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Comment by Robotbeat | Hacker News Reader

It's insane how we just accept regular natural gas explosions as a thing, but we over-react at even the hint of non-lethal nuclear contamination.

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Huh? I didn’t realize as a society we had “accepted natural gas explosions” as normal. The fact that this story even attracted national news tells me otherwise.

I think GP means we aren't now all calling to ban natural gas.

Most of us in more northern locales wouldn’t be too happy if we had to get new furnaces and stoves, but we don’t care too much where our grid electricity comes from since we aren’t personally invested in it.

There are untold numbers of pipeline explosions that either stay confined to local reporting or are forgotten almost immediately after they happen. Here's a severe one that happened down the street from me several years ago that never made national news (Link 1). Then you have the explosions that sent suburban Massachusetts into a complete state of emergency, damaging 131 homes, injuring 21, and killing 1 person (Link 2). That event is severe enough IMO that it should have sparked a national debate on the state of our critical utilities as it paralyzed everyone living near one of America's major cities (these were the suburbs many people in Boston commute from or have family/friends in) for several days and led to massive heating crisis due to paranoia of another distaster just a few weeks ago (Link 3). Gas explosions are lethal, and apparently, surprisingly common despite being a weekly/monthly occurence as far back as I can remember.

Link 1: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2014/01/11/enka-exp... (search for pictures, it was a massive fountain of flames for several hours)

Link 2: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/12/regulator-ties-pipeline-work...

Link 3: https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/east-bay/national-grid-...

I'm not sure if anyone remembers or knows outside the USA Northeast, but

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/PL...

Gas company accidentally over pressurized the service line, and destroyed just about everyone's equipment in the area. IIRC they only recently got everyone back online, and it's cold up here in the Northeast.

If natural gas somehow never took off, and today you were trying to pitch the idea of running pipes full of poisonous, explosive gas to every house, you’d get run out of town.

Natural gas isn't particularly poisonous, is buoyant in air (tends to dissipate if leaked), and is cheaper than electric heating. At commercial prices, 1 million BTU of heat from natural gas costs ~$8, the equivalent .3 MW-hr electricity costs ~$15.

I think it’s well worth the risk. I just ran a gas line to my house a couple of months ago because it’s the clear winner for heating.

But I’m quite confident that the only reason people tolerate the idea is because it’s old. If it were a new idea, arguments such as yours would never be enough to win people over.

Double the price isn’t that much. Plus with solar and wind it’ll get cheaper. Gas is historical pre electricity...

It's one explosion, a fire, and after it's out you can start rebuilding pretty much immediately.

With nuclear contamination, it stays around for a very long time.

>It's insane how we just accept regular natural gas explosions as a thing

If it were considered normal or commonplace major news outlets wouldn't be covering it.

>but we over-react at even the hint of non-lethal nuclear contamination.

I'll agree with that.

Yep. A friend was killed in one a number of years ago. I doubt that event was reported outside the local area. Took out 1/2 a city block too. They’re still rebuilding in the gap sites created, 10 years later.

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