Kaboom, applause

[prog]

Video from an orker of Maine Yankee nuke plant going away. (Takes a few seconds to load, using whatever version of the QT plugin I have.)

I don't have any opinions about this, actually. I was, though, surprised to learn from the news that this fixture from my past had been demolished (I still don't know why it was), and appreciated that Andrew happened to be there when it happened.

Comments

Sigh.

[kyroraz.livejournal.com]

This is actually quite sad. I remember getting a partial tour of the plant back in my younger days. It was kind of one of those magical places that you got to visit when you were in school, as a reward for good for good behavior (and a punishment for those that weren't quite so well behaved). I remember doing a Science Fair project on Maine Yankee and Nuclear Power. Sigh. The end of an era.

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

It's a shame nuclear paranoia has mostly killed the nuclear power industry in the USA. New plant designs are considerably less complex and inherently safer from what I've seen -- I don't think any will be built in the forseeable future though (at least not in the USA).

It's also a shame 'cold fusion' turned out to be a bust -- it could have led the way to a Back to the Future style 'Mr Fusion' device for the home.

I saw a documentary on alternative energy sources a few months ago -- they didn't even bother to talk about fusion. It's as if everyone's given up on this.

Microwave power transmission from space sattelites was also never mentioned. Where have all the visionaries gone?

Well, except...

[kyroraz.livejournal.com]

SimCity 2000 has some examples of what happens when that goes wrong, whether it is true or not. :)

Re: Well, except...

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

I've never witnessed a Microwave Oops in SimCity 2000 however I've never had very advanced cities for too long before I started over with a new idea for the city.

Actually there are some simple ways to prevent the Microwave Oops problem -- one of which is to have the sattelite transmitter controlled by a reference beam from Earth. If the sattelite goes off-kilter and loses the reference beam the microwave transmitter shuts down. Another is to not build the receivers in the middle of a city -- stick em in a desert or on off-shore rigs.