AP Investigation Concludes US Nuke Regulators Weakening Safety Rules 199
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.'"
They're describing most of the U.S. infrastructure (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not just nuke plants. U.S. infrastructure in general has been sinking into the shitter since the 70's. My own city's sewer system and coal-fire power plant are both in need of almost complete replacement. And don't even get me started on the bridges.
Of course, the deterioration of some pieces of infrastructure are a little more dangerous than others.
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Re:Busted seals? (Score:4, Interesting)
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?
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Off topic, but the Navy Nuc program has had a zero-tolerance policy on drug abuse. Once, and you're out. I'm pretty sure the SEALs would have a similar policy, being the elite group they are.
I was thinking about the joke about the penguin and the ice cream cone....
Fucking Capitalism (Score:5, Interesting)
Safety > Freedom
Ergo...
Profits > Freedom
Clearly this is what the founders intended
Re:Fucking Capitalism (Score:4, Insightful)
Profits > Safety Safety > Freedom Ergo... Profits > Freedom Clearly this is what the founders intended
It's no longer Capitalism, it's Corpratism. Now bow down and worship your master.
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And/or Awe?
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So it's exactly because of capitalism then, since the government is being forced to build the plants, rather than the private sector seeing a need and trying to fill it.
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"Regardless of whether reducing the rules was proper or improper, this story is an example of manipulating government, not capitalism."
How is it exactly that manipulating government is not capitalism? Government has become another capital asset as anyother else and managed as such.
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An optimization problem? So, what is being optimized for what? Only one objective function? Really??
It seems to me that you conceive of government and capitalism in a parallel universe that for some reason managed to be simple. It's not this one.
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p
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.
The problem we have here is that the consumers as a whole are deliberately misinformed and kept in the dark so that they don't understand what is going on until it lands in their front lawns.
Fixed it for you.
Re:They're describing most of the U.S. infrastruct (Score:5, Funny)
Look on the bright side: At least the bankers and defense contractors are doing OK...
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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.
Re:They're describing most of the U.S. infrastruct (Score:4, Interesting)
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How about we stop spending money on destroying sh*t and spend it on building stuff?
What are you, some kind of commie?
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The government can buy everyone a car. You'll just get a magical free car out there in your driveway. Catch is, you can never transfer ownership to anyone else. You have to buy the insurance, the fuel, do the maintenance, etc. Suddenly, that free gift is looking pretty ex
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This is the norm through the "developed" world. I guess it is referred to as developed since anything new is not going to be built anymore. We just sit on the labor of our parents and grandparents, reaping rewards and then bitch that stuff breaks.
It is time to start building new things and planning for the future. New reactors. New, fast rail. Better planned cities. Cities that are less noisy and more friendly to actual human than a car (eg. see Paris or New York vs. Chicago or Los Angeles).
Re:They're describing most of the U.S. infrastruct (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, the deterioration of some pieces of infrastructure are a little more dangerous than others.
And this, not waste disposal, not nuclear proliferation, not anything else, will be the functional death of nuclear power.
FTFA:
Commercial nuclear reactors in the United States were designed and licensed for 40 years. When the first ones were being built in the 1960s and 1970s, it was expected that they would be replaced with improved models long before those licenses expired.
But that never happened. The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, massive cost overruns, crushing debt and high interest rates ended new construction proposals for several decades.
Instead, 66 of the 104 operating units have been relicensed for 20 more years, mostly with scant public attention. Renewal applications are under review for 16 other reactors.
No engineer in their right mind would have suggested keeping generation 1 nuclear plants running 'forever'. Perhaps they could be run for long times with strict attention to detail and risk and significant monetary expense, but that's not happening. This is not going to end well. Not at all.
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"No engineer in their right mind would have suggested keeping generation 1 nuclear plants running 'forever'."
No engineer in their right mind would have forgotten that dirty hacks are forever perennial.
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Bit every engineer employed a by quarterly-profit driven corporations most certainly would. That's what they get bonuses for, after all.
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agreed. It's a systematic refusal to proactively spend money on repairs, and to only reactively spend money when you get caught after a problem.
Re:They're describing most of the U.S. infrastruct (Score:5, Funny)
agreed. It's a systematic refusal to proactively spend money on repairs, and to only reactively spend money when you get caught after a problem.
That's why they are called reactors and not proactors. :)
Not just the US, but the World (Score:5, Insightful)
Either everyone is cutting costs or seeing how much slack they can get away with.
Fukushima was a wake-up call - seems we stupid simians need one every 20 or so years, to remind us we can poison our own air, water and food supply if we don't take it seriously.
There's also a good chance the American Way of trying to maximize profit has encouraged everyone to cut corners, where much of it was just common practice of American public and private sector before. The difference between public is cutting spending, where private wants to keep the money for that big check for the CEO and to look all pretty to Wall Street.
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While looking for a reference online, I found this [wikipedia.org], and it's eerily accurate.
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I read somewhere that one of the first signs of a civilization deterioration is the inability/unwillingness to repair infrastructure.
While looking for a reference online, I found this [wikipedia.org], and it's eerily accurate.
What's fascinating is seeing how much infrastructure was build in the US from the 1950's to the 1960's and how little has been done since. Further, it takes a major effort to repair and maintain what was built - bit of a burden on the resources of the people, isn't it? In the midwest, did we really need a road every mile??
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Sometimes it's cheaper not to build it in the first place.
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Thing is the Federal Reserve has already in effect created USD9 trillion or more ( http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&q=federal+reserve+trillion [google.com] ).
For perspective the US Interstate highway cost about 425 billion dollars (in "2006" dollars) to build.
So as an outsider (non US citizen, not in the USA) I wonder why not print another trillion or so to fix and build some stuff before China and the rest of the countries wise up? Would it really screw the USA much more? At least the US people would
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The reason is the same reason the "Stimulus" mostly went to banks. If that money actually went into real construction and infrastructure projects, it would have been more inflationary than it was.
The reason just printing up a Trillion dollars in new debt and spreading it around did not spark the recovery the politico's sold it to the public with, is the very same reason it did not trigger the total collapse of the dollar the gold bugs thought it would. It by and large ended up filling holes in balance she
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That's a problem with your local city, I.E. don't confuse local problems with global problems. My own city has no power plants, but has just finished a decade long upgrade of it's water and sewer systems. (And I know of many other cities that are working on their infrastructure as well.)
Can we just shut the f___ up about bridges? Ever since the 1970's t
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Can we just shut the f___ up about bridges? Ever since the 1970's the Chicken Little's have been screaming about the bridges and how they're all going to fall down any day now. Yet, the sky persists in not falling. Yes, bridges have fallen - but it's literally a one-in-ten-million event. So what? (And no, you can't trust the various reports. They depend on self reporting, and the locals flat out lie to raise their position on the lists so the get to the head of the line for pork.)
Well, not to get your dander up, but in my city, the major bridges get major upkeep every few years. Repave the road deck, check the supports, etc. And then about once a decade or so they do a *really* major overhaul. Then again, those bridges do get a few million cars driving over them every year, so they might be an exception, but that maintenance schedule suggests they really should be looked after regularly.
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Too true. I was shocked to read, this decade, the US had three cities which has power reliability less than most third world countries. In fact, those same three had less power availability than Iraq did when they had those constant rolling blackouts and power outages, immediately following the "termination of military action."
The infrastructure is completely rotting in the US. Worse, WE HAVE ALL PAID FOR IT TO BE MAINTAINED AND REPLACED. This is part of our taxes and utilities fees. Which means ALL America
Regulatory capture, it's not just for oil anymore! (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people are concerned about waste (which is a good thing to be concerned about) and some are concerned about accidents.
I am concerned about regulatory capture, which is the consistent theme of government regulation. This is just one example of many. Yes, it will lead to accidents in the future. But I think examining the root cause is useful.
Almost any kind of government regulation is eventually going to result in the regulatory body being co-opted by those doing the regulation. This will happen largely invisibly, and most of the time will only be readily apparent when disaster strikes. And then, the problem will be blamed on a few corrupt individuals and it will be 'fixed'.
It, of couse, was systemic, and not the result of a few corrupt individuals. And all that will be fixed is perception while the problem continues to persist. We see this in the oil industry, the telecommunications industry, and now we're seeing that the same is true of the nuclear industry.
Of course, this was a problem in Japan too. It's quite obvious that the company running the Fukishima reactors consistently understated the severity of the issue while it was happening, and I expect that a detailed investigation will show that the plants should probably never have been operating in the first place.
Regulatory capture. It's inevitable.
This is my biggest worry. I'm not at all sure how the problem can be fixed either.
Re:Regulatory capture, it's not just for oil anymo (Score:4, Insightful)
your premise, that capture is inevitable, is false in my opinion. If regulating bodies are/were properly funded this would not be the case. The problem is to fund them properly, the governement would have to pay the regulators more than they would get in the industry itself. That is how you prevent losee of people to the industry and thus create minimal conflict of interest.
Actually by doing this you reverse the flow, making being the regulator the end goal, so that the best in the field are regulators.
The problem of course is the cost is really high for this. Especially in areas such as finance.
Re:Regulatory capture, it's not just for oil anymo (Score:5, Insightful)
your premise, that capture is inevitable, is false in my opinion. If regulating bodies are/were properly funded this would not be the case. The problem is to fund them properly, the governement would have to pay the regulators more than they would get in the industry itself. That is how you prevent losee of people to the industry and thus create minimal conflict of interest.
Actually by doing this you reverse the flow, making being the regulator the end goal, so that the best in the field are regulators.
The problem of course is the cost is really high for this. Especially in areas such as finance.
Regulatory capture is not so much about a revolving door between industry and regulator as about how companies use regulation for their benefit and to keep out competition. While paying regulators more would help lessen the revolving door it would not do much about the underlying reasons behind regulatory capture. You'd just have better regulators to capture.
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But if being a regulator paid better than the industry did, why would someone risk losing such a great paying job by taking bribes? The reason regulators get bought off now is because, worst case scenario, they lose their job and accept a higher paying job at the company that bought them.
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But if being a regulator paid better than the industry did, why would someone risk losing such a great paying job by taking bribes? The reason regulators get bought off now is because, worst case scenario, they lose their job and accept a higher paying job at the company that bought them.
Regulatory capture has nothing to do with taking bribes or other illegal activity. It's about using regulatory power to the company's advantage.
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Yes, it can take many forms, for example if big company X and big company Y are both losing market share to small companies A though W they both lobby to support a measure requiring that every company in the field should have to file a fuckton of paperwork but they make sure it's a fixed cost per company in the field.
say 100K.
(but it's for the sake of accountability or safety or some other nice sounding thing, doesn't really matter if it's not useful at all)
for the big companies it makes little difference s
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This implies that simply because the regulator makes more than he could if he worked within the industry, then he could not be bribed.
Why not? Tons of unethical people make it to the top, only to decide that they want even more money.
The worst case scenario should be that they go to jail. As does the briber (those responsible, and not the entire company as one rotten apple does not necessarily have to poison the tree).
As for the solution to the problem? Start sticking to requirements and guidelines. Excepti
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In advance, if this rambling rant offends anyone, please know that it attacks no person, political party/view, religion, creed, color, gender, or body type. In fact, the only thing it attacks is lower primate behavior (to which we are all subject), and those who worship it.
This conversation is moot. There used to be perfectly good regulators in government, because regulation was seen by virtually everyone as good and necessary (if mundane). At the same time, we held heroes to be men and women who sacrificed
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your premise, that capture is inevitable, is false in my opinion.
Even if it was true, the premise that regulatory capture happens invisibly is demonstrably false.
Regulators generate endless reports, notices, commentary periods, requests for information, etc etc etc
Everything there is to know about regulatory capture in [industry] will laid out step by step in public documents.
You avoid regulatory capture three ways:
1a. Sufficient funding for regulators to hire inspectors who can have a meaningful presence in the industry being regulated
1b. Sufficient funding for lawyers
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I'm not clear on this "good/bad" thing. Are we talking cats and dogs living together bad, or complete particle reversal bad?
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Regulatory capture. It's inevitable.
Not sure if it's inevitable, but it's definitely a concern. It's especially a concern when at least one goal of the regulatory agency is to not inflict too much harm on the industry it is regulating. You know, kinda like in the US, where regulatory agencies are regularly pilloried for standing in the way of a business doing its business.
This is my biggest worry. I'm not at all sure how the problem can be fixed either.
Step 1: Make a decision on whether it is important for you to control the dumping of externalities onto the public, or whether you want corporate success.
Step 2: Remove one
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Step 1: Make a decision on whether it is important for you to control the dumping of externalities onto the public, or whether you want corporate success.
I think active regulation is a short-term way to handle this. The goal in all regulation should be the creation of an objectively applied set of rules that force the externalities back in.
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It is not inevitable. You find those regulators who were willing to bend the rules and you jail them. For long times. You end the revolving door between regulators and those they regulate and you pierce the corporate veil in any case of regulation violation. If the engineers said the piping was bad but the managers did not replace it to get bigger bonuses, then those managers can rot in a cell.
Simple! (Score:2)
Just privatize the regulating bodies, silly!
...so make it easier to build new plants! (Score:2, Insightful)
What the hell do you expect when the regulatory bodies are hostile to licensing new plants, which would use newer, safer designs and technologies, and when they do deign to license one they smother it in enough red tape to quadruple the cost?
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They are hostile because business is not to be trusted, is never to be trusted, that has never been different, and can never be changed.
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This is stupid. Reality is that you have plant A at the end of its operational life. Now you can a) replace A with a newer design, b) remove A and not replace it c) remove A and replace it by a different technology d) extend its life.
You can only pick a solution which is cost-effective and politically acceptable. Thus, you end with c) or d) which in practise means coal or increasingly unsafe plants (actually, I prefer d) to coal, but clearly it is not a good solution).
Now you can change this by making a) po
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Option D should not even be on the table.
The regulatory agency should limit renewals to only what the engineers approve of. No concern should be given to loss of electric supply, nor to cost. They are there to regulate not assist.
These regulations should only be allowed to be made more harsh, loosening should only be done once a decade or so.
Delays in maintenance to scheduled windows should be forbidden. Any such delay should result in criminal charges.
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Reading the article, I notice that, in fact, this has all been done with the engineer's approval.
No, the article doesn't actually come out and say that things are less safe than they were before.
Nor does it say that there is any greater danger of a catastrophe than there was before.
What they spend a lot of time saying
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Read the part about the plant with a football sized hole eaten into the vessel. It had another two months and they would have had a leak. No one is going to really suggest the engineers were ok with that, are they?
The maintenance was delayed to save money and they got lucky that is was not delayed again.
Surprise-ometer (Score:2)
Reading: zero.
This is the result of the "invisible hand" in regards to projects so overwhelmingly expensive that they're too big to fail for the stakeholders.
This is why we need to pay for journalism (Score:5, Insightful)
Folks, this is why we need to find a way to pay for true investigative journalism. This sort of thing is NOT going to be uncovered by crowdsourced reports or bloggers with (other, non-journalist) day jobs and bills to pay. Wikileaks relys on insiders having a motive for revealing information; there are merits to that method but it doesn't cover all cases.
Those of you complaining about how journalism is crap, this is an example of non-crap journalism.
I don't know a great way of funding journalism like this. The Associated Press is funded by member newspapers who use their stories in the local papers. No one is paying for the local papers because of Google News and the like, so if those papers go under, AP's funding is probably in some jeopardy over the next 5-10 years. I would be fine with paying the AP directly somehow, but I still don't see a means of making that work.
Re:This is why we need to pay for journalism (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe if the "news outlets" did more if this kind of thing, rather than the never ending celeb gossip drivel, they'd still have a business? When the "news" is fluff about a kid getting his hair cut and several quoted tweets from twatter, it's pretty clear why no one pays any attention to so-called news.
Re:This is why we need to pay for journalism (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [ap.org]: "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.
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I think "non-profit" is supposed to mean any organization whose stated goal is something other than making as much money as possible, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. Yes, people who work in non-profits can sometimes make good money, and have an incentive to do well so they can earn more money, and sometimes corrupt the organization to enrich themselves, but by and large they still have to deliver on the purpose of the organization itself or get ousted.
In a for-profit media company, the consumers o
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Folks, this is why we need to find a way to pay for true investigative journalism.
It's not that big a mystery, just pay quality journalists. Open a newsfeed site, mandate that only proper journalism will get rewarded, and charge people a subscription to see it.
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Report facts only, and no celeb or sports crap and I will go for it.
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I'm fine with opinion when it's labelled as such. A well-informed opinion backed with facts can be an interesting, informative, and insightful read, especially on subjects where the average reader may not be qualified to accurately assess the impact of the story.
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In some ways, yes. In others, not so much.
In particular, the article fails to point out that in many cases relaxing of safety standards is routine when it's legitimately discovered that the original standard was too stringent. Famously in the case of nuclear power, (then) Capt Rickover considerably relaxed safety standards and removed safety systems while proceeding from the prototype to the first oper
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There are great ways to fund investigative journalism. Here are a few:
http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/ [nytimes.com]
https://services.chicagotribune.com/ [chicagotribune.com]
http://www.latimes.com/about/mediagroup/shop-and-subscribe/ [latimes.com]
http://service.usatoday.com/ [usatoday.com]
More investigative journalism comes out of daily newspapers than anywhere else. Subscribe to your local newspaper.
This IS Engineering (Score:3, Insightful)
Sometimes, this is what engineering is about. When faced with a difficult problem, sometimes the design solution is rewrite the problem. It's a fact of life. Conservatism is the easy side to fall on when you write requirements. The time and effort it would take to write just-conservative enough requirements doesn't justify the cost of doing so. With equipment built and in-place, it is now worth the time to find out what you really need.
And yes, I realized there is a flip-side to going to far with this. But that's why we pay engineers - to make tough decisions when money, equipment, and lives are on the line. -- www.awkwardengineer.com [awkwardengineer.com]
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It's called "fitness for service". It's a pretty standard exercise. I've been through a couple myself in the chemical industry.
http://www.fitness4service.com/publications/pdf_downloads/ReliabilityConfJaskePaper.pdf [fitness4service.com]
The root question is how much safety margin do you do you really need? If the unit was designed for 600 psi, and you have found you now operate at 500 psi, you have more safety margin than originally planned.
This happens quite a lot on plants that were a bit experimental when they were first built
Channeling Rumsfeld (Score:2)
It is the 'unknown unknowns' that can jump up and bite you - especially if the lazy and greedy are allowed to extend the service life far beyond what any competent and moral Engineer would ever agree to; aka, 'test to failure'.
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So I guess the real question is, are they lowering the bar on all these tests to a more practical (and still entirely safe) level, or is it a slippery slope manifested by the extreme cost and complexity of keeping these things online?
I mean, at some point, you've gone too far. I'm not sure where we're at on that... and I'm pretty sure only the people who are
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- You can start off with overly conservative regulations, then ease off on them as time and accrued operating evidence allow you to better refine safety margins
- Or you can start off with inadequate regulations, then gradually ramp them up as accidents indicate they are not strong enough.
The ultimate problem? Us. (Score:4, Insightful)
The biggest issue is ultimately the short sighted consumer (read: voter) who wants everything and as cheaply as possible...
If there were a real market for clean safe energy that cost twice the amount of regular juice someone would supply the demand. Same thing with sweat shops producing our clothing, electronics, everything. Humans aren't ultimately that smart.
Yes, I'm cynical. But also an idealist. Maybe one day we'll learn?
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I'm sure you're right. And various technologies are coming online, bit by bit. But I don't think customers (including me) are being irrational when they reject power at twice the price.
Given the opportunity to pay the same price or a small premium, you'd see plenty of people switch. I mean, people do pay considerably more for hybrid cars and such. They like the idea of bett
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Blaming people for what they are, beings that perpetually want better, is fucking retarded. Better quality of life, better tools, better food, better shelter.
Isn't wanting more/better/cheaper while assuming that no input has to go into producing more/better/cheaper equally fucking retarded? The laws of physics dictate that you can't get something for nothing.
Corrupt politicians is a huge problem, yes. But don't underestimate the power of the masses... The problem is most of the time the masses mostly want to not do stuff.
I guess my point is that I hope humanity on average will eventually, one way or another, become smarter and wiser on average.
Regulatory agencies had their teeth taken away (Score:3)
Regulatory agencies once had teeth for the purpose of enforcing their regulations. We have been seeing this with other agencies such as the FCC which ruled that activities which violate net neutrality are prohibited. Not long after that, we see other government rule that the FCC has no authority over the internet.
And since nuclear power is in the forefront of the news for now, people are noticing the same happens in nuclear power. Big business doesn't want to reinvest its profits back into the company and wants to take them home with them instead. They complain to regulators saying "we can't afford this!" Most regulators are powerless to do anything but rule based on the policies and standards they have to work with. So they "appeal" the matter with senators and congressmen who make phone calls to other peoples' bosses who, in turn, arrange to have policy match the current situation forgetting that these regulations and requirements are designed to prevent horrible disasters.
I think the people who are willing to put the public at risk should also be required to live among that same public so they and their families can suffer the same disasters as the rest of us.
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You can't build new plants, you can't fix current plants, you have to continue to provide power to people.
I don't care how you do it, just do it.
Investigative journalism (Score:2)
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In Defense Of Evil Plutocrats (Score:2)
I hate to come down on the side of Big Industry, but this is exactly how things should go. First of all, of course compliance problems spur studies on whether the standards are too conservative. If there's
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You left out a few words there. What you meant to say is "Each time they'd have the engineers look at the problem, and then the managers decided it was really probably OK."
Cooper Nuclear Plant and the Missouri River (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
News Flash: old stuff breaks! (Score:2)
I've got an idea: instead of fudging the regulations in order to keep old reactors running on ancient technology, why don't we build new nuclear reactors like we haven't done decades! What a concept!
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That would require a shedload of money that, even if a utility company would spend it (and they very well might), still wouldn't get the job done due to the nuclear handwringing in a post-Fukushima political climate.
You though the NIMBY-ism was bad before, just try to start a new nuclear generating station project now.
this what you get for voteing in MR burns (Score:2)
this what you get for voteing in MR burns safety takes a back seat to profits and kick backs.
This reminds me of dancing with (Score:2)
a Devil... You get some, then you can't get enough soon enough. If you shut a nuke down, you have to somehow make up for the electricity it was producing. Given enough outdated nukes, it becomes a challenge to shut them down. At some point, it will be too late, and you'd have to shut lots of them down at once, but you won't have resources or time to make up for the loss in energy production. Maybe that point has already been reached and passed.
Too Bad (Score:2)
Similar developments in Healthcare (Score:2)
Who'd have expected such prescience from The Onion [youtube.com]?
Not surprising at all! (Score:2)
Of course, just like finding an excuse why to invade a country that just so happens to have all the oil you need, you can find reasons why decisions were a little too severe in restricting nuclear power plant security....I mean who cares about how corroded a nut has to be before being replaced, it is not like having a few of them pop could mean a reactor leaks.....then again...I wonder if this reactor was sitting in the white house backyard, how much of those "strict" decisions would have been changed...and
Ok, let's suppose a plant blows up... so what? (Score:3)
Sharpening is not fudging (Score:3)
The original article does a hack job on the basic premise. It says that expert after expert cited "sharpening the pencil" as the justification for relaxing standards. The AP author wields a very broad brush and characterizes all of that as "fudging the answers"
The implication is that the tens of thousands of people world wide employed in engineering analysis to sharpen the pencil of nuclear plant analysis are all liars and frauds. Then throw into the pot all the regulators from all the companies who conspire. Of course the AP author cites no sources nor gives any basis for his allegation of fudging. Nevertheless, many gullible readers will praise him as a fearless investigative journalist.
I'll confess. I was once one of the engineers employed to do the analysis to help sharpen the pencils. Believe me, if all they wanted was fudged answers, I could have sent them a fudged report then gone out sailing instead of sweating to get it right. Of course people strain extra hard to prove the desirable result if possible. But in 30 years with four companies in three countries, I never ever saw any instance of fudging.
Is there any other field in which one can get away with generally branding engineering analysis and scientific research as fudging? Oh wait, how about climate research? Are Slashdot readers ready to believe an unsubstantiated accusation that all that work is fudged?
Burdensome (Score:3)
Re:History in the making (Score:5, Informative)
http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2011/06/17/rumors-and-the-rising-river/ [nrc-gateway.gov]
Re: (Score:3)
Fuck off, liar. There's no way the US government could institute a news blackout in this day and age. Trying to would just get the media there faster.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Nuclear is perfectly safe in the same way that drain cleaner is perfectly safe. Follow the directions and keep it out of reach of children. You probably don't want to store it in your fridge in a koolaid jug.
These old plants were meant to be retired and replaced with newer ones. If we had been building new nuclear plants, these aging and decaying plants could have been put offline and shut down safely decades ago.