Lifting the lid on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US : Sat Feb 18, 2012 4:54 pm  

Given that the Tories seem committed to nuclear energy here is Greg Palast making some pretty sobering points on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US at BobFest recently. Summary: 1. It's crazy for the nuclear industry to claim a seaquake followed by a tsunami is a freak occurrence when in fact they are causally linked. 2. Fukushima was NOT hit by a 9.0 earthquake (the plant was over 100 miles from the quake epicentre). 3. Backup diesel generators for emergency cooling DID NOT fail because of water inundation. The crankshafts simply snapped because they were a) old maritime stock and b) unable to spin up to 20,000 rpm from cold within 20 seconds after being idle for months. 4. Engineers knew the generators were useless (Palast provides a damning report related to the Shoreham nuclear plant in the US which uses the same generators). 5. TEPCO faked the safety reports. 6. EVERY nuclear plant in the US depends on the same generators. 7. Palast attempted to bring racketeering charges against one company but was blocked by the US Supreme Court which ruled that nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering. 8. Obama recently paid $10 billion for two new reactors built by companies which have paid out on numerous lawsuits for safety violations and maintained by none other that Tokyo Power and Electric. 9. Palast is passed company documents which put the build cost at $14 billion. 10. The $4 billion shortfall isn't a problem because - nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering.

Given that the Tories seem committed to nuclear energy here is Greg Palast making some pretty sobering points on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US at BobFest recently. Summary: 1. It's crazy for the nuclear industry to claim a seaquake followed by a tsunami is a freak occurrence when in fact they are causally linked. 2. Fukushima was NOT hit by a 9.0 earthquake (the plant was over 100 miles from the quake epicentre). 3. Backup diesel generators for emergency cooling DID NOT fail because of water inundation. The crankshafts simply snapped because they were a) old maritime stock and b) unable to spin up to 20,000 rpm from cold within 20 seconds after being idle for months. 4. Engineers knew the generators were useless (Palast provides a damning report related to the Shoreham nuclear plant in the US which uses the same generators). 5. TEPCO faked the safety reports. 6. EVERY nuclear plant in the US depends on the same generators. 7. Palast attempted to bring racketeering charges against one company but was blocked by the US Supreme Court which ruled that nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering. 8. Obama recently paid $10 billion for two new reactors built by companies which have paid out on numerous lawsuits for safety violations and maintained by none other that Tokyo Power and Electric. 9. Palast is passed company documents which put the build cost at $14 billion. 10. The $4 billion shortfall isn't a problem because - nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering.

Re: Lifting the lid on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US : Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:29 pm  

We are much safer in Britain - what with Calder Hall, Windscale, Sellafield or whatever it's called now to confuse the public and reassure them that there is no safety issue with this new plant.

Re: Lifting the lid on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US : Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:24 pm  

Sellafield has been found guilty of contaminating the Irish sea (amongst other things) on several occasions and there have been a number of attempted prosecutions (some successful). Unfortunately the British government (Labour & Conservative) has adopted a typically xenophobic what-do-europeans-know-about-safety attitude and stonewalled further investigation.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Sellafield isn't simply a nuclear power plant. It reprocesses the world's radioactive waste into fresh nuclear fuel and bomb material. We really have no idea what to do with the waste products, some of which will still be lethal when the last inhabitants of earth are putting our fossilised remains in natural history museums.

The entire nuclear industry works on the "jam today" principle with the considerable problem of ever-expanding and very deadly nuclear waste stocks nonchalantly addressed by what amounts to little more than faith. Faith that Technology will render it harmless with an unobtanium wand, or teleport it to the centre of the sun etc.

Re: Lifting the lid on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US : Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:27 pm  

Nuclear poer stations were initially only built to produce material for weapons. The 'civilian" power generation was just to justify them. Although things may have moved on to some degree, when Iran protests they are only interested in power generation we should worry. The sooner their plants get detroyed the better. whether the global political situation will allow that is a different thing though. I hope it does for all our sakes.

Re: Lifting the lid on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US : Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:36 pm  

Dally wrote:

Nuclear poer stations were initially only built to produce material for weapons. The 'civilian" power generation was just to justify them.

There's no evidence to justify this claim. Of course, nuclear power and the weapons industry are joined at the hip. But at the time (before we knew the full dangers of nuclear energy) there were pretty good reasons to think it was - as billed - "the energy source of the future".

Although things may have moved on to some degree, when Iran protests they are only interested in power generation we should worry. The sooner their plants get detroyed the better. whether the global political situation will allow that is a different thing though. I hope it does for all our sakes.

You hope to preserve our safety by attacking nuclear installations?