Here's a fresh report on how well the nuclear plants did in comparison to the Nat gas infrastructure (from a Forbes contributor, below).
With enough of this kind of good news, the inexorable, poorly reasoned push against nuclear power will be rolled back. Please note the moonscape left by gas-fueled fires in New Jersey. ------
Water from Hurricane Sandy rose almost 7 feet above normal, threatening the water intake structure that pumps cooling water through the plant. Even though the pumps were not essential since the plant is in a scheduled refueling shut down, and plant operators even moved a portable pump into the threatened building in case the regular pump had been submerged, the sense was that things were amiss.
When nothing actually happened, the alert was called off two days later.
Since WWII, nuclear has become the poster child for extreme events. Ironically, nuclear energy in America is now the poster child for emergency preparedness.
Contrast this with our natural gas infrastructure where we’ve done a poor job. For days natural gas fires have been burning from ruptured gas lines after Hurricane Sandy ripped up the houses and businesses attached to them.
October 30, 2012 - Houses in Lavallette, New Jersey burning from ruptured gas lines in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated towns and cities along the New Jersey and New York shores... (In) places like Mantoloking, Lavallette and Breezy Point, homes were burnt husks on Wednesday, horrible smells accompanying the hiss of broken pipes and the sight of gas bubbling up through pools of water.
Natural gas’ ever-present twin menace – the leak and the spark – surfaced in this storm with a vengeance, as it will in every future disaster now that we’ve decided to become a natural gas nation in the face of a changing climate.
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