So, no, I do not see it as a bunch of bullshit. I recognize for you it might miss the mark, but I’m not aiming my criticism at you, Greg.

TMI is not a smokescreen, for the record. It WAS a meltdown (I’ve seen the pictures; I’m assuming that you have not, if you believe it was not a meltdown), and its occurrence lent a lot of credibility and buzz to the movie. This, despite the fact that, as you know, TMI was a non-event in terms of human effects; that hardly matters in the public eye. TMI was far more influential in nuclear policy-making than Chernobyl, because it happened here, and it followed right on the heels of the movie. Fukushima is a far more apt relative to the China Syndrome, but that doesn’t mask the fact that the movie is wildly inaccurate from a scientific standpoint.

Look, the fears it encapsulated, in a very basic sense, may be right on the mark: if a nuclear reactor melts down, the result could be catastrophic. From a socio-political aspect (cover-ups, et al), it’s excellent to apply it to Fukushima, because apart from the meltdown, THAT is what really happened!

But to relate it to your field, Encino Man is not a particularly accurate representation of an anthropological study. There are far more accurate portrayals of the dangers of nuclear power in the form of documentaries.

Look, I have no dog in the fight: I’m not pro-nuclear power, and I’ll never work at a civilian plant, so I don’t care if we never open another one. But I’m not particularly fond of misinformation, either (your second paragraph, referring to US risks from the disaster, show that you aren’t, either). I don’t need some corporate industrial “line” about the supposed safety of nuclear reactors. I’ll take my extensive knowledge on how they work, instead, and base my judgements on that (which is probably why I don’t like the movie; I likely let trivial data and inaccuracies stand in the way of the message writ large, but I think we all do that).

Given the nuclear fallout heritage of Japan I’m somewhat surprised they went this route (then again since ’45 they no longer have access to cheap petroleum and NG so not a hell of a lot of choice.

For me the most stunning bit of negligent planning by TESCO (aside from putting it right on the coast in a country with a long history of tsunamii) was not putting the backup generators where they could not be destroyed by earthquake or tsunami – had they done so much of this disaster could have been averted.

I think maybe you were not there, and have a concept of what people were saying that was fed to you by your own industry. I was there. I know what I was thinking at the time, and I know what others were as well. And, the truth is, the movie, as a piece of fiction (70s fiction at that) was a damn good representation of a real live engineering problem that people really were concerned about and that did, in fact, actually happen at Fukushima. (Please, don’t throw up the TMI smokescreen. Nobody has said that a meltdown of any kind happened there)

The China Syndrome was a movie about a meltdown, by the way. The canard that “a china syndrome is this or that or is not this or that therefore nobody knew anything” is infantile. Cut it out.

Real people had real concerns about real things that really happened and you are not going to get away with dismissing those things.

It’s remarkable how often that is the case: an absolute disaster is downplayed by the hosts until it is past the point of no return.

A study of TMI and Chernobyl lends credence to why so many people remember the China Syndrome, but it does not make it more plausible or accurate from an engineering standpoint. At the risk of repeating myself, I insist that protestors arguing against nuclear power as an industry were largely wide of the mark. Unless they were arguing against storing spent fuel rods on site, without a proper disposal plan, and the dangers of a corporate/government environment predisposed to cover-ups.

That’s why I am hesitant to give people too much credit for their foresight. Predicting disaster is easy, and nuclear power has a long way to go to catch up to much more traditional engineering fields in terms of disasters and loss of life. Providing useful feedback – WHAT is wrong, HOW it can be fixed – is far less often encountered. A NIMBY approach, like Germany, doesn’t do you much good when you end up facing energy shortfalls and the very real likelihood of increased dependence on coal plants (and thus more pollution, cancer, etc.).

The obvious example is that opponents of pesticides usually cite potential health effects. The Bhopal disaster didn’t make pesticide opponents into prophets, because that wasn’t what they were predicting or opposing. Japan and TEPCO royally screwing the pooch, skipping routine maintenance, failing inspections while continuing to operate, refusing to admit the scope of the disaster once it occurred, etc., does not retroactively make the China Syndrome into a documentary.

(Seriously, some day, ask Richard Gere or Martin Sheen exactly WHY they oppose nuclear power. It’s no less humorous, sad, or ill-informed than Jenny MacCarthy against vaccines, or any other anti-science cause. Scientists against nuclear power is one thing; actors, a completely different, and laughable, thing.)

By the way, on a more global level (or a US level maybe) this is where fiction comes in handy.In case anyone questions whether or not anti-nuclear sentiment included the idea of a china syndrome type meltdown (which happened at Fuki) we can just go watch the Jane Fonda movie.

#2 – with regards to stopped clock – I would be very surprised- and this also refers to Greg’s response in #19 – if there were not lots of local arguments at the time against building reactors in Japan given their earthquake/tsunami history.

The ONR, the scientific research arm of the Navy and Marine Corps, is talking up the new Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Tactical Electrical Power Unit that uses technology developed through its programs. A 10-kilowatt unit was demonstrated at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland earlier this summer, and it used 44 percent less fuel than a similarly sized conventional generator, the ONR said.