Let's be perfectly clear. Japan's nuclear crisis is the result of a CORPORATE PROFIT

[snagglepuss]

DRIVEN industry. Corporations by their very nature place shareholders before safety. Everything is driven by the bottomline.

Check out the scandal that rocked TEPCO in 2002

On August 29, 2002, the government of Japan revealed that TEPCO was guilty of false reporting in routine governmental inspection of its nuclear plants and systematic concealment of plant safety incidents. All seventeen of its boiling-water reactors were shut down for inspection as a result. TEPCO's chairman Hiroshi Araki, President Nobuya Minami, Vice-President Toshiaki Enomoto, as well as the advisers Shō Nasu and Gaishi Hiraiwa stept by September 30, 2002.<3>, and the utility "eventually admitted to two hundred occasions over more than two decades between 1977 and 2002, involving the submission of false technical data to authorities".<4> Upon taking over leadership responsibilities, TEPCO's new president issued a public commitment that the company would take all the countermeasures necessary to prevent fraud and restore the nation's confidence. By the end of 2005, generation at suspended plants had been restarted, with government approval.

In 2007, however, the company announced to the public that an internal investigation had revealed a large number of unreported incidents. These included an unexpected unit criticality in 1978 and additional systematic false reporting, which hadn't been uncovered during the 2002 inquiry. Along with scandals at other Japanese electric companies, this failure to ensure corporate compliance resulted in strong public criticism of Japan's electric power industry and the nation's nuclear energy policy. Again the company made no effort to identify those responsible.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Electric_Power_Company

[fascisthunter]

1. thank you.... it's time we slow the billionaire idiots down

because they are killing all of us.

[snagglepuss]

5. All existing nuclear facilities need to be NATIONALiZED so the profits

are put back into the system to maintain the highest possisble safety standards. Corporations cannot maintain the highest safety standards.

[tabatha]

2. See report

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x633167

[PearliePoo2]

3. So with this checkered track record.....

the world expects: "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth"??

[Gregorian]

4. Fueled by

We play a part in this too. We want to grow. We want comfort.

We did protest the construction of these nuclear plants. But just like everything, we also ask for the benefits.

That doesn't mean we have to still have the technology. But your post addresses why we still have it. Lobbies and corporate sponsored media hype and coerce. So we aren't using renewables.

Who wants to change gears when they're making lots of money. Military, energy, corporate farming practices, etc.

I still say that we are the ones in charge. And as long as we're ignorant or lazy, we're going to be glowing in the dark with radiation, killing people in other lands, polluting the oceans.

We have to come at this from several angles. We need an educated population, we need to be responsible with our consumption (when I heard Obama use the word "sacrifice" I was elated, even if it didn't go anywhere).

In a nutshell we need to be smart, responsible, and less obedient.

[snagglepuss]

6. Point taken. It's very true that we share the responsibility. Perhaps

this disaster may make people take more notice. If's made me focus. I've learnt a lot in these few days. Prior to this the nuke debate seem so far over my head and willingly let people who had expertise in the area slog it out.

[Zoeisright]

7. When I stop to think about it, I'm just so amazed that we have gone down the

completely wrong road for energy. Dirty coal, poisonous nukes, greenhouse gas producing oil, polluting natural gas. What if we had put the money we've poured into those industries (including massive cleanup costs) into solar and wind?

Of course, follow the money. A very few people have become very, very wealthy off these dirty industries.