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The problem is not the limits of technology as much as it is the
unlimited avarice and stupidity of the electrical power utility
companies, their shareholders, and directors, and their 39 cent
politicians and bureaucrats.<br>
<br>
It's also very difficult to discover the truth about the meltdowns due
to the intrinsic tendency toward hubris, reticence, and prevarication
that oft characterizes the Japanese ruling class.<br>
<br>
On 2011-3-15 11:24, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4D7EDBFE.2030305@illinois.edu" type="cite">
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Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear Plants<br>
Monday 14 March 2011<br>
by: Greg Palast <br>
<br>
I need to speak to you, not as a reporter, but in my former capacity as
lead investigator in several government nuclear plant fraud and
racketeering investigations.<br>
<br>
I don't know the law in Japan, so I can't tell you if Tokyo Electric
Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.<br>
<br>
But what will Obama plead? The administration, just months ago, asked
Congress to provide a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear
reactors to be built and operated on the Gulf Coast of Texas - by TEPCO
and local partners. As if the Gulf hasn't suffered enough. Here are the
facts about TEPCO and the industry you haven't heard on CNN:<br>
<br>
The failure of emergency systems at Japan's nuclear plants comes as no
surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.<br>
<br>
Nuclear plants the world over must be certified for what is called "SQ"
or "Seismic Qualification." That is, the owners swear that all
components are designed for the maximum conceivable shaking event, be
it from an earthquake or an exploding Christmas card from al-Qaeda.<br>
<br>
The most inexpensive way to meet your SQ is to lie. The industry does
it all the time. The government team I worked with caught them once, in
1988, at the Shoreham plant in New York. Correcting the SQ problem at
Shoreham would have cost a cool billion, so engineers were told to
change the tests from "failed" to "passed."<br>
<br>
The company that put in the false safety report? Stone & Webster,
now the nuclear unit of Shaw Construction, which will work with TEPCO
to build the Texas plant. Lord help us.<br>
<br>
There's more.<br>
<br>
Last night, I heard CNN reporters repeat the official line that the
tsunami disabled the pumps needed to cool the reactors, implying that
water unexpectedly got into the diesel generators that run the pumps.<br>
<br>
These safety backup systems are the "EDGs" in nuke-speak: Emergency
Diesel Generators. That they didn't work in an emergency is like a fire
department telling us they couldn't save a building because "it was on
fire."<br>
<br>
What dim bulbs designed this system? One of the reactors dancing with
death at Fukushima Station 1 was built by Toshiba. Toshiba was also an
architect of the emergency diesel system.<br>
<br>
Now be afraid. Obama's $4 billion bailout in the making is called the
South Texas Project. It's been sold as a red-white-and-blue way to make
power domestically with a reactor from Westinghouse, a great American
brand. However, the reactor will be made substantially in Japan by the
company that bought the US brand name, Westinghouse - Toshiba.<br>
<br>
I once had a Toshiba computer. I only had to send it in once for
warranty work. However, it's kind of hard to mail back a reactor with
the warranty slip inside the box if the fuel rods are melted and
sinking halfway to the earth's core.<br>
<br>
TEPCO and Toshiba don't know what my son learned in eighth grade
science class: tsunamis follow Pacific Rim earthquakes. So, these
companies are real stupid, eh? Maybe. More likely is that the diesels
and related systems wouldn't have worked on a fine, dry afternoon.<br>
<br>
Back in the day, when we checked the emergency backup diesels in
America, a mind-blowing number flunked. At the New York nuclear plant,
for example, the builders swore under oath that their three diesel
engines were ready for an emergency. They'd been tested. The tests were
faked; the diesels run for just a short time at low speed. When the
diesels were put through a real test under emergency-like conditions,
the crankshaft on the first one snapped in about an hour, then the
second and third. We nicknamed the diesels, "Snap, Crackle and Pop."<br>
<br>
(Note: Moments after I wrote that sentence, word came that two of three
diesels failed at the Tokai Station as well.)<br>
<br>
In the US, we supposedly fixed our diesels after much complaining by
the industry. But in Japan, no one tells TEPCO to do anything the
Emperor of Electricity doesn't want to do.<br>
<br>
I get lots of confidential notes from nuclear industry insiders. One
engineer, a big name in the field, is especially concerned that Obama
waved the come-hither check to Toshiba and TEPCO to lure them to
America. The US has a long history of whistleblowers willing to put
themselves on the line to save the public. In our racketeering case in
New York, the government only found out about the seismic test fraud
because two courageous engineers, Gordon Dick and John Daly, gave our
team the documentary evidence.<br>
<br>
In Japan, it's simply not done. The culture does not allow the salary
men, who work all their lives for one company, to drop the dime.<br>
<br>
Not that US law is a wondrous shield: both engineers in the New York
case were fired and blacklisted by the industry. Nevertheless, the
government (local, state, federal) brought civil racketeering charges
against the builders. The jury didn't buy the corporation's excuses
and, in the end, the plant was, thankfully, dismantled.<br>
<br>
Am I on some kind of xenophobic anti-Nippon crusade? No. In fact, I'm
far more frightened by the American operators in the South Texas
nuclear project, especially Shaw. Stone & Webster, now the Shaw
nuclear division, was also the firm that conspired to fake the EDG
tests in New York . (The company's other exploits have been exposed by
their former consultant, John Perkins, in his book, "Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man.") If the planet wants to shiver, consider this:
Toshiba and Shaw have recently signed a deal to become worldwide
partners in the construction of nuclear stations.<br>
<br>
The other characters involved at the South Texas Plant that Obama is
backing should also give you the willies. But as I'm in the middle of
investigating the American partners, I'll save that for another day.<br>
<br>
So, if we turned to America's own nuclear contractors, would we be
safe? Well, two of the melting Japanese reactors, including the one
whose building blew sky high, were built by General Electric of the
Good Old US of A.<br>
<br>
After Texas, you're next. The Obama administration is planning a total
of $56 billion in loans for nuclear reactors all over America.<br>
<br>
And now, the homicides:<br>
<br>
CNN is only interested in body counts, how many workers burnt by
radiation, swept away or lost in the explosion. These plants are now
releasing radioactive steam into the atmosphere. Be skeptical about the
statements that the "levels are not dangerous." These are the same
people who said these meltdowns could never happen. Over years, not
days, there may be a thousand people, two thousand, ten thousand who
will suffer from cancers induced by this radiation.<br>
<br>
In my New York investigation, I had the unhappy job of totaling up
post-meltdown "morbidity" rates for the county government. It would be
irresponsible for me to estimate the number of cancer deaths that will
occur from these releases without further information; but it is just
plain criminal for the TEPCO shoguns to say that these releases are not
dangerous.<br>
<br>
Indeed, the fact that residents near the Japanese nuclear plants were
not issued iodine pills to keep at the ready shows TEPCO doesn't care
who lives and who dies, whether in Japan or the USA. The carcinogenic
isotopes that are released at Fukushima are already floating to Seattle
with effects we simply cannot measure.<br>
<br>
Heaven help us. Because Obama won't.<br>
<br>
<br>
On 3/14/11 10:15 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4D7ED9D3.6050100@illinois.edu" type="cite">
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Published on Monday, March 14, 2011 by CommonDreams.org<br>
Nuclear Power Madness<br>
by Norman Solomon<br>
<br>
Like every other president since the 1940s, Barack Obama has promoted
nuclear power. Now, with reactors melting down in Japan, the official
stance is more disconnected from reality than ever.<br>
<br>
Political elites are still clinging to the oxymoron of “safe nuclear
power.” It’s up to us -- people around the world -- to peacefully and
insistently shut those plants down.<br>
<br>
There is no more techno-advanced country in the world than Japan.
Nuclear power is not safe there, and it is not safe anywhere.<br>
<br>
As the New York Times reported on Monday, “most of the nuclear plants
in the United States share some or all of the risk factors that played
a role at Fukushima Daiichi: locations on tsunami-prone coastlines or
near earthquake faults, aging plants and backup electrical systems that
rely on diesel generators and batteries that could fail in extreme
circumstances.”<br>
<br>
Nuclear power -- from uranium mining to fuel fabrication to reactor
operations to nuclear waste that will remain deadly for hundreds of
thousands of years -- is, in fact, a moral crime against future
generations.<br>
<br>
But syrupy rhetoric has always marinated the nuclear age. From the
outset -- even as radioactive ashes were still hot in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki -- top officials in Washington touted atomic energy as
redemptive. The split atom, we were to believe, could be an elevating
marvel.<br>
<br>
President Dwight Eisenhower pledged “to help solve the fearful atomic
dilemma” by showing that “the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not
be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.”<br>
<br>
Even after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and the Chernobyl
disaster in 1986 -- and now this catastrophe in Japan -- the corporate
theologians of nuclear faith have continued to bless their own divine
projects.<br>
<br>
Thirty years ago, when I coordinated the National Citizens Hearings for
Radiation Victims on the edge of Capitol Hill, we heard grim testimony
from nuclear scientists, workers, downwinders and many others whose
lives had been forever ravaged by the split atom. Routine in the
process was tag-team deception from government agencies and
nuclear-invested companies.<br>
<br>
By 1980, generations had already suffered a vast array of terrible
consequences -- including cancer, leukemia and genetic injuries -- from
a nuclear fuel cycle shared by the “peaceful” and military atom. Today,
we know a lot more about the abrupt and slow-moving horrors of the
nuclear industry.<br>
<br>
And we keep learning, by the minute, as nuclear catastrophe goes
exponential in Japan. But government leaders don’t seem to be learning
much of anything.<br>
<br>
On Sunday, even while nuclear-power reactors were melting down, the
White House issued this statement: “The president believes that meeting
our energy needs means relying on a diverse set of energy sources that
includes renewables like wind and solar, natural gas, clean coal and
nuclear power. Information is still coming in about the events
unfolding in Japan, but <b>the administration is committed to</b>
learning from them and <b>ensuring that nuclear energy is produced </b>safely
and responsibly <b>here in the U.S.”<br>
</b><br>
Yet another reflexive nuclear salute.<br>
<br>
When this year’s State of the Union address proclaimed a goal of “clean
energy sources” for 80 percent of U.S. electricity by 2035, Obama
added: “Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal
and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all -- and I urge
Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.”<br>
<br>
Bipartisan for nuclear power? You betcha. On Sunday morning TV shows,
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell voiced support for nuclear power, while
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer offered this convoluted ode to atomic
flackery: “We are going to have to see what happens here -- obviously
still things are happening -- but the bottom line is we do have to free
ourselves of independence from foreign oil in the other half of the
globe. Libya showed that. Prices are up, our economy is being hurt by
it, or could be hurt by it. So I'm still willing to look at nuclear. As
I’ve always said it has to be done safely and carefully.”<br>
<br>
Such behavior might just seem absurd or pathetic -- if the consequences
weren’t so grave.<br>
<br>
Nuclear power madness is so entrenched that mainline pundits and top
elected officials rarely murmur dissent. Acquiescence is equated with
prudent sagacity.<br>
<i><br>
In early 2010, President Obama announced federal loan guarantees --
totaling more than $8 billion -- to revive the construction of nuclear
power plants in this country, where 110 nuclear-power reactors are
already in operation.<br>
<br>
“Investing in nuclear energy remains a necessary step,” he said. “What
I hope is that, with this announcement, we’re underscoring both our
seriousness in meeting the energy challenge and our willingness to look
at this challenge, not as a partisan issue, but as a matter that’s far
more important than politics because the choices we make will affect
not just the next generation but many generations to come.”<br>
<b><br>
Promising to push for bigger loan guarantees to build more nuclear
power plants, the president said: “This is only the beginning.”</b><br>
</i><br>
<br>
[Norman Solomon is president of the Institute for Public Accuracy and a
senior fellow at RootsAction. His books include “War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.”]<br>
<br>
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