Japan: The Cruel Price of Nuclear Cover-Ups & Screw-Ups

Japan's industry & gov't lied about nuke safety...

OK, Japan experienced a once in 1,100-plus years monster quake, and thus surprise was almost inevitable.  But that does not settle the matter.

Bloomberg News carried an incredible item whose title, "Japan's Nuclear Disaster Caps Decades of Faked Safety Reports, Accidents", says it all. Tokyo Electric Power, Kansai Electric Power faked risk assessments & accident reports for decades, allowed a knowingly defective reactor vessel to be installed and put into service, and disregarded specific cautions about earthquake & tsunami vulnerability.

The Wall Street Journal adds that Tokyo Electric Power declined to use seawater at the outset despite its value in cooling reactor cores, so as to protect its long-term asset investment by minimizing damage to the facility; injecting highly corrosive seawater into a reactor vessel renders it unusable.  This will go down as one of history's worst industry bets.

Here is a WSJ Interactive Diagram set showing the status of each of the Fukushima - Daichi reactors, updated regularly.  And CNN has posted an interactive locator for all US nuclear plants, so viewers can check the distance to nearby plants.

in the US massive legal liability--countless billions--would result.  In Japan I cannot say as to legalities, but heads surely will roll by the carload.  The Japanese people, innocent in this, will pay a fearful price for an endless parade of contemptible lies and cover-ups.

Bottom Line.  There are no winners here; only losers.

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