JW Science Quote Of The Day 8-27

by TD 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  TD

  In the 1979 movie, "The China Syndrome" there is a scene right after SWAT team members have retaken the control room from Jack Godell. (Jack Lemon) Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) nervously whispers to Richard Adams, (Michael Douglas) "The reactor is the biggest bomb in there!"

  This reflected a belief, common in the 1970's that commercial nuclear reactors were capable of going up in a mushroom cloud like an atomic bomb.

  Although no one can deny that accidents and malfunctions at nuclear power plants can potentially be catastrophic, these reactors are not capable of a bomb-like reaction. An explosive reaction requires an extremely enriched type of fuel, usually referred to as, "weapons grade." The fuel pellets used in commercial PWR, BWR and LWR reactors contain less than 1/30 the necessary concentration of the fissile isotope (Either U235 or P239)

  The JW science quote of the day is also from the 1970's and concerns nuclear reactors:

  "Men have made atomic powerhouses --thermonuclear reactors-- and their output of energy is greater than that by any other means. But they have to be monitored constantly for fear of a devastating explosion."Life Does Have a Purpose (1977) p. 10

  Besides repeating the "Devastating explosion" myth as a fact, this quote makes the additional mistake of referring to fission reactors as "thermonuclear." This term is incorrect in that context because it is a reference to nuclear fusion, not nuclear fission. The fusion of light elements into heavier ones under intense heat and pressure happens inside the sun and on a much smaller scale, in the second stage of a hydrogen bomb, but controlled thermonuclear reaction is an elusive goal that man has not yet achieved on any significant scale.

  Today's JW science quote of the day therefore is a double --two errors for the price of one.

  Tomorrow: "Gorilla Fangs"
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  JK666

  Reading 3 years of this crap is supposed to get you the equivelent of a college education?

  JK
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  LeslieV

  I find it amazing that I never questioned anything that they wrote, and I read. Wow is all I can say.

  Leslie
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  freeme

  ya, i never questioned it myself too for way to long.

  of course nuclear powerplants CAN actually explode... it even can be devastating. but i do agree that the quoters in that case thought of a nuclear explosion too.

  the second error is minor in my opionion. the watchtower is not a scientific magazine.
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  WTWizard

  More wording errors. Here, the thermonuclear reaction refers to fusion, which to the best of my knowledge has yet to become viable (and will never, as long as the oil giants keep controlling the regulators that approve or deny these things). Fission is not thermonuclear. This is more to confuse the readers than anything else, so that they will not become integrated thinkers (integrated thinkers soon turn into apostates).

  Yes, they can blow up. All one has to remember is Chernobyl. If the containment building leaks, there is a lot of high-pressure radioactive gases (like water vapor) just waiting to be released into the atmosphere. And technology needs improvement in disposing of the wastes. This does not mean that we shouldn't have nuclear energy. It means that people need to quit trying to harass those who are building these things and start working on ways to improve disposal or reuse of the wastes so we can have these items. I believe a lot of the anti-nuclear propaganda is started by the big oil companies that scare people into thinking that radioactive waste is an unsolvable problem, and it spreads from there.

  More important to this forum, however, is that this is the sort of wrong information that the Watchtower Society is trying to pass on to the public as fact. They call 4 years of reading the Asleep equivalent to a college education. I highly doubt that anyone is going to engineer a nuclear power plant on the knowledge found in the Asleep magazines, and especially if it's as bogus as this. Maybe wording errors, but to a nuclear engineer, a wording error like this could be a confusion that could result in a nuclear explosion like Chernobyl. And then they could use that to terrorize people into returning to the Kingdumb Hells.
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  ithinkisee

  I hope you keep posting these. If anyone has any science blunder quotes from the society, please send them over to TD.
  
  (Just trying to make your job easier) :-)
  
  -ithinkisee
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  M.J.

  Thanks for that.
  
  I remember going to that movie as a young kid with my parents. My dad had been in the nuclear program in the Navy and I remember him badmouthing the movie all the way home. My mom just kept telling him to cut it out!
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  heathen

  I think the one in russia did explode and spewed radiation as far as north america so they may have had that right. I think it was the chernoble reactor.....
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  Rabbit

  The JW science quote of the day is also from the 1970's and concerns nuclear reactors:

  "Men have made atomic powerhouses --thermonuclear reactors-- and their output of energy is greater than that by any other means. But they have to be monitored constantly for fear of a devastating explosion."Life Does Have a Purpose (1977) p. 10

  The way I understand it is...if there is a catastrophic failure of all the safety systems (Chernobyl was built way differently than U.S. plants) there could be a melt-down of the nuclear core. If, it could not be stopped, the core would melt thru the containment bldg. floor, the ground and rock, until it reached a layer of ground water, then a ...Steam explosion would occur. That could breach the containment bldg. walls spreading radioactive dust and debris into the atmosphere. This falls to earth and can contaminate the earth for centuries. But, not like an Atomic bomb, which was how the WT was scaring people.

  Rabbit
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  TD

  Heathen-

  According to the 2003 NEA publication Chernobyl - An Assessment of Radiological and Health Impact, this was the chain of events.

  A succession of human errors including the disabling of automatic shutdown mechanisms prior to a low-power test and the withdrawal of 22 of the 30 control rods necessitated a SCRAM in the unit four reactor. The poorly designed moderator mechanism displaced coolant and in so doing, actually increased the reaction rate, owing to a peculiarity of the RBMK-1000 design. (Known as "Positive void coefficient.") This caused some of the fuel rods to snap, which in turn jammed the control rods at an incomplete point of insertion. The reactor was now effectively stuck at "full throttle." Output jumped to 10 times normal, fuel rods started to melt and steam pressure built up to the point where pipes explosively ruptured. The escaping steam literally lifted the reactor lid off the reactor, knocking a hole in the roof and spewing reactor materials into the air. With the reactor core now open a second explosion of unknown origin occurred, (It is speculated that hydrogen may have been the cause) and a graphite fire ensued that took nine days to contain. The graphite fire itself was the cause of much radiological contamination.

  I honestly don't believe that it can legitimately be argued that the Life book made reference to a chain of events that included explosions as effects rather than causes. The captioned quote uses the term, "Devastating explosion" as a single, punctilliar event.