lessons
so what lesson should we learn from fukushima? acts of god happen. there's nothing we can do to prevent it. however, there are things we can do to minimize the damage. the daiichi power plants are old. like really old. like the oldest designs around. we should be shutting them down. and we should be replacing them with second or third generation nuclear power plants. ones that cannot overheat even if you shut off the power. ones that consume their own waste instead of stockpiling it. this isn't science fiction. all of these things are possible. consider cars. no one in their right mind would think a car built in the 30s is as safe or reliable as a car built today. we don't see them on the road because they've been retired and replaced by newer safer better models. the same thing should happen with our nuclear industry.