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AP Investigation Concludes US Nuke Regulators Weakening Safety Rules
Raenex writes "An investigation by the Associated Press has found a pattern of safety regulations being relaxed in order to keep aging nuclear power plants running. According to their investigation, when reactor parts fail or systems fall out of compliance with the rules, studies are conducted by the industry and government. The studies conclude that existing standards are 'unnecessarily conservative.' Regulations are loosened, and the reactors are back in compliance. From the article: 'Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed — up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants could meet standards. Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered in the AP's yearlong investigation. And all of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident.'"
Profits > Safety
Safety > Freedom
Ergo...
Profits > Freedom
Clearly this is what the founders intended
Look on the bright side: At least the bankers and defense contractors are doing OK...
Yeah, and they provide "jobs", you ungrateful peons, so shut your pie holes, or we're going to send another two million of them to China.
There are currently two nuclear plants impacted by the Missouri flooding - Fort Calhoon and Cooper Nuclear Plant. I live in Omaha - ~40 miles from FC and ~50 from CNP.
FC had been in shutdown mode for refueling and is supposed not at any risk from the water surrounding it's sandbags on all sides. That said just over a week ago they had a fire lasting 40 minutes and loss of power to the spent fuel cooling pools.
CNP in Brownville, NE is at full capacity despite rising waters and the possibility Gavins Point Dam might increase it's water flow further. Protocol demands a shutdown if the river reaches 902 feet above sea level, and the current level for the Missouri is officially 900.56 at CNP. No hurry or anything.
That's why I contribute to my local NPR station. They, and the programs they run from NPR and Public Radio International, all do real investigative journalism (and post transcripts on their website in addition to free podcasts and radio broadcasts). I feel like my $100/yr is going to a good cause and I listen all the time. That said, at my house we also receive two daily newspapers, so we contribute to the AP that way.
The Associated Press is actually set up in a similar manner: "The Associated Press is a not-for-profit cooperative, which means it is owned by its 1,500 U.S. daily newspaper members." That means it is set up the same way as NPR. If you want to support the AP then you should pay your local papers. If you don't want the paper (or them to incur the cost of it) see if they have an online-only membership. Unfortunately, a lot of papers don't have that if they don't have a paywall, so that's something we should start pushing for.
The future of journalism is definitely nonprofit, which means it will be supported by good samaritans like ourselves. The value of information in the eye of the public has dropped so much that it can no longer be sold as a commodity and must be provided as a public service.
Jobs devoted to putting worthless craters in the sand and obliterating infrastructure. How about we stop spending money on destroying sh*t and spend it on building stuff? Roosevelt accomplished some pretty great things by going that direction. Too bad we're still relying on the very same old and now decayed infrastructure he built...
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Come on... "busted seals" Is this what we have come to? Hello, AP?
Are you telling me that those navy guys never get caught with drugs?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
properly running capitalism has the consumers as a whole keeping themselves informed and voting with their wallets
the problem we have here is that the consumers as a whole are lazy and simply don't care until it lands in their front lawns.
i don't care what company you choose for an example, if said company's consumers simply refused to buy, revenue goes to zero, and the company doesn't survive. that is the ultimate trump card the consumers as a whole have forgotten about, or don't care to make the effort to use it.
in this case we are looking at power production. it really is possible to go off-grid, and can be done in small steps... and around 200 years ago people survived without electricity at all.
is it easy? no. we have become very comfortable with having the conveniences electricity allows us, like air conditioning, switch controlled lights, refrigerators, computers, etc... that doesn't make it impossible or even infeasible. alarm clocks and running water existed long before electricity was harnessed.
it is also difficult to reign in the corporate world because the majority of the consumer market believes these are things that we can't possibly do without so we have no choice but to put up with whatever the supplier of these "critical" products does for so long that forcing the market back into balance will be a herculean effort that will destroy many companies before the corporate world accepts the consumers as a whole really have decided to hold them accountable again.
some of it is a function of scale. when dealing with the guy next door who runs the local repair shop, if he's overcharging, people will skip repairs or do it themselves and the overcharger will have to lower prices to get business again or close up shop very quickly. when dealing with a huge corporation, to get the same effect, you have to convince thousands or millions or more to band together instead of tens or hundreds, and they have to band together for much longer to start to put a strain on the corporations reserves. counter measures to this are special sales and deals to spur people to buy sooner rather than later, with the financial warchest already built and ready to break up the "resistance" and get sales going again. on this scale, people easily loose their resolve. the statement of "what can so few do against this?" is the surrender the large corporations have come to count on. 2 or 3 organizers against 1 overcharger feels very easy... 2 or 3 organizers against a corporation of thousands *seems* insurmountable
it *seems* insurmountable, but it isn't. for proof of that, look at how the labor unions started. a few organizers standing up to the automotive corporate giants.