[ExI] THE END for nuclear power

Jeff Davis jrd1415 at gmail.com
Fri Mar 25 19:04:33 UTC 2011


On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 5:46 PM, Richard Loosemore <rpwl at lightlink.com> wrote:
> The energy in that tsunami would have demolished any dikes/levies without so much as pausing for breath.

I want to be polite here.  I think you are in error.  The tsunami wave
travels across deep water with a small amplitude. Then, when it
reaches shallow water near shore, it piles up to its maximum height,
and, as the photos from both Japan and the Indian Ocean tsunami show,
it flows inland.  And of course houses and cars and most everything
else is tumbled into flotsam.   I do not believe there is much in the
way of a "shock" from the impact.  Not at all like the relentless
pounding of wave after wave typical in a hurricane or other maximum
intensity ocean storm making landfall.  Rather it seems to be a one
time elevated water event of slightly  -- some minutes: 10, 15, 20, ?
-- extended duration.  Consequently, I think a conventional earthworks
berm, dike, levy, dam would suffice and survive.  Though only
"anecdotal", I offer the Fukushima  plant and seawall -- so often seen
in the news lately -- as an example.  Both plant and seawall seem
entirely intact following the tsunami.  The plant was built strong and
the seawall was built, well,...like a seawall.  I will leave it for a
civil or hydraulic engineer to provide an authoritative opinion.

> "Bogus" problem of rising sea levels due to global warming??!  You are joking, yes?

Regarding this, my characterization of the global warming ocean rise
as "bogus", let me explain.  First, I refuse to get involved in the
global warming discussion.  It is hysterical, and completely
politicized.  Facts entangled with hysteria and political agendas.  A
waste of time.  But I'll make an exception here.

It seems clear that anthropogenic greenhouse gases have been and
continue to be generated, producing a substantial and significant
increase in baseline levels.  This results in a rise in global median
temperatures.  That said the process is gradual -- decades long in the
making, and requiring -- IN MY OPINION --additional decades of
indifference and inaction for the situation is to get out of hand.  A
slow motion catastrophe is not a catastrophe at all but rather a
"Henny Penny" "the sky is falling" human silliness and media event.
When the ocean rises 12 meters in thirty minutes, you get a
catastrophe.  When it rises 12 meters in fifty years you get an
infrastructure project.  Thus the term "bogus".

YMMV

Best, Jeff Davis

     "The whole problem with the world is that fools
             and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
                          and wiser people so full of doubts."
                                                  Bertrand Russell



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