November 7, 2004

Mr. Darwin, paging Mr. Darwin

This is great! Anti-Nuke protesters chained themselves to a railroad track with the hopes of blocking a nuclear waste shipment. Hat tip to B.C. at the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler They were surprised... By the train... One injury and one death. This story from TBO/AP: bq. NANCY, France (AP) - A French anti-nuclear protester was killed Sunday in eastern France when his leg was severed by a train carrying radioactive waste to Germany, a police official said. And more: bq. According to an early investigation, Sebastien Briat, a 21-year-old protester from the nearby Meuse region, died from injuries sustained when he and other activists were surprised by the train as they prepared to chain themselves to the rails, police officials said. bq. The train's driver braked suddenly but was unable to avoid hitting the protester, the officials said. Emphasis mine. This is a big joke on these people because they are probably also very strongly Green. Nuclear Power -- if done correctly -- is one of the Greenest sources of concentrated electrical energy available to us at this time. Reactor design has gotten a lot better and by standardizing on a few core designs, the safety of their operation can be brought up into the seven-sigma range. The "old school" of reactor design, where every plant was a new design is what caused the relatively few accidents we have had. We are not doing that anymore. As for the radioactive waste issue, waste from the current crop of nuclear reactors is very small (nothing like coal slag) and can be contained in an out-of-the-way place until it is safe. A lot of the concerns with nuclear waste these days stem from the hell-spawned stew of junk that spewed forth from Hanford and Oak Ridge over 40 years ago. We are still cleaning that up but we should not confuse that mess with the relatively minimal impact modern power plants have. Posted by DaveH at November 7, 2004 5:28 PM