I vote more Dem than Repub these days, but I'm pretty sure I'd vote for Michelle effing Bachman over Reid.

Because neither the ignorant public nor the Hyper-ADHD media can be bothered to use and understand truly descriptive terms for any phenomenon more complex than, e.g., ordering a pizza.

Hence my last paragraph, stating "There's no earthly reason Gen I plants should still be in operation."

Nuclear power has significant risks. So does every other power source we have identified to this point. Those risks range from radioisotope pollution (nuclear, coal ash), to greenhouse gases and particulates (burning hydrocarbons), massive flooding (hydro), to risks of grid instability (solar, wind), technology availability risks (carbon capture, power storage, fusion), etc.

We can argue about the relative merits until doomsday, but my considered opinion is that of the risks involved, greenhouse gas emissions are by far the greatest and need to be addressed with the according urgency. I believe we need everything else to have a fighting chance at success in this.

You misspelled "intermittently" there.

I'd prefer not to include Chernobyl since it was literally a catastrophe waiting to happen. A reactor with no containment building, really? Nothing like that ever got built outside the Soviet bloc. Even if included, deaths per gigawatt hour from nuclear barely amount to a rounding error when compared to fossil fuel.

I'd say as things are, coal is just as long term a solution in Japan as the nuclear plants. There just aren't that many workable alternatives. Natgas plants perhaps, but recent investigation suggests that methane leaks in production and distribution are probably enough to render greenhouse gas emissions similar in magnitude to coal. Nuclear power has risks of course. Unfortunately the world has magnified those risks a great deal by collective failure to deploy newer and safer reactor technologies. Case in point: Fukushima Daiichi. Generation I plants with known serious failure modes. There's no earthly reason Gen I plants should still be in operation. For comparison, how many businesses are depending on 1960 era computer systems, and how many people drive 1960 cars as primary transportation?

Apportioning the blame for this, in my opinion divides roughly in thirds between corporate sloth/greed, government fecklessness and societal ignorance/paranoia.

Great idea. Now all we need are functional law enforcement and criminal justice systems in the countries involved.

How many people has the nuclear power industry killed exactly? For extra credit, compare against coal which has had to pick up the missing supply in Japan.

Well put. If I had mod points right now this would get one.

I'd say Alvarez' use of self-citing in that FUDicle is the truly arrogant thing.

What a load of textual diarrhea. A bunch of whining about how dangerous U-233 is, and little else. Hey Alvarez, why don't you go swimming in a coal plant slurry pond, since that's what your disinformative pack of lies has the end result of promoting? At the very least, if you were interested in at least some plausible level of credibility, you wouldn't go using YOUR OWN agenda-laden [toilet] paper as a citation.

Bottom line: Fuck off.

Well, to spread across "half of New York", said bomb would have to be of very large explosive yield, and hence by definition, NOT a fizzle. Or have you perfected radiological contamination via glowing fairies riding unicorns through the Manhattan street grid? Do tell.

I don't believe you. With such impressive written language skill, "your" clearly an English professor.

It would sure be nice to take a few giant whacks at the grotesque manipulation of the interstate commerce clause to allow virtually anything to be federally regulated and mandated. Might need a few $BILLIONS to manage that though.

Aquifers in Minnesota aren't doing all that well (no pun intended) either. My family home is on White Bear Lake, which has become something of a cautionary tale for careless groundwater pumping combined with wetland drainage in order to make $millions for developers and then shaft the people who've lived there for generations.