By: Justin McKeating
One of the many odd qualities of the nuclear industry is its seemingly boundless optimism: everythings going to be just fine, folks.
Apparently, theres no need to worry about terrorists attacking nuclear reactors. Which is why Greenpeace activists could peacefully walk into two French nuclear power plants – Nogent-sur-Seine and Cruas – this morning without being challenged by any security measures whatsoever should be absolutely no cause for alarm, according to the authorities. The two activists who entered the Cruas plant were able to avoid detection for 14 hours. Our team that entered the Nogent-sur-Seine power plant, just 95 kilometres from Paris, were even able to scale the dome of one of the reactors and paint a pretty picture on it.
EDF, the operator of these plants, happily announced that Greenpeaces visit to Nogent-sur-Seine had no impact on the safety of the plant, or the safety of employees at the site. Of course not: Greenpeace arent terrorists. Would EDF be so positive if terrorists had come calling today? With the nuclear industry able to see the good in everything, we can say: yes, probably. Everythings going to be just fine, folks.
Another example of boundless optimism in the nuclear industry is the recent stress tests conducted by European Union countries on their nuclear reactors in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. Supposedly designed to identify safety concerns at the reactors, most operators felt there was no need to test the vulnerability of reactors to being struck by a large aircraft or to review evacuation plans in the event of an accident. And why would there be? Its not as if anybody has ever flown large aircraft into buildings or people have had to be evacuated from a nuclear disaster.
Were seeing much the same attitude right now with the Fukushima nuclear disaster site in Japan. A report by Fukushimas owner Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has found no evidence of significant errors in the companys response to the catastrophe of March 12. Thats right: TEPCO judged its own performance as essentially error free.
Really – no significant errors? The lack of information given to the Japanese government by TEPCO in the days after the disaster looks pretty significant to us. The fact that many of workers battling at the plant to bring it under control are poorly trained and over-worked, with some lacking the proper protective clothing that led to them being injured looks significant as well. Is misplacing 198 of those workers insignificant? How about misreading radiation levels?
The report also seems to neglect TEPCOs significant errors before the earthquake and tsunami. The most major one is that it knew in 2008 that the Fukushima plant was vulnerable to a tsunami of the magnitude we saw this year and yet did absolutely nothing to improve safety measures. The disaster was preventable. The sunny everythings going to be just fine, folks attitude strikes again.
Its also a little early for TEPCO to give its response to the Fukushima disaster a full clean bill of health. Nuclear accidents happen in slow motion and there are many questions about what happened after the tsunami struck still unanswered. This isnt over by a long way. TEPCO will be responding to the disaster for many years. Theres still plenty of time for TEPCO to make big mistakes.
Meanwhile, 45 tonnes of highly radioactive water have leaked from the stricken Fukushima over the weekend, some of which may have already reached the ocean. This news came a day after TEPCO said it had made no errors.
Still, with Greenpeace (or anyone else for that matter) able to walk into nuclear power plants at will and TEPCO praising its own disaster response, everythings going to be just fine, folks. Really.
