This is the single most important issue in the history of the world

Originally posted by My_Reality
reply to post by kro32

 

NASA has also warned of us eventually getting hit by an asteroid or comet so wouldn't that be even a more serious issue. They stated it could happen at anytime.

I love the feeling of hopelessness and futility that invoked in me when I read this post. The chances of abolishing nuclear power are exactly equivalent to preventing an asteroid/comet strike. Given our geopolitical situation, no nation would risk losing the political power that nuclear power provides. For instance - If the US abolished every nuclear reactor it owned the US navy would be eviscerated. Sure, there are alternatives. Finding an energy source comparable to nuclear power but without the waste is going to be difficult. Making the transition from nuclear energy to an alternative would likely be even more difficult.

In short, it is good to know of yet another inevitable doomsday that I can add to the list.

We should clearly add wind turbines to passing asteriods. *nods and winks*

Scary thoughts indeed. I wish I had time now to read this entire thread but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

I wonder if this is what all those underground bunkers being built are for?

Posting this for the third (#1 #2) time, and asking one last time.

Haven’t NASA and others recently been saying that rather than the unusually intense solar cycle predicted a while back, we are now more likely to see another Maunder minimum with decreased solar activity?

news.nationalgeographic.com...

science.nasa.gov...

Is there a lack of concensus regarding these two opposite scenarios within the scientific community?

reply to post by Visiting ESB


Oh my god. Just imagine what this could do to the Planet. I don't think this Solar Flare is just to destroy the Power Grids if not protected. But to destroy the whole Populace when the Nuclear Reactors fail. What the heck are we going to do!?

reply to post by ragsntatters

I think we all sincerely believed there were backups and ways to handle power failures. Like one poster on this thread said, backups to the backups. I'll also bet TEPCO would have said with all sincerity and a straight face the day BEFORE the Tsunami that Fukushima Dai-ichi had those backups to backups and a full meltdown was impossible with their state of the art safety measures. Of course, they had 3, possibly 4 full meltdowns...and still can't even say for certain how "full" they were. They can't get remotely close to the core areas yet.

Why should I believe anyone when they say this now and I KNOW the consequences of a lie could be global and terminal? Is it so hard to simply require real world testing and operation of backup systems to prove they work at every location? Not a 5 minute 'Doh! It turns on!' but a real and representative test to show it'll last and work. A few days perhaps? Whats the alternative? Find out the hard way when failure occurs and live with body counts if someone got it wrong?

reply to post by Visiting ESB


Be nice if the earth could wipe us out and send us back to step one. It's quite clear that we have NOT learned a #ing thing yet. All the people who knew are now dead or assimilated into a system where they never belonged or where we never belonged. Hopefully we could all wake up and realize and at the same level of hope I really hope we don't turn into a disgusting infestation on the universe... Ewww what a sucky world we live in along side fat pigs sucking on the WTO tit while billions starve and suffer because of our obsession with shiny things. I hope we all die.

reply to post by zacdam


You make a good point concerning the open circuit situation. If there were a CME coming, it would be known at least several hours ahead of time, enough to shut down the reactors and possibly some open circuits at power stations. I seem to recall reading something about that issue being addressed as some power stations on some grids were automated at the generating plant, while others were under manual control. NOAH solar weather alert system was set up to alert satellite owners and generating plants of impending CME's.

reply to post by AceWombat04


Solar storms don't necessarily occur during solar maximum. The nasa link Nasa link shows a graphic concerning Sunspot cycles for the last century. You can see that the 1921 Solar storm event occurred near the bottom of an already anemic cycle.

But there's a downside to low solar activity: galactic cosmic rays (GCR). As the speed of the solar wind slows, more GCRs penetrate into the inner solar system. This could spell disaster for satellites. And there is the possibility of some GCRs penetrating the Earth's atmosphere. That could create some interesting failures scenarios in control systems.

No woman would have built something sooooo stupid like a Nuclear power plant! It defies all logic.
Or like
I've said before... Nuclear power plants are a setup! I know where the nearest nuclear power plants are where I live. After Japan it's like a chess game.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Haha who would have thought that there underground bases would actually be used for what they said they are for in the first place...Radiation.

reply to post by Visiting ESB


please this sound like a good way to round us up pull the lights one place, relocate on our own thoughts/will then then when many city's reduce down to few then pull out the plague/trains and once a gain no accountabilty just watch .......

The single most important issue in the world is this : Who and what are we, and what are we supposed to be doing here? Not easy questions to answer, but if we could answer them collectively, any other problems would pale in comparison.

Who and what are you, and what are you supposed to be doing here?

Stop deluding yourselves into the idea that you can't and won't ever find the answers, then start trying to work it out. And no I'm not saying I have those answers and am hoping you find them too, am saying that as a Human race we should skip past everything else (as long as those other things aren't causing us immediate life-threatening problems.) and go to the root of our confusion right now.

Who and what are we?

I remember writing a "current" events article on solar storms a few years back, that were supposedly approaching and had the capability of leaving large areas of land without electricity for extended periods of time, here are the sources if anyone is interested.
Foxnews-solarstorms-2012
Nasa solar storms 2012

reply to post by DexterRiley


Thank-you for replying!

That is true, but isn't the premise being put forth here that the predicted active solar cycle would be linked to the storms people are concerned about? It seems like four different things are being said:

1) That a more active than normal solar cycle will produce dangerous solar storms. 2) That this cycle will be normal and there's nothing to worry about. 3) That we're about to enter another Maunder minimum and thus there will be less solar storms. 4) That we're about to enter another Maunder minimum and thus there might be powerful solar storms.

That's why I asked if there was a lack of concensus. It seems like there is, but I'm just a layperson.

Originally posted by Shadowalker
Bottom line....there are a collection of things that are coming up that could lay the ground work for a major event.

1. Elenin is being watched for a much different reason than the current speculation. Its trail of gas and charged dust particles will lay down many, many miles of electrically conductive material between us and the sun.

2. The fluff cloud we are passing through has the potential to amplify electrical conductivity of already present dust and particulate in the empty portions of space.

3. Slowly degrading magnetic field of earth is offering less protection than ever before.

4. The sun has a huge amount of energy stored under its surface from the last minimum.

The real danger isn't getting hit by a comet or asteroid. Its a Flux Transfer Event.

This is shaping up to be the perfect storm....in space.

This is true. I used a CME as the initiating event, however, this "ribbon" (the "fluff") is an even more discernible threat. Regardless, these plants should be shut down immediately.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by ragsntatters

 

I think we all sincerely believed there were backups and ways to handle power failures. Like one poster on this thread said, backups to the backups. I'll also bet TEPCO would have said with all sincerity and a straight face the day BEFORE the Tsunami that Fukushima Dai-ichi had those backups to backups and a full meltdown was impossible with their state of the art safety measures. Of course, they had 3, possibly 4 full meltdowns...and still can't even say for certain how "full" they were. They can't get remotely close to the core areas yet.

And that is exactly the point: many are saying how safe nuclear power stations are, how they're "designed and engineered to withstand satan himself" blah blah...you get the picture. They're betting all of their chips on the statements of clean-cut engineers, utilities execs, etc. If they're dressed nice, they can't be lying can they? The fact is, we've already experienced TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. Those were localized incidents. A CME or other outside impact would send dozens, maybe hundreds of these plants into disaster mode fast.

Originally posted by Darkmask
Since Fukushima, this is something I have thought about a lot. It occurred to me that if some kind of catastrophe occurred on this planet and most of us were wiped out, those of us who survived wouldn't be long for this world. This planet would be sterilised of life from all the reactors that would go into full meltdown.

WE need to take Germany's lead and get ourselves off nuclear power. It's just not worth the risk. There is no reason why we can't have wind farms and solar farms and hydro power to replace nuclear power. If there really is free energy technology, now would be the time to introduce it. By staying on nuclear power, we are only ensuring our own demise.

Unfortunately we'd never get to the point that Germany has gone. Ron Paul, the guy that so many are virtually worshiping and might wind up being the next president, has already said how much he loves nuclear power and how he would be disappointed if we stopped using nuclear power stations. That's what we're up against in the US: massive ignorance of the realities of this power source. You're right, there are so many other, creative ways to power this world.

reply to post by CranialSponge


We'll never get through to some people. They're going to support this extraordinarily dangerous technology even while they're watching it all go up in smoke.

Originally posted by Visiting ESB
We have a loaded gun pointed to the head of humanity.

Why worry about it? The evidence suggests that humanity does not deserve to survive. Just live your life, do the best you can and if the stupid apes on this planet end up destroying themselves, good riddance.

There are some really great responses on this thread. I can't get to all of them but thanks everyone for your input. This issue needs to stay in the forefront, regardless of how it's presented.