https://www.yahoo.com/news/switzerland-votes-phase-nuclear-energy-121710224.html
Swiss voters have backed government plans to replace the power from ageing nuclear reactors with renewable energy.
A total of 58.2 per cent of voters supported the phaseout of nuclear energy in a binding referendum on Sunday. Under the Swiss system of direct democracy, voters have the final say on major policy issues.
The plan will provide billions of pounds in subsidies for renewable energy, ban the construction of nuclear plants and decommission the country’s five existing ones, which produce about a third of the country’s electricity.
[...] The move echoes efforts across Europe to reduce dependence on nuclear energy and has been in the making following Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011. Germany has announced it will close all nuclear plants by 2022 and Austria banned it decades ago.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday May 23 2017, @02:53AM (1 child)
Since Capt. Obvious [soylentnews.org] hasn't weighed in I'll mention that the RBMK designs had significant flaws that contributed to the seriousness of the disaster--among them the inadequate containment structure and the positive void coefficient--and that they were created in a planned economy in which concerns about sales and marketing ought not to have pertained.
http://insp.pnnl.gov/-profiles-reactors-rbmk.htmhttp://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-23/news/mn-15781_1_design-flaws [pnnl.gov]
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-23/news/mn-15781_1_design-flaws [latimes.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Void_coefficient [wikipedia.org]
I don't think you meant to use Chernobyl as an example of harmful sales or marketing practices, but you seem to be saying that one engineer unilaterally decided to do a test. I've heard otherwise:
-- http://chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/cause/ [chernobylgallery.com]
-- http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/chernobyl-accident-appendix-1-sequence-of-events.aspx [world-nuclear.org]
It seems not to have been the "hold my beer" situation you depict (perhaps in jest?) but it was bad enough.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:45AM
The point isn't the reactor but the behavior.