Community | June 22, 2011 | 4 comments

Fukushima report shows nuclear power can never be safe and cheap

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jun/20/nuclearpower-nuclea...

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The first "independent" review of the safety failures during Japan's nuclear disaster reveals some chillingly obvious "lessons" to be learned

The first "independent" review of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was published today and it does not make reassuring reading.

Japan is perhaps the most technologically advanced nation on Earth and yet, time after time, the report finds missing measures that I would have expected to already be in place. It highlights the fundamental inability for anyone to anticipate all future events and so deeply undermines the claims of the nuclear industry and its supporters that this time, with the new generation of reactors, things will be different.

I used quote marks on the word "independent" because the report comes from the International Atomic Energy Association (pdf) (IAEA) which, while independent of Japan, is far from independent from the nuclear industry it was founded to promote. But this conflict of interest only makes the findings of the IEAE's experts more startling.

So let's take a look at some of the 15 conclusions and 16 lessons (I've edited a bit for brevity).
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4 comments // Fukushima report shows nuclear power can never be safe and cheap

  • futuregen
  • futuregen
  • erotictoy
  • Nexis_Hexus
    • 0
      Nexis_Hexus  

    • If Lessons from Nippon are done well:Nuclear energy is dependable as long as geography conditions are stable for nuclear power on a single threat level , not three or four like quake,tsunami, and backup power dependability.

      Scorn should be spent on Detroit for not investing in a homegrown fuel source like ethanol and turning off the engine dependence on gasoline powered cars. Even when the market is down , the car dealers could be selling ethanol or hydrogen from their shops rather than worry about crude speculators worsening their lay -off rate. Is there no infrastructure to support a ethanol/ hydrogen car ? yes there is: theres a ford, chevy , dodge dealer in nearly every small town that compete the price down among themselves. We need a separate organics energy market that has a discreet monopoly of sales that petroleum NEEDS TO BE GOVERNMENT REGULATED to be an UNinfluential investor. Thats how renewable energy will take off ;; the government regulating petroleum/ coals market competition . Its Pro Capitalism in a Private sector ever merging and decreasing cost competition through conglomerate companies.

      I said this to Tim Geitner and received no inclusion to the Auto Bailout team. There is more to American innovation than banks and bureaucrats. They mostly do very little of the real gritty work of applaudable breakthrus.

      The risk of nuclear meltdown is very real. putting the Fukushima on the east side of the island where the quake threat and tsunami threat is the worst ; ie gathering the most water, was a poor climatic engineering feat. Applaudable in its completion.

    • 11 months ago
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