Last year, having tired of receiving the mushroom treatment (kept in the dark and fed shit) from Fukushima's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and its regulators, the Japanese parliament, the Diet, appointed the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission. The Commission was given unprecedented investigative powers and conducted extensive, public hearings and a thorough investigation. Last week, that Commission filed its report. It isn't a pretty picture and, most alarmingly, the report plainly suggests that the same problems threaten nuclear safety in the USA.
Follow me into the tall grass to reflect further on this problem.
I found this piece from Bloomberg to be serious and thoughtful in candidly reporting that regulatory capture in the nuclear power industry is just as complete in the USA as it was in Japan. That is scary because we, too, have nuclear power plants in dangerous earthquake zones and subject to other threats and we, too, have no effective regulation of our nuclear industry due to regulatory capture and political factors.
According to Arnie Gunderson, a nuclear engineer and licensed power plant operator,
Outside Japan, some people will try to misuse this report to say it can’t happen here. The fact is that it can,” Arnie Gundersen, a U.S.-based former nuclear engineer and licensed reactor operator, said in an e-mail response.
“Here in the U.S., the industry basically forced out Gregory Jaczko as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” Gundersen said, referring to the commission chairman who resigned amid criticism from the industry for pushing a faster agenda to toughen safety regulations after Fukushima.
“And of course, The International Atomic Energy Agency was in Japan for decades and never found these problems,” Gundersen said. “It’s a world-wide problem: the nuclear industry has taken control of the regulators.”
But for regulatory capture, the conditions that allowed the disaster to occur at Fukushima Daichi would not have existed.
The report said the commission found evidence of “collusion” between Tokyo Electric and regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, to avoid implementing new safety regulations.
Tokyo Electric also exploited its cozy relationship with regulators to take the teeth out of regulations. “Across the board, the Commission found ignorance and arrogance unforgivable for anyone or any organization that deals with nuclear power,” the report said.
Also worth noting, the Commission also rejected the denials by TEPCO and its regulators that the original earthquake may have damaged the plant before the tsunami knocked out onsite power. The industry has wanted to bury that issue because it calls into question all their prized assumptions about seismic safety of their installations and could lead to requirements for prohibitively expensive retrofitting. Thanks to the independent commission, they are failing.
This is the kind of regulation Republicans love, nice and cozy. It's a pretty good deal for the insiders, but it's a terrible deal for the rest of us. If we do not elect more and better Democrats, millions will die from Republican neglect, greed and crony capitalism.