"We must remember that there are 55 reactors in Japan and this was a huge earthquake, and as a test of the resilience and robustness of nuclear plants it seems they have withstood the effects very well."
So says Professor Paddy Regan, Professor of Nuclear Physics at The University Of Surrey.
Funny, this is exactly the talking-points spin being promoted on MSNBC and Fox by Jack Spencer of the conservative Heritage Foundation.
You see, the whole disaster just goes to prove that nuclear power plants are really nothing to worry about.
Believe it or not, that's how the nuclear power industry’s shills are trying to spin this disaster that has already displaced tens of thousands of local citizens from their homes; has neighboring citizens worrying about how to properly hold linen cloths over their mouths and whether the iodine pills they take and their children take will do anything other than decrease the risk of getting cancer; has milliions of Japanese worrying about how the wind may blow and, oh yes, the worry of billions of people around the globe that a meltdown might spread radiation over a 500,000+ square-mile area from the point of the site as occurred after the Chernobyl meltdown.
Every reasonable person painfully hopes for a solution to the problem without the release of more radiation. But -- despite what the frontmen for an industry that promotes technology that has the most catastrophic long-term consequences to the environment that the world has ever known -- every reasonable person also should fear the situation as it stands now.
All nuclear power plants are run by nuclear power companies. They know in the case of any accident or problem that giving any information other than what they absolutely need to will lead to -- as they would call it -- “irrational and hysterical” fear reactions from the public. So they will soft-pedal any problem and tell everyone they have everything under control.
Immediately upon any problem, industry experts (with no real knowledge about the problem) will say “Don’t worry”. Or even go so far as to say “Hey, This is great. It proves how SAFE our nuclear plants are”.
And the governmental officials who went along with the building of the plants -- knowing they would be held responsible for promoting the industry and knowing any bad news will stop the building of the several new plants they have already approved – will participate in quieting-down any concerns, so they can keep their jobs and reputations.
It is becuase of the reasonableness of public fear that everyone of power in the industry and government needs to work on calming public fears about radition and that a meltdown will eventually result. Meltdown or not, we will probably not know the truth about how close things are to a meltdown now for years after the public demands for an independent investigation.