He cashed out /. has been circling the drain ever since

Slashdot is badly borken these days. I just had a post disappear completely the other day. It said comment submitted, but it never showed up on the page.

In theory at least, the safety of the entire plant was checked, as unit 1 was to receive an operating license extension.

I am aware of that. It's perhaps a sign of immaturity on my part, although it does help me sleep better.

Let's not be racist about it. The plant was designed by General Electric (GE nowadays). Immelt, slimy toad that he is, jumped in the media fray VERY early on, to do damage control:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56fb5f92-4e0e-11e0-a9fa-00144feab49a.html#axzz1hguiUtBH

He offered help! He should have started by offering excuses! A group of GE whistleblowers were pointing out design flaws in that exact type of plant in the 970s! Design flaws which played a role in the accident, moreover:

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/03/15/3520/reactors-heart-japanese-nuclear-crisis-raised-concerns-early-1972-memos-show

also, this:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/15/956586/-Whistleblower-Expose-of-GE-Inspection-Coverup-RARE-EU-Authored-US-BWR-Damage-Report-?via=tag

Where?

Yes, you are correct, of course. I am just very, very angry. I think I am conveying that pretty effectively.

Any thoughts on what I have posted, just to keep this semi-on-topic?

You do know, Google senpai, that there are several methods, none of which have been validated in proper epidemiological studies?

The Techa river cohort is just about all we had, pre-Fukushima.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16238437

Now, there will be the Fukushima schoolchildren to study. Their deaths from cancer and leukemia will further enlighten us, 50 years from now....
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/life_and_death/AJ2011110916955

Thanks. It's just that I am tired of all the mealy-mouthed "oh but nuclear is SCIENCE and SCIENCE is doubleplusgood" harping.

Keep that beer in mind, I plan to come on over when your gov't starts showing signs of sanity.

Why do you care so much about karma? I have enough of it to burn that I can continue this VERY off-topic talk. Don't you? Oh, but perhaps you are a known troll and fresh out of sockpuppets?

He's a nuke shill, no mistake about that. I doubt he's including the land permanently contaminated by Mayak, Fukushima and Chernobyl in his "land use" statistics.

Are you counting deaths from cancer? How?

I like to believe that I am on a tech-oriented site where being right is more important than being polite.

There is no downmod for "stuff that I happen to find offensive" by the way but feel free to abuse mod points and call me a troll, if you have them.

Or if you don't like my style you could say it to my face, using your own name to identify yourself like a real person does.

Unit 1 IC train A was shut down by operators to avoid excessive cooling which would have thermally stressed the metal of the RPV and shortened the life of an already old plant. Later, power to operate the valves that would have made it active again became unavailable.

At that point, the RPV should have been vented and water should have been added using fire engines. This was not done for a variety of reasons, such as that the evacuation was not over yet. When at last venting was attempted, it was found that a valve needed for venting ad failed closed, possibly because of excessive pressure. Attempts to open it manually met with failure.

So, eventually the reactor vented itself. Explosively.

The severe accident management guidelines did NOT, in fact, state that venting should only be performed post-evac. They were ignored in the event.

Even later in the accident sequence sufficient fresh water became unavailable for a while (the first reactor explosion damaged fire trucks, severed water lines and prompted a TOTAL evacuation of the site). A decision was made to delay salt-water cooling. This probably contributed to the melt-through in reactor 3.

No, you stupid fuck. The plant was beyond hope, but the radioactive emissions were not pre-ordained. Proper cooling (which would have meant functioning ICs OR venting+water injection) could have saved the day.