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@tippytoe. Regarding Midwest fault line, i feel a lot of people are aware of it but no publicity on it. I just recently moved from Memphis TN and local governments in the area have regularly scheduled training on earthquake disasters and also construct earthquake proof buildings as part of their planning. t Ever since the big earthquake in the 1800's when the Mississippi River flowed backwards creating Realfoot Lake in Northern TN.

I believe the sea waters starts a corrosion on all components it comes in contact with immediately and extremely bad in the fuel core...

This has always been my biggest issue with fission. I don't think we humans are even capable of thinking realistically about designs that can outlast this stuff. The pyramids are what, 5,000 years old? And when the planners are thinking in fiscal quarters...

@Dean, I was reading about the use of MOX fuel on the post you linked earlier this morning. Is this procedure a poor-man's alternative to a fast breeder? Whatever happened to that technology anyway?

I have a hard time imaging such a huge facility around the ones there to protect it... dang.. a whole bunch of concrete

@Dean ...and what would that continual salt water spray exposure do to concrete...?

www.ustream.tv Water in turbine room not from spent fuel pool.

how bout a great wall of china kind of structure out into the ocean built so strong a 50 foot tsunami wouldn't crash it.. and then bury the reactor and cement it in

@Dean: it may be easier to make it sink than entomber it... And maybe safer, who knows ?

@MaryW, If you'll check Ready.gov or FEMA's home site, you'll see Craig Fugate and his team have been promoting Earthquake safety awareness for many months, well before the smaller quakes that occurred there earlier this year. They've been pushing this because we're at the 199th anniversary of the big New Madrid quake. It's not been overlooked, just that few people care to pay attention.

@Max Some fresh water injections instead of seawater

@Mejin Anything Greenpeace says is speculative.. They have an agenda

If molten debris is collecting at the bottom of #1, the steam buildup will prevent cooling from water.

How water level in core can be the same since few days if they are injecting it... (jaif updates) ???

@audi Conspiracy site for sure

@tippytoe. I believe a lot of Midwesterners are aware of the Mississippi River fault line, but no publicity on the subject. I recently moved from Memphis TN, and local government carrys out regularly scheduled earthquake disaster drills. Ever since the 1800s earthquake when the Mississippi River flowed backwards and formed Reelfoot Lake in northwestern TN, that part of the state has been preparing for the next big one. I suggest all to visit Reelfoot Lake, it is an amazing area. There is a forest that lies beneath the lake, as the result of the earthquake, and you can see treetops above the water.

I do not wish to offend, but this post might be controversial to those who are affiliated with the nuclear power industry. My purpose in posting is to invite those more knowledgeable to point out errors in my thinking.

I have long thought that nuclear power is inherently fraught with insurmountable difficulties. The vessels in which reactions occur, and all the related machinery such as conduits, instruments, and electrical service equipment, are subject to high temperatures and high radiation. Over time the radiation causes changes in the atomic species of the material, eventually leading to material fatigue (consider the need for periodic replacement of turbine blades in a BWR reactor where radioactive water/steam passes through the turbine by design). But how are these parts to be replaced, once the entire apparatus and environment has become so highly radioactive that no person can work nearby for long? Common sense suggests that the whole design concept was tragically flawed from the outset: these kinds of serious fundamental design issues cannot be overcome, no matter how much sophisticated computer modelling and engineering expertise may be thrown at it. Human life cannot depend on hypothetical "scheduled innovation" by future generations to figure out how to deal with 100,000 year problems we have created in this generation.

My professional experience was 25+ years in high tech, with significant focus on engineering design relating to high availability and high reliability in the event of multiple faults occuring in a complex system.

Please friends, I invite comments and if you can refute this I sincerely hope you will.

@all Pardon my ignorance I'm just trying to think out of the box. Is it possible to use Polymers as an initial stage of entombment.

Back for a bit.. @Janis: I agree with your father and have often thought said the same thing myself.

@Tenzing: polymers are not stable in time and hardly handle high temperatures. Would not be confident with such an entombment....

@Sky, I agree 100%. And for anyone who is involved in engineering or risk management. Whenever you are developing anything and talking about backups and backups to backups, stop walk away, don't build it. Whatever you were designing is doomed.

Karen, I like you. :) I think a lot of older Americans still feel this way.