Friday’s tremendous earthquake off Japan’s coast has
triggered the normal responses. The American media is busily
hyperventilating over what it claims to be the greatest nuclear
disaster since Chernobyl, the Japanese have mounted a
highly-organized disaster relief program, and the U.S. military is
on the scene providing the rapid, massive relief that is literally
beyond the capability of any other entity on earth.
Ronald Reagan is providing a massive amount of help. No,
it’s not the Gipper himself, but the nuclear carrier USS Ronald
Reagan and a host of other Navy ships, about which more in a
moment.
The enormity of the quake is measured on the Richter
scale. The January 1994 Los Angeles quake — which collapsed
highways, toppled buildings, and took about 33 lives — was
measured at 6.7 on that 1-10 scale. The latest information from the
Japanese meteorological agency’s re-measurement of the quake rated
it at 9.0, the largest ever measured in Japan.
Remember that the Richter scale is logarithmic: each
number represents ten times the next lowest number. So the Japanese
quake was more than 100 times stronger than the L.A.
quake.
Yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said it was
the nation’s worst crisis since World War II. The media is making
it sound as if it’s enough of a nuclear crisis to rouse
Godzilla.
Our media has never understood why Japan — the only
nation to suffer the use of nuclear weapons — would allow nuclear
power plants to be built. The 1954 movie monster Godzilla was
created by the effects of nuclear testing and was a metaphor for
the dangers of all things nuclear, reflecting post-war Japan’s
recent memories and fears. So the media’s Godzilla narrative,
developed over decades of opposition to U.S. nuclear power,
requires the belief that nuclear power is more dangerous than any
other.
That narrative again took flight almost immediately after
the Japanese quake. CNN’s Piers Morgan (who?) headlined his
commentary as a “countdown to meltdown.” By Sunday, two New
York Times reporters wrote, under the headline
“Partial Meltdowns Presumed at Crippled Reactors,” that
“Japanese officials struggled on Sunday to contain a
quickly escalating nuclear crisis in the aftermath of a devastating
earthquake and tsunami, saying they presumed that partial meltdowns
had occurred at two crippled reactors, and that they were bracing
for a second explosion, even as they appeared to face cooling
problems at two more plants and international nuclear experts said
radiation had leaked from a fourth.”
Buried deep in that and other reports is the disturbing
fact — disturbing to the nuclear Chicken Littles — that there is
little if any radiation leakage reported.
Nearly every report presumes that the Godzilla narrative
will result in the continuation of America’s three-decades-long
moratorium on new nuclear power plants.
The fact that the narrative is nonsensical is demonstrated
by events from the 1979 Three Mile Island mishap in Pennsylvania to
last week’s in Japan and the six decades of U.S. Navy
experience.
A “meltdown” occurs when an out-of-control reactor’s core
reaches such a high temperature that the core materials melt. If
the “lava” burns through the reactor’s multiple layers of
containment and flows into nearby land and water, the release of
radiation could be lethal to those immediately exposed, could
result in long-term increases of cancer, and could contaminate
massive areas of land and water for decades.
The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island was contained.
The core did not melt through to contaminate the region and very
little radiation was released. TMI, unlike Chernobyl, wasn’t a
cheesy reactor run by morons. (Japanese reports indicate that
though two partial meltdowns have happened, they have been
well-contained. The reality may prove to be worse — or better —
than news reports now say.)
What is fascinating about the Japanese mini-meltdowns is
not that they were contained. The fascination comes from the fact
that even in this massive quake — the largest ever recorded in
earthquake-prone Japan — so little actually happened. Every
expectation should drive the conclusion that this once in a century
event would have totally destroyed nuclear power plants in the path
of the quake and resulting tsunami. But they didn’t.
If you believe the hot air-powered anti-nuke media, there
should have been complete meltdowns at all the affected power
plants and millions should be dying of radiation poisoning, even
more facing a future of death by cancer and mutant babies that
resemble Dennis Kucinich. But — from what we know now — nothing
like that is happening.
The Japanese government has shown decisiveness in dealing
with the crisis in ways the Soviet government did not. They have
flooded the endangered reactors with boric acid mixed with
seawater, destroying the cores. By doing so, the Japanese have
sacrificed billions in equipment to save lives. Those reactors have
been shut down and will never operate again.
The lesson should be that if you don’t build a
badly-designed reactor and hire idiots to run it — à la
Chernobyl — a nuclear power plant can be as safe as any power
plant can be.
If we learn anything from the Japanese disaster it is that
we should push forward with nuclear power — applying the lessons
the Japanese learn with our own best engineering and science — at
the fastest pace possible. Which is a lot faster than the liberals
will want to allow despite the facts. Our record on nuclear power
— including TMI, in which (according to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission) no one in the facility or surrounding community was
injured — is excellent.
We should remember that the U.S. Navy has had
nuclear-powered ships since 1953. In the 58 years since, there have
been no accidents or man-made mishaps. None. Which is a good thing
for the Japanese because one of those ships is providing massive
relief that nothing else can.
A huge area of Japan is in desperate need of help. This
earthquake has disrupted the supply of fresh water, electricity,
communications and destroyed airfields and roads on which relief
efforts need to flow. Then the Big Dogs started
mobilizing.
There are thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of US Air
Force aircraft stationed in Japan and they are already operating
search and rescue missions in conjunction with Japanese forces and
distributing relief supplies. Many of the Seventh Fleet’s combatant
and supply ships are already there and more are on the way. They
bring massive quantities of food, medical supplies, and
construction equipment, as well as communications hubs that can
fill any gaps. (Pre-positioned relief packages, such as the ones
now sailing quickly toward Japan, contain everything you’d think
of, from MRE’s [Meals, Ready to Eat] to baby food, to save lives
and provide some level of comfort.)
When the USS Ronald Reagan arrived off the coast
of Japan it changed the game.
The Reagan — like all Nimitz-class
carriers — has the capability to produce over 400,000 gallons of
potable water every day, and other ships can produce nearly that
amount. The carrier’s four-acre deck will be the “lily pad” for
Japanese and U.S. helicopters flying rescue and supply missions
24/7. As my friend retired RAdm. Mike Groothousen (former commander
of the Reagan’s sister ship, USS Harry S. Truman)
reminded me, if you’re not using the catapults and arresting gear
— which helos don’t need — your deck crews can operate around the
clock for a long time.
And, as Groot told me, the carriers have a lot of
radiation-monitoring equipment aboard. They can help the Japanese
determine how serious any radiation leaks may be.
Japan will recover, the damage of the earthquake itself
overshadowing any effect of the damage to — or caused by — its
nuclear power plants. A lot has changed since 1954. These days,
Godzilla is a good guy.
