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April 4, 2012

[SSJ: 7346] Re: A couple of reasons why the electricity has kept flowing despite the nuclear shutdowns

From: Fred Uleman
Date: 2012/04/04

Without, I think, indulging in what Dr Dore has referred to as the blame culture, we are right to question the actions of industry-government players and to want to err on the side of caution.

The actions of industry-government players? What, for example?
For example, agreeing that successful completion of two-part stress tests is prerequisite to restarting any reactors and then wanting to restart them after completing just the first part. (And note that the tests were conducted by the industry players and approved by what are widely perceived as captive government players.) What happened to part two? Why is this suddenly irrelevant?
For example, moving to adopt "zantei" safety standards. What does this "zantei" mean? Basically, they are interim standards -- interim meaning "we have no idea what the standards really should be so we are going to adopt these for the time being." And once these standards of convenience have been adopted and there are no life-threatening accidents reported, it is safe to assume "the time being" will be a very long time indeed.

Coupled with this indecent haste to get the reactors restarted, there has been an indecent back-burnering on creating an independent regulatory body, bringing the electoral system into line with the constitution, and doing some of the other things that many see as more pressing than getting back to nuclear business as usual.

"Trust is," they say. "Why?" we say.

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Fred Uleman, translator emeritus

Approved by ssjmod at 11:51 AM