Another meltdown

One day I might get around to trying to sell some of these pieces, but in the meanwhile I’m enjoying working on them. Netflix have recently released an intriguing documentary about the 1979 Three Mile Island ‘partial’ (wikipedia) meltdown in Pennsylvania, a then brand-new plant that the makers knew had ‘issues’. Needless to say no executives of the companies concerned suffered in any legal way.

The use of the word ‘partial’ by Wikipedia referring to this incident is telling, a ‘complete’ meltdown would supposedly lead to the remains of the fuel – after various explosions, widespread contamination etc. – burning down through the earth towards China (China Syndrome) although in reality when the corium (the mix of fuel and support structure) hit the water table the entire mess would likely explode repeatedly and spread devastation across a huge area. The documentary makes clear that the incident was 30 minutes away from a catastrophe similar or likely far worse than Fukushima.

Wikipedia also repeats the word ‘accident’, where ‘incident’ is appropriate thus helping to disguise the fact of the cover-up of known problems before the plant opened.

Unlike the Fukushima meltdowns there wasn’t much to see at Three Miler Island mainly because likely hydrogen explosions didn’t happen, more by luck than anything else. 

The hundreds of nukes operating around the world have no long-term storage for their ultra-long-term poisonous, highly radioactive waste, many of them are ancient, metal fatigued, rusting and dangerous. Some, like Diablo Canyon, California are all this and sit on earthquake fault lines. All are capable of bringing cataclysmic destruction to their regions and far beyond.

In December 2023 the California Public Utilities Commission approved a proposal to keep Diablo Canyon’s twin reactors online, overturning an earlier agreement to close the plant in 2025. I have not heard anyone say that this plant could withstand a tsunami, although a large earthquake in the region is considered to be overdue. California had 7,339 earthquakes in the past year, I don’t know how that compares to other places.

I wish I had the artistic skill to reflect the mayhem and hubris of nuclear power and all it represents.