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Comment on Windscale Piles: Cockcroft's Follies avoided nuclear disasterparent

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I don't think that comparing first-generation, experimental nuclear plants with potentially passively-safe, Gen IV nuclear reactors is useful at all. This would be a lot like complaining about the crash survivability of the Model T – i.e. not relevant.

There's a genuine question about whether or not we can produce safe nuclear plants, but the problems are political, economic and social - not technical.

Oh right, how many gen 4 reactors are built? According to wiki, none.

Ooh, I figured out why they're safe!

Your tone isn't really helpful – like I pointed out, there's a question about whether or not we can build safe nuclear reactors, given the external influences on that process (desire to minimise cost, for example.)

Anyway, we'll certainly never get to safe nuclear reactors if we just stop working on it…

oh noes my tone -- whinging about tone is the last resort of people who have nothing to say, but dislike being wrong. Safe nuclear reactor designs demonstrated so far: zero.

Your claim, condensed: assume a safe nuclear reactor design. Therefore, we can design safe nuclear reactors!

This is dumb enough that I'm not sure what response you're looking for.

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