Given that the Tories seem committed to nuclear energy here is Greg Palast making some pretty sobering points on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US at BobFest recently.

Summary:

1. It's crazy for the nuclear industry to claim a seaquake followed by a tsunami is a freak occurrence when in fact they are causally linked.
2. Fukushima was NOT hit by a 9.0 earthquake (the plant was over 100 miles from the quake epicentre).
3. Backup diesel generators for emergency cooling DID NOT fail because of water inundation. The crankshafts simply snapped because they were a) old maritime stock and b) unable to spin up to 20,000 rpm from cold within 20 seconds after being idle for months.
4. Engineers knew the generators were useless (Palast provides a damning report related to the Shoreham nuclear plant in the US which uses the same generators).
5. TEPCO faked the safety reports.
6. EVERY nuclear plant in the US depends on the same generators.
7. Palast attempted to bring racketeering charges against one company but was blocked by the US Supreme Court which ruled that nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering.
8. Obama recently paid $10 billion for two new reactors built by companies which have paid out on numerous lawsuits for safety violations and maintained by none other that Tokyo Power and Electric.
9. Palast is passed company documents which put the build cost at $14 billion.
10. The $4 billion shortfall isn't a problem because - nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering.

Given that the Tories seem committed to nuclear energy here is Greg Palast making some pretty sobering points on Fukushima and nuclear power in the US at BobFest recently.

Summary:

1. It's crazy for the nuclear industry to claim a seaquake followed by a tsunami is a freak occurrence when in fact they are causally linked.
2. Fukushima was NOT hit by a 9.0 earthquake (the plant was over 100 miles from the quake epicentre).
3. Backup diesel generators for emergency cooling DID NOT fail because of water inundation. The crankshafts simply snapped because they were a) old maritime stock and b) unable to spin up to 20,000 rpm from cold within 20 seconds after being idle for months.
4. Engineers knew the generators were useless (Palast provides a damning report related to the Shoreham nuclear plant in the US which uses the same generators).
5. TEPCO faked the safety reports.
6. EVERY nuclear plant in the US depends on the same generators.
7. Palast attempted to bring racketeering charges against one company but was blocked by the US Supreme Court which ruled that nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering.
8. Obama recently paid $10 billion for two new reactors built by companies which have paid out on numerous lawsuits for safety violations and maintained by none other that Tokyo Power and Electric.
9. Palast is passed company documents which put the build cost at $14 billion.
10. The $4 billion shortfall isn't a problem because - nuclear engineering companies are EXEMPT from racketeering.