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What’s at stake in the nuclear game – Japan or bust!

Posted on | March 18, 2011 | No Comments

I won’t pretend to have read all the “facts” in the crisis facing Japan relative to its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant these days.

Contradicting Tensions: That’s mostly because the “facts” seem to shift, depending on who’s recounting them. One moment, it’s the USA saying the Japanese aren’t properly following procedures, or that Japanese nuclear authorities are lying. Then they’re saying the Japanese AREN’T letting them near the plants to see and assess the situation carefully. Then we find out the Americans ARE involved in the security and verification process.

Radio interviews with various experts and newspaper articles, print and online, while all seeming to contradict each other, point to something else that may be the real problem.

Doing a Google search on “Japan nuclear crisis” yields 385,000,000 results. There is news coverage like we have rarely seen in the last decade. There is no doubt that great damage has been done: more than 10,000 people have been killed, the earth moved 6.5 inches from its own axis, shortened the day for all humans by 1.6 microseconds, and pushed Japan a full two feet further into the ground). source

Dammit, I don’t get enough sleep as it is – I’m going to miss those 1.6 microseconds!

Japan needs to prove to the rest of the world that it still has the capability to husband its own nuclear resources, especially when danger presents itself. Allowing, too publicly, the United States, or any other country, to come in and sort out the wheat from the chaff, fuel rods from the fallout, would simply mean that they aren’t capable. It’s a whole lot of nuclear machismo (to coin a phrase).

I can’t say that I blame them overly for the attitude, but they must realise this is not like peeing in your bed as an adult. There is far more at stake than a little red-cheeked admission. People are dying and many more will before this international peep show is done with.

That’s not even the worst of what’s happening behind the scenes. More and more we are finding out the similarities between practices at the Fukushima Daiichi plant and those in the rest of the world – primarily the United States and Canada.

We have discovered that they stored the spent fuel rods in Fukushima because it is cheaper to do so. More than 11,000 spent fuel rods. The rods are kept in storage pools at the nuclear facility itself. The rods hold more radiation than the leaky plant currently does- more than four times the amount, in point of fact. The world now knows that the USA does the very same thing (source).

The Numbers Game: As of March 2011, 30 countries operate about 440 nuclear power plants across the world, accounting for about 14 percent of the world’s electricity (around 377,000 MWe). Furthermore, 56 countries run another 250 research nuclear reactors. That almost 700 nuclear reactors in operation. (source). The previous source also cites this link, which lists all current and planned reactors in the world.

The 56 countries on that list include some I would not normally associate with nuclear capacity. It goes to show that this field is primarily occupied by the West, with scaremongering about North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and some other favourtite goats of the diplomatic world. Among the surprises for me? Jordan, Lithuania, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

Buyers and Sellers: This is a world of official and not-so-official, slapped on the table and nudge-nudge-wink-wink. The biggest sellers are the USA, France, Russia, the UK, Canada, China and Israel. Let us suppose that most of it is on the up and up. That still leaves a lot of slippery sliders. Let’s mention only two:

Westinghouse has been selling a lot of technology to China, which currently has 23 reactors under construction and a further 120 proposed. (source) Apparently, Westinghouse, along with Siemens and Bombardier (yes, our own Canadian company), has been “transferring” nuclear technology to China for years. “Transferring” is the word they use when they mean selling at huge profit.

Halliburton is the company most closely associated with former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, especially during the war on Iraq. It was conspicuous for its many transgressions including “sending” neutron pulse generators to Libya in the 90s (source). They are also recognised for their rapacity, cronyism, nepotism and corruption. These are the folks who were selling nuclear technology to Libya and Iran, both long excoriated in the USA.

Let’s step back for a moment and take stock:

  • people, countries and organisations contradicting each other despite a growing body of irrefutable proof.
  • many more nuclear reactors in existence
  • countries and companies selling nuclear technologies to reliable and unreliably buyers (the drug pushers hanging out near the schoolyard?)

The constant hype about how nuclear energy is helping the whole world by replacing dirty, filthy, polluting coal with clean and reliable nuclear power is getting a bit overwhelming.(remember the ads on American TV about “Clean Coal”? The same words Obama used in speeches leading up to and after winning the Presidency).

It seems the nuclear industry has all its lobbyists out in force trying to main some semblance of respectability. You can’t read any story or listen to an interview without people pooh-poohing this latest, and egregious, instance of the disastrous outcome of nuclear technology being a dangerous one. The money involved in nuclear technology is huge – even more than the wars the Americans have started in the last decade or so.

There is much more at stake than just the lives of a few thousand Japanese people. The real stakes are being played in the offices of politicians and in boardrooms across the Western world, as well as Russia and China. The trillions of dollars that are at play here explains the careful preservation of the nuclear reputation that many parties are colluding on.

No one seems to mentioning the lucrative nature of the nuclear industry. Never mind the buzz talk. Never mind the fuzzy pictures being painted by the lobbyists. Never mind the pressure-driven politicians.

We see you, nuclear industry. Mostly because you’ve blown yourselves up. We’re not going to let you blow up any more people. Wee see you. And we see through you!

Category: Health and Safety, Uncategorized
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