Further Reminders to Worry About Something Else Instead

A diplomat who has access to radiation tracking by the U.N.'s Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization told The Associated Press in Vienna that initial readings show tiny amounts of radiation have reached California. But it's not dangerous in any way — "about a billion times beneath levels that would be health threatening," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the organization does not make its findings public.

U.S. government experts also insist there's no threat to public health from the plume, but they are still closely monitoring the situation with detection monitors deployed along the West Coast.

So again, I'm not worried that there is radioactive mist mixed in with the clouds above my head. What worries me is the giant concrete breasts in the background of this picture:

The BACKGROUND, I said!

It's the San Onofre Nuclear Power plant, just 95 miles southeast of where I'm sitting. It's 40 years old and rated to withstand a 7.0 quake. Which is great because anything over that never happens! Except recently, in Japan. There is also said to be a seawall around SO which will protect for up to 18 feet of water, which never happens except for the 25 foot tsunami which happened recently in Japan. See what I'm saying?

I read in Wired that someone is developing a power generating system that gets it's power by the contract between very cold seawater at the ocean floor and the much warmer water at the surface. This is like nuclear power because it uses seawater - but unlike it, there's no danger of rendering a huge part of the Earth's surface uninhabitable for ten thousand years. Worth throwing a little money at, this idea.