“They effectively betrayed the nation’s right to be safe from nuclear accidents...."
Fukushima and the Nuclear Pushers
by KARL GROSSMAN
The conclusion of a report of a Japanese parliamentary panel issued last week that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster was rooted in government-industry collusion and thus was man-made is mirrored throughout the world. The regulatory capture cited by the panel is the pattern among nuclear agencies right up to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco [Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the six Fukushima plants] and the lack of governance by said parties, said the 641-page report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission released on July 5.
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In fact, the nuclear regulatory situation in Japan is the rule globally.
In the United States, for example, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, never denied a construction or operating license for a nuclear power plant anywhere, anytime. The NRC has been busy in recent times not only giving the go-ahead to new nuclear power plant construction in the U.S. but extending the operating licenses of most of the 104 existing plants from 40 to 60 yearsalthough they were only designed to run for 40 years. Thats because radioactivity embrittles their metal components and degrades other parts after 40 years making the plants unsafe to operate. And the NRC is now considering extending their licenses for 80 years.
Moreover, the NRCs chairman...
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/12/fukushima-and-the-nuclear-pushers/