Nuclear power FTW

Since the horrible disaster in Japan I have been reading and learning a lot about nuclear power plants. I am a big fan of nuclear power. It is much cleaner, safer, and even releases less radiation than coal plants. Sadly there seems to be a fear of nuclear power, probably due to the lack of knowledge about them.

While the Fukushima nuclear power plant is in tough shape, we are in no threat of a nuclear explosion, and minimal nuclear material has been released. There have been three explosions so far, but they were hydrogen explosion, NOT nuclear. Instead of rehashing all the details, here are a few articles that I found great and informative.

For more information about nuclear plants boingboing has a great article.

Phil Plait has a great article about the disaster on his Bad Astronomy blog.

Evelyn Mervine of Skepchick.org has a great three part, so far, interview with her Dad, who is a nuclear engineer. It’s a great listen to get some real facts from someone who actually knows what they are talking about.

It would be nice if people would look at how well this plant, which is 40 years old, is handling this disaster. Sure things aren’t good, but for the most part the built in safety features are working despite the tsunami knocking out their backup generators. In reality this will probably spread more fear about nuclear power. There is already a fraudulent map going around that clams fallout from this disaster will make it to the US. It’s always annoying how fast the fearful alarmist information that isn’t based on facts or reality spreads, while the real facts are often hard to find.