Lower House votes to export nuclear technology and 'safety myth'

[bananas]

Source: Asahi Shimbun

The Lower House’s vote to approve pacts that allow for the export of Japanese nuclear technology to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates has some lawmakers concerned.

With the passage of the agreements April 4, which were supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its junior coalition partner New Komeito and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, it is virtually certain the accords will pass the Upper House before the current session ends in June.

But critics say the failure to establish a system that addresses safety concerns related to the export of the nation’s nuclear technology is sure to propagate another “safety myth.”

During the vote by the Lower House, LDP lawmaker Masatoshi Akimoto, who has called for the abolition of nuclear power generation, and DPJ lawmakers Shoichi Kondo and Yukio Ubukata walked out in protest.

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Read more: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201404050048

[Enthusiast]

1. In the long term, nuclear safety is a myth.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Indeed

As if the risk of sudden, unforeseen catastrophic failure weren't bad enough, nuclear power plants require continual maintenance - an area where utility companies have an abysmal record. Even though it's mandatory, profit-driven sociopaths defer maintenance and repair whenever they can; they're not even deterred by the risk of a meltdown. Perhaps if some of them were given an extended stay in a federal Graybar Motel, it'd get their attention, but there's probably an endless supply of corporate toadies willing to step up and take their place.

Then there's the issue of nuclear waste...

[Enthusiast]

3. Yes. Thank you. That was my very point.

Even in the construction of nuclear power plants, dangerous shortcuts are taken. Then, down the road there is the inevitable deterioration. As Fukushima has shown, we can never plan for every contingency.

These facilities are no more sound than the human beings that design, construct and maintain them. With nuclear, we must be perfect. And humans are far from perfect even when they have the best of intentions.

There are perfectly safe, cheaper, sustainable alternatives.

[Cirque du So-What]

4. Although I'm just one guy

I played a role in shutting down this monstrosity:

Marble Hill Nuclear Power Station, Indiana, USA From 1977 to 1984, Public Service Company of Indiana (PSI) spent approximately $2.5 billion to build the Marble Hill Nuclear Power Station near Hanover, Indiana, and by the time the financial tap ran dry it was only half-finished! The political and environmental landscape had changed quite a bit over those 7 years with the biggest speed bump being the Three Mile Island crisis in 1979. With costs spiraling out of control and the state government reluctant to provide funding, PSI abandoned the project and auctioned off most of the salvageable material for a mere pittance.

Equipment and parts from the Marble Hill Nuclear Power Station continued to be sold off in the early to mid-1990s but by the year 2000 everything of value had been sold. Since 2008, slow and steady demolition under the auspices of MCM Management Corp. has seen first the fuel-handling building and then the twin reactor containment buildings gradually reduced to mounds of scrap. The bright side, if any, is that none of the demolished material is radioactive.

http://nuclear-news.net/2013/02/11/stories-and-pictures-of-abandoned-nuclear-power-plants/

I was fortunate to have an acquaintance as a concerned insider who provided me with invaluable documents that I forwarded to a member of congress, among others.

[Enthusiast]

6. Thank you for your service!

I mean that most sincerely.

I can remember hearing that federal nuclear inspectors were beaten up on a nuclear power plant construction site in Kansas (I think it was). That would have been late 1970s early 1980s. That was alarming to me at the time.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. Protests at Marble Hill were exceptionally well-organized

with the protestors having received training in nonviolent resistance techniques (thanks, Friends!). I didn't participate in the protests, instead preferring to work sub rosa. I've also contributed toward shelving a controversial incinerator project (one that drew the ire of a 1%er who tried to get my mentor fired from his teaching position) and getting a landfill added to the EPA Superfund list (that one could have gotten me fired). In another case, I found myself in a thinly-veiled threat of getting a taste of 12-gauge buckshot while gathering water samples from a wetland where tankers were freely dispersing toxic materials (I still regret that nothing ever came of that case - the contaminants being attributed to 'acceptable amounts of leakage').

My working life has unfortunately placed me in the employ of some real RW cuckoos, hence my desire to fly under the radar.

[Enthusiast]

8. Good idea, flying under the radar.

[dotymed]

5. IDC what breed of Neanderthal you are.

nuclear ANYTHING (with the possible exception of some medical uses) is insane beyond belief.

Japan is still reeling from Fukishima and they have the unmitigated greed (that can be the only reason, they know by experience how unsafe nuclear power plants are) to spread the fatal technology.

IMO, nuclear power is obsolete and was a terrible and deadly experiment in power creation.

Solar and wind are the safe and clean alternatives that should be universally mandated.

Turkey is perfect for a solar power plant. IDK if the initial costs are higher, but I cannot imagine that they are.
Germany (and Sweden(?) ) are seemingly this centuries world leaders in the protection (on most levels) of its citizens.

[jtuck004]

9. A little like handing out smallpox-infected blankets as gifts. Keeps you

warm at first, then kills you.