In a diary by dnpvd0111 the other day - Radioactive Steam Is Escaping From Cracks Under The Fukushima Reactors - "the usual suspects" descended late in the game to spout the pro-nuclear propaganda they are either paid to spout or spout because they've some personal connections to the nuclear industry past or present. It is of course impossible to tell the difference between paid shills and ideological cultists, but we are all familiar with the usual line of attack as well as with the pseudonyms/names attached.
These apologists usually enter a diary's comment section after it has fallen off the recent list, and is off the rec list if it managed to get that far. It's an MO that is traceable for anyone who cares to take a look back at nuclear-topic diaries over time. By not engaging when the subject is 'hot' or current, they can get away with much more outrageous lies and attacks than they could if they were launching those in a diary that was getting hundreds of hits an hour. It's a well-mapped strategy that has worked for them for years. Surely by now most of us who follow the news and diaries about Fukushima and nukes in general are familiar with the MO.
There is one poster here who has earned himself the dubious honor of HOS - Hide-rate On Sight - from a good many who have been following all things nuclear. He was banned for awhile or simply went elsewhere before Fukushima, having earned himself a reputation for bombastic insult and rambling screeds. Now he's back, and has not demonstrated any more of a grasp of reality or manners than he ever had. He has his share of fans as did edscan, mostly for comedic refreshment. Just mentioning this poster (and not calling him out) as the most notorious of nuclear apologists over a relatively long span of time. I hardly ever hide-rate him because he's not worth the trouble. And I kind of appreciate the comedic refreshment of his outrageousness. I only HR him when he directly insults me - something I avoid by not engaging him.
I use that poster as an example because he is one who is familiar to us. To make a point about a different apologist who has recently stepped way over the line and is the subject of this complaint. That would be a pseudo of the moniker "bryfry".
In the diary linked above bryfry wasn't getting anywhere with his usual line of crap, so posted the following in response to a link I posted to an official GE diagram of their BWRs with labels identifying control rods as control rods. No matter what shape or what specific metallurgical profile, they are "control rods" and function AS "control rods." That's the official title. His response to me, which earned 9 HRs and no uprates:
Back to school time
Joy, my goodness! You are already widely known as the most ignorant, loud-mouth bitch on DailyKos when it comes to nuclear technology. Yet, you continue to beg me for lessons. Why?
Your nonsense about Three Mile Island (TMI) is ample proof that you don't understand what control rods do, how they work, or how they are used ... well ... let's try to fix that shall we?
[…]
I and other members of the Coalition for Independent Investigation fought "The Battle Of TMI-2" for more than 30 years. We testified before Congress and the NRC, participated in the on-site and later academic investigation, helped write and produce the reports (in three volumes plus appendices), issued the press releases, analyzed the government's various reports, supplied testimony to state and federal courts, and submitted a brief to the SCOTUS.
Yes, the nuclear industry has always taken issue with our findings. Even had to put together an entire consortium of authoritarian acronyms to 'explain' information they accidentally released in 1982 that an entire control rod group had failed to fall during the scram sequence at just 8 seconds into the accident at TMI-2. A revelation that directly contradicted the technical assessment task forces of both the Kemeny and Rogovin [NRC] reports on the accident at TMI-2.
What this amounts to - and has long been semi-humorous for its value as case-in-point - is the re-definition of the laws of physics. Which the authoritarians have the power to do at will per public information, though reactor operators are for damned sure still taught all rods must fall in order to stop the fission. Rare oopses on that for a handful or fewer rods due to physical blockage or signal failure can be accommodated so long as the scram doesn't occur during a LOCA - Loss Of Coolant Accident. As occurred at TMI-2.
But that's all back and forth three decades ago between us and the nuclear industry's authoritarians and paid shills. Water long ago under the bridge and in no way current. History.
Of course it is my history as a health physics technician at TMI-2's initial recovery operation that bryfry, et al. object to. It makes me much more dangerous to their purposes than I would be had I not spent time in the industry and hadn't previously attended a meltdown. To which I say, Tough Titty.
I'm no longer very young and adventurous. There's a huge amount of personal water under the bridge between TMI-2 and Fukushima. Most of it having little to do with nuclear power in any way, shape or form. But because we were featured in a major investigative article for the Institute for Southern Studies back when the 30th anniversary of TMI-2 was 'celebrated', we have had contact from some documentary film producers and playwrights. A couple of them have come here to the mountain homestead and conducted lengthy filmed interviews, this year.
In one interview my hubby was asked what it would take to shut these suckers down once and for all, to throw a terminal monkey wrench in the works of the planned "Nuclear Renaissance." It was March 4th, exactly one week before the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and multiple meltdowns at Fukushima. The answer he gave? Same answer it's always been…
"A nuclear disaster. A really big one they can't hide."
That is what Fukushima is. Of course I've been following since Day-1, paying close attention to technical details and trying hard to parse the lies from the truths. Only real experience with these people and their propaganda machinery can allow that - knowing that everything you're reading/seeing in the press is of course disguising something much worse going on in reality helps a lot to do the necessary parsing. And then having to add factors of ten to every reported release or level, understanding that those zeroes are the primary means of minimizing public knowledge.
Of course our live-in nuclear apologists are going to target me. I know that and certainly understand it, and if it really bothered me I'd not be participating here or in Japan trying to help people understand what they're up against and what's really going on. I am not perfect and don't claim to be. And my brain certainly isn't as pointy in my 60s as it was in my 30s. So I sometimes mix up units or read something wrong. We know we're dealing with lies, from all the nuclear authoritarians all over the world. TEPCO's been caught lying so much that the Japanese government doesn't even trust them anymore, and the Japanese government has openly admitted to lying too. There are no trustworthy actors in this play coming from that side of things.
I've been doing what I can. And posting occasional update diaries here at DKos to keep the issue visible. It's nowhere near over yet. Some may appreciate my contributions, some may not and prefer to ignore me. That's all okay with me. But bryfry has stepped well over the line this time by calling me an "ignorant, loud-mouthed bitch," and is now HOS for me.
I will no longer be responding patiently and civilly to his made for trouble posts, as I've been doing for way too long. This diary hopefully explains my reasoning well enough for me not to engender any of those distracting right-hand side pie fights that apologists like bryfry are here to engage. It's their job. It is not my job, so I hereby announce the "why" for expected future HRs. For what it's worth, you all can behave as you please. That's okay with me too.
Sorry to inject personal stuff into the stream, but I figured some of you might like to know where that kind of ad hominem comes from. Did it on a Sunday so it's not peak readership, seems like the best time to me. Thanks.