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Pakistan Builds Nuclear Reactors In Karachi, Sparking Fears of Disaster
schwit1 writes World leaders have fretted for years that terrorists may try to steal one of Pakistan's nuclear bombs and detonate it in a foreign country. But some Karachi residents say the real nuclear nightmare is unfolding here in Pakistan's largest and most volatile city. Of all places to locate a nuclear reactor, they argue, who could possibly make a case for this one — on an earthquake-prone seafront vulnerable to tsunamis and not far from where al-Qaeda militants nearly hijacked a Pakistan navy vessel last fall.
This must be the most moronic article I've read in a long time.
3/4 of the way down the text it says the only relevant piece of information: "Minhaj said concerns about the effect of a tsunami are also overblown because the new reactors are being built on a rock ledge about 39 feet above sea level."
That's 12m above the sea. The tsunami generated by a mag 9.0 earthquake is expected to be between 0.9m and 7m high - so the plant will have 5m margin ABOVE THE WORST CASE.
Shut up everyone, you've been lied to.
new orleans
Population (2013)[1]
City and Parish 378,715 (US: 51st)
Metro 1,240,977 (US: 45th)
karachi
Population (2013)
Total 23,500,000[1]
Rank 1st (Pakistan), 2nd (World)
new orleans is a cute little rural suburb compared to karachi
having driven to new orleans a number of times, i've seen myself that 20 miles out from new orleans it is nothing but scrub and mangroves. i can understand within new orleans itself you feel like you are in a dense city, because there's nothing else around, and you're the center of that area of the country. but this is a provincial judgment
world cities are mind blowing compared to american cities
here in new york city, a huge fucking megacity by usa standards but a puny light weight by world standards, 20 miles out is still dense and urban
Population (2013)[5]
Total 8,405,837[1]
Rank 1st, U.S., 24th (World)
so: 20 miles from the city center of karachi is still pretty much in the middle of dense giant fucking karachi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Unfortunately, for that kind of decision political and economical factors are more important than technical ones.
but some of their loyalties are divided, and in secret
and with so much sectarian hatred, political instability, and poverty in that country, i fear that the most probable scenario for a purposeful nuclear attack in this world (so not accidental, probably plant sabotage) will be in pakistan
i don't think the west has anything to fear. i think india does somewhat. but i think pakistanis have the most to fear by far
there is a lot of bloodlust over there. and not the random yahoo kind, but the organized sectarian kind
i fear for you pakistan
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
that is precisely what the powers-that-be want
paklistan is full of conspiratorial minded morons
every tragedy or event in pakistan, where pakistanis can face their shortcomings, come to grips with it, and move forward: nope. instead loopy hilarious conspiracies that shifts blame to the west, to the jews, to india, to iran, etc. keeps them mired in poverty, backwardness, blind denial, strife, and stupidity. every problem in pakistan is never the fault of pakistanis, it's all due to plots and secret cabals and manipulations from abroad. fucking ignorant bullsit
here in the west we can safely laugh at paranoid schizophrenic low iq conspiracy minded douchebags. such losers are everywhere in the world. but a free society with free speech and a free press, the full light of day reveals their delusional rantings, they are ridiculed, and they are safely exiled to the backseat of the short bus and only are compelling to weak minded ignorant halfwits
but in countries where lies, censorship, prideful ethnic and sectarian denial, etc. dominates, the mental diarrhea of conspiracies has a great power and takes hold in that darkness of no free thought, no free press, no free speech
so when i see you write "that is precisely what the powers-that-be want", all i think is yup: there's another fucking problem with pakistan: conspiracy theory nutcases everywhere
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The Karachi and NY metro areas are of similar size, but NY has a much lower density overall. Yes, Manhattan is super-dense, but most of the NY metro by geographic area is sprawling suburbs in Long Island and NJ. Karachi suburbs extend about 20km in every direction, NY suburbs extend about 60km in every direction, if you look at Google Maps. You can also see that for an 8km radius around this nuclear facility, there is almost no population.
http://www.city-data.com/forum...
20 miles is about yonkers to manhattan on this map
all directions, 20 mile radius, and well beyond, is dense and urban, except for the meadowlands:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
http://www.census.gov/populati...
The urban fringe generally consists of contiguous territory having a density of at least 1,000 persons per square mile.
sure, it's not 60 story skyscrapers every block, but by the definition of urban, it is urban, all around nyc, for well beyond 20 miles, except for swamps
as for the karachi nuke site, i see a very large urban center just to the north of the complex on google earth
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
so: 20 miles from the city center of karachi is still pretty much in the middle of dense giant fucking karachi
You use a lot of fancy numbers but really all you needed to do was look at a map. These reactors are being built in the middle of nowhere (or rather the edge of nowhere since it's on the waterfront). The reactors are not 20 miles from the city centre rather they are actually about 15 miles from the boundary.
Better still these nice modern reactors with all their modern safety standards and passive safety systems and an inherently safer design are being built in an existing complex next to a set of existing 1970s era reactors. The article even has a picture of the existing plant.
This is colossal FUD, and they should be welcoming the addition of GenIII reactors so they can eventually transition away from the older ones which actually may be a problem if something seriously goes wrong.
Wouldn't that be 40 km? I thought you people were civilized.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Bin Laden was a CIA asset while fighting to eject the Soviets from Afghanistan.
Bin Laden, as one of 50+ children of the owner of a major Saudi construction firm that profited all through the oil expansion there, was strongly favored in inheriting a disproportionate amount from his father and ended up with over $300 million as a result. Much of this was expended building clinics and schools in the Afghan hinterland. The students of these madrassas were called Taliban, Pashto for "the students".
During the fight to eject the Soviets, Bin Laden was an ally under the usual terms of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". However, once the common enemy is dispatched by two allies-of-convenience, a power vacuum is created in the formerly disputed territory and was filled by Bin Laden and his allies, in part because as major combatants they are best poised, trained and equipped to take advantage of the chaos left by the withdrawal of an occupation force.
So even if Bin Laden was an ally during the Eighties, he was no longer a friend in the Nineties because we had no common enemy. To try to suggest that he was our ally is comparable to saying that the Soviets as our allies in WW II continued to be our allies throughout the Cold War.
After a victory against a common foe, the enemy of your enemy is no longer your friend and quite often does become your enemy.
Pakistan is the source of all the trouble in the region anyway, not seeing any downside to your imagined "erasing"
There has already been a nuclear reactor plant in Pakistan Karachi since the 1972, supplied by the Canadian Gov; it's called the KANUPP-I and it's still in operation, but only generating 85MW of power (max power = 140MW), while the new reactor will generate up to 1000MW.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karachi_Nuclear_Power_Complex#KANUPP-I
It is safe. But just like a lot of other safe thing, you have to be somewhat inteligent in using it. It is still not a good idea to run with safety scissors just like its not a good idea to walk around the shady parts of nyc showing everyone you pass a wad of cash while asking them where you can find some crack cocaine.
Pakistan hates the terrorists living there as much as anyone else, they just can't get rid of them. To be fair, either could the US when it tried to get them out of Afghanistan.
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