reactors by our coastlines and we should have stricter laws and start modernizing our nuclear plants.
ReplyDelete-Chelsey Crowley 3rd Hour
I think what has happened to Japan and still happening is devastating to the people living there. Now they have to worry about nuclear radiation plus the after shacks of tsunami.I think that the U.S should do whatever it takes to help solve Japan's nightmare by getting rid of that nuclear and maybe try to evacuate the survivors to more safely place away from any possible radiations that might harm the people their.
ReplyDeleteShermarke siad 7th hr
I think that the United States should gradually dispose of their nuclear weapons and other things with nuclear energy because if one reactor is breaking down and causing this much panic and chaos then it would be very hard to imagine how much destruction a nuclear missile would cause. This has become a major disaster and we should do whatever it takes to help Japan but also realize the potential disaster awaiting us and take precautions against it.
ReplyDeleteSara Spavin
I think that the disaster that happened in japan with the nuclear power plants was a very huge issue and people should do more research on the effects of earth quakes that are stronger then what is expected. the world has changed a great deal the earthquake that hit japan was one of the strongest earthquakes of the last hundred years. we cannot truly know how it feels to be suddenly homeless, hungry and cold and to have lost our family and friends. However, for these thousands of people, life as they knew it has be destoryed. There is no water, no electricity, no sign of hope, and in some cases, no home or family. The daily routine of work, school and bills is gone, and all that matters now is where their next meal is coming from, and where they will spend the night.so I think the people in japen should be more careful about where the built there nuclear plants and how many they put up all in one place. So many next time it wouldn’t happen unexpected.
ReplyDelete- Nansi Barnaba
Nuclear power plants can generate a lot of power with only a small amount of materials. They can be hazardous but that is vary rarely when mistakes are made or when disasters happen. But they are to much of an efficient source of energy to just stop using. If nuclear power plants are placed in isolated areas they can produce energy efficiently with minimum risks to people around it -Max Topic
ReplyDeleteWhat happened in Japan is the equivalent of a freak accident, the combination of a 9.0 earthquake, the 5th largest ever recorded, and a major tsunami is the only reason this has transformed into such a calamity. Most quakes are not remotely this powerful, and a difference of just 2 magnitudes, the difference between Japan's quake and Haiti's quake is immense. Japan's quake put out 2.0 EJ, or 2 exajoules of energy, which is 2*10^18 J, the Haiti quake in comparison put out 2.0 PJ, 2 petajoules, which is 2*10^15 J, this is a difference of a factor of 1000 times. It would take 1000 Haiti quakes to equal 1 japan quake, and this is the standard that our nuclear power plants are already built to, a magnitude 7. I believe that the primary reason so many people are suddenly afraid of this happening in the united states is because people dont fully comprehend magnitudes of earthquakes, or nuclear power and radiation.
ReplyDeleteNothing can prepare us for natural disasters. The distruction nature can cause is unpredictable and could perhaps cause a genocide at any day. We play with nature enough by using her fossil fuels to power our every day cars and release toxins back into the atmosphere that are supposedly tearing apart our O-zone layer, who's to say that is not true and won't cause a problem itself. They say only 10% of the worlds species have been discovered. Perhaps only 10% of the worlds possible disasters are known about. Anything could happen that we are not prepared for. Nuclear power is a very productive and reliable. I am not saying shut it down. But the plants that we know are prone to a disaster such as this plant on the coast should definitly be relocated. Our economy and wealth is not as strong as Japan's. And this is the second time Japan has been exposed to excessive amounts of radiation. World war two we dropped a bomb that screwed with peoples lives for years and still affects some today. Do we want to risk having to put those problems on our country today to save some dudes plant because he "assures" us it can withstand a 7.0 earthquake? We were also assured the Titanic wouldn't sink. And didnt think it possible for an ice burg to be located that far south. America should be wise and do now to prevent what could happen later. Learn from Japan and not let history repeat itself. Gorge Santayana said “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” and Karl Marx said "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce".
ReplyDeleteI think the Government can't do anything else about it except making sure everyone in the same radius of the radiation explosion is alive and ok. Maybe help clean up the debris.
ReplyDeleteJames B.
Hr. 1
I believe the nuclear plants in Japan will not physical effect on anyone in America. Japan is going to great lengths to protect their citizens and everyone else; they were very prepared. I think the US can take some knowledge out of this tragedy and improve our own nuclear plants incase future desasters ensue.
ReplyDeletei dont think that the power plants here in the us are in really any threat because we dont really get hammered with any threating storms
ReplyDeleteAlixx Hengel
Hr 1
I think after seeing whats happened to japan with the earthquake is a big tragedy, The U.S. should support and help out japan with the unexpected earthquake attack. We should also be more cautious and stay well prepared if something like this happens to the US most importantly. The nuclear plant in japan shouldn't be any harm to the US but with our nuclear plant. So basically, the nuclear plants that we have shouldn't be a threat so much to the US, although The US should stay focus and try to improve it to become stronger to seek danger. Like if an earthquake or a tsunami etc comes our way.. For our safety, we should be more prepared after seeing japan's earthquake attack.
ReplyDeleteTara Vang
Hr:1