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. 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. 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: The failure of emergency systems at Japan's nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field. 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. 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." Complete article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23710
Is 120 Tomahawk missile strike on Libya a cover-up for Japan's nuclear tragedy? Other forum: 7 days ago the idea of war on Libya was completely rejected by the majority of the UN security council. The US position was against a military involvement in Libya. Here's what MSN published of Hilary Clinton's address to the House of appropriations committee I believe just prior to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This is from the West Australian dated March 11, 2011. Quote: Clinton also expressed deep doubts about proposals to set up a "no-fly" zone over Libya, saying previous no-fly zones set up over Iraq and Serbia had had little effect⦠"Absent international authorization, the United States acting alone would be stepping into a situation whose consequences are unforeseeable," Clinton said. Clinton said the United States was focusing on humanitarian relief and building links to Libya's opposition groups⦠Clinton... said a proposed a no-fly zone over the country may not be the best one. "I want to remind people that we had a no-fly zone over Iraq. It did not prevent Saddam Hussein from slaughtering people on the ground and it did not get him out of office," Clinton said. "We had a no-fly zone and then we had 78 days of bombing in Serbia. It did not get Milosevic out of office. It did not get him out of Kosovo until we put troops on the ground with our alliesâ¦" http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/...n-warns-against-unilateral-u-s-move-on-libya/ Now what happened to change things in just 7 days? I suggest the possibility the Libyan war is a useful distraction from the nuclear catastrophe developing in Japan. England, France, and the US are heavily invested in nuclear energy. You might want to look at the involvement or planned involvement of governments to establish a nuclear energy sector in those other countries supporting the 'humanitarian' military strike against Libya. The radiation situation in Japan is far worst than many governments are letting on, that is those governments heavily invested in new nuclear construction projects. You just can't miss the fact the process of evacuating international personnel has been quietly accelerated largely under the public radar over the past two days. Most if not all of the international search and rescue teams have left Japan two days ago. Compare this to Christchurch where the last international USAR left more than three weeks after the earthquake. The Japanese search and rescue team were still in Christchurch right up until the earthquake in Japan. Add to that the US military have been evacuating from Honshu island since two days ago. The insanity of starting a new war in Northern Africa suddenly begins to appear more logical. Rational no, logical yes.' ------------------------ Is 120 Tomahawk missile strike a cover-up for Japan's nuclear tragedy? Please vote in this thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=217470
You're right, I'm wrong. I was told this fact by a geologist friend of mine a year or so back. But I spoke to him the other day to check and he said 'what'! I'm sure he said it though. Anyway as you rightly point out the UK doesn't get much if any coal from those countries. Instead we get a lot from Indonesia and Australia, so says my friend anyway.
Cost per kilowatt hour of electricity. Source MIT: Nuclear: $0.08 Coal: $0.06 Gas: $0.07 Projected $/megawatt hour of electricity in 2016 Conventional natural Gas: $75 Conventional Coal: $105 Wind: $102 Nuclear $125 Clean coal: $145 Solar PV: $210 Myth 1: Nuclear power is a cheap alternative to fossil fuels. Fact 1: Nuclear energy is a very costly business. Myth 2: The main issue surrounding Nuclear power is safety. Fact 2: The cost is the main issue. Full Bloomberg Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD40J45zjIM
Nevertheless, Lochbaum and the Union of Concerned Scientists found 14 "near misses" at nuclear plants in 2010. And there were 56 serious violations at nuclear power plants from 2007 to 2011, according the ABC News review of NRC records. At the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Illinois, for instance, which is located within 50 miles of the 7 million people who live in and around Chicago, nuclear material went missing in 2007. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission fined the operator -- Exelon Corp. -- after discovering the facility had failed to "keep complete records showing the inventory [and] disposal of all special nuclear material in its possession." http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-nuclear-power-plants-safe/story?id=13246490
In a desperate attempt to save money, the city of Colorado Springs turned off a third of its streetlights.
Germany Shuts Down and Imports Nuclear Power http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9MCU1HO0.htm
Oh, that's smart. I guess Germans aren't aware of black swans and assume 10-meter tsunamis are coming soon. The stuff in your original post is way off-base, too. Do you really understand radiation, know the difference between BWR/PWRs, understand how cooling systems have improved in newer plants, etc.? Or do you just want to be a doomsayer?