"Nothing has changed. What we need is a bit of education, particularly in the media. "
This one has been a media beatup from the outset, indeed the media will carry on playing it for all its worth until some other incident warrants a focal shift
The simple facts are, the Japan "crisis" was promoted by a huge earthquake and their nuclear plants survived with quite fixable damage, then at a later time a wall of water(14 metres high) attacked them with another assault.
None of this is a nuclear failing, it is really a Japanese failing where they have exposed their plants to all that nature can throw at them, as if one in 100 year events could never happen.
For instance, the Dutch have long used 100 year events for design and construction of their dykes holding the ocean at bay, yet with climate change high on their agenda in more recent times, they have shifted to one in 1000 year thinking.
Japan will have to do the same if it wants to carry on using nuclear power, it's that simple.
Doubtless, the lessons learned from this catastrophe of nature will provoke sensible thought the world over, however it's basically not a nuclear problem - it's more of checks and balances issue on the where and how of siting nuclear power plants, which is not the same as an intrinsic problem with nuclear per se.
In the course of a normal decade coal mines around the world kill thousands of people yet at the same time the toll from nuclear is insignificant, so really its a management problem, not unlike dealing with other things which may be potentially dangerous
I mean, would any thinking person consider building a very large dam in an earthquake prone area - answer "No"
BLR Price at posting:
3.8¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
