Quote
Is Tokyo Electric Power becoming Japan's BP?
The unfolding disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power complex has focused attention on the site's operator - the Tokyo Electric Power Company. It is hard not to have some sympathy for Tepco, as the company is known, as its engineers are racing to avoid catastrophic meltdowns at nuclear plants in Japan. Much like oil giant BP - which found itself at the centre of a storm when a blast at a rig killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in US history off the Gulf of Mexico - Tepco finds itself struggling to cope with a situation it never saw coming.
Public relations must rank low on the list of priorities as it battles to contain the unimaginable amid the devastation caused by a massive earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.
High-level concerns
Tepco is the largest power utility in Japan. In normal times, it supplies about a third of the country's electricity. Its patch covers some of Japan's most densely populated and economically strategic areas, including the capital Tokyo. But Tepco, which has lost half its market value since Friday, has a track record of failing to properly divulge failures in safety standards.
Critics accuse the company of failing to communicate.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is said to be among the critics.
He was furious on Tuesday when the company apparently failed to inform him of an important development, a new fire breaking out at one of the affected nuclear plants, until an hour after it happened.
Read the rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12764458
Sound familiar?
They're ALL like BP. Energy companies are full of ruthless, power & money hungry scumbags.
I'm originally from Eastern Kentucky ("Coal Country"). My family owns a lot of land, some of which they've leased out to coal companies to mine. They're ruthless, destroy the land (look up "mountain top removal") & they simply don't give a F. The bottom line is all that matters to them.
This is why energy independence is so important. We have to cut them out of our lives, and the only way to do that is for people to start wising up by witnessing things like what's going on now (and with the Gulf, etc), get tuff & start investing in alternatives.
It'll be hard & it might suck for a while, but it'll be worth it.
Quote from: peestandingup on March 17, 2011, 04:43:41 AM
They're ALL like BP. Energy companies are full of ruthless, power & money hungry scumbags.
I'm originally from Eastern Kentucky ("Coal Country"). My family owns a lot of land, some of which they've leased out to coal companies to mine. They're ruthless, destroy the land (look up "mountain top removal") & they simply don't give a F. The bottom line is all that matters to them.
This is why energy independence is so important. We have to cut them out of our lives, and the only way to do that is for people to start wising up by witnessing things like what's going on now (and with the Gulf, etc), get tuff & start investing in alternatives.
It'll be hard & it might suck for a while, but it'll be worth it.
Watch out some may label you an Obama lover....those can be fighting words around here...energy independence without our beloved gas and coal can be fighting words
If a business doesn't seek the bottom line, the business will fail.
I do like the way we alienate people who recognize that reality.
I'd like to see a raising of hands for all those currently not using petroleum products or fossil fuels based energy.
Ya... We need energy solutions. When those come to pass, the companies who manage the resource will be just as ruthless and profit driven. In fact they currently seek a legislated advantage over other energy companies.
Tyranny is for everyone, not just big oil/big nuke you lar! :)
Quote from: peestandingup on March 17, 2011, 04:43:41 AM
They're ALL like BP. Energy companies are full of ruthless, power & money hungry scumbags.
I'm originally from Eastern Kentucky ("Coal Country"). My family owns a lot of land, some of which they've leased out to coal companies to mine. They're ruthless, destroy the land (look up "mountain top removal") & they simply don't give a F. The bottom line is all that matters to them.
This is why energy independence is so important. We have to cut them out of our lives, and the only way to do that is for people to start wising up by witnessing things like what's going on now (and with the Gulf, etc), get tuff & start investing in alternatives.
It'll be hard & it might suck for a while, but it'll be worth it.
According to politicians and the industry, that's not what energy independence means.
Energy independence means relying less on foreign fuels and more on national fuels. That means we are going to drill more oil wells, drill more natural gases, do more strip mining for coal, and so forth. This means more BP's, more TEPCO's, and more of those Kentucky Coal Companies. Instead of paying foreign countries to strip their own land, we will be doing it to our own land with all the risks we outsourced to be brought here. We will keep on doing this until we run out of these resources. After that and only after that, then we can think of alternative solutions. That is what energy independence means to most people who talk about it in this country.
Energy independence... Alternative energy/Renewable energy. Big differences, but I think I understood what PSU was saying.
Kicking and screaming can get you places, but not as far as viable alternatives when it comes to renewable/green energy.
Somebody is going to be the next Rockefeller, in this industry.
The concept is noble. It must be competitively priced and equally available if it is to replace the usage of fossil fuels and nukes.
Even to be gradually phased in it will require subsidies, which I am okay with to some degree, (prepare to be barraged with linkies showing how big oil is subsidized) but to really do any good, it MUST be competitively priced.
Quote from: Garden guy on March 17, 2011, 08:29:15 AM
Quote from: peestandingup on March 17, 2011, 04:43:41 AM
They're ALL like BP. Energy companies are full of ruthless, power & money hungry scumbags.
I'm originally from Eastern Kentucky ("Coal Country"). My family owns a lot of land, some of which they've leased out to coal companies to mine. They're ruthless, destroy the land (look up "mountain top removal") & they simply don't give a F. The bottom line is all that matters to them.
This is why energy independence is so important. We have to cut them out of our lives, and the only way to do that is for people to start wising up by witnessing things like what's going on now (and with the Gulf, etc), get tuff & start investing in alternatives.
It'll be hard & it might suck for a while, but it'll be worth it.
Watch out some may label you an Obama lover....those can be fighting words around here...energy independence without our beloved gas and coal can be fighting words
Ain't that the truth. Which just shows you how f'ed up our society has become regarding issues like this. Everything's a damned political debate.
You'd think, oh I dunno, people calling themselves "conservatives" would be all about conservation & getting big corporations & big daddy government outta our lives as much as possible. Apparently that word just means something else now.
This is the rank and file neocon tactic of circlejerking^.
It won't advance reason, but it will make everyone in the circle feel better... for a few seconds.
Quote"In the worst case scenario, we have to assume that all of eastern Japan would be wrecked. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has almost no sense of urgency whatsoever."
So said Prime Minister Naoto Kan at a meeting with special advisor to the Cabinet Kiyoshi Sasamori on the night of March 16. Handling of the crisis had been entrusted to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and plant operator TEPCO. However, with the reactors' immediate surroundings now being bombarded with high radiation levels and the "worst case scenario" just on the horizon, the prime minister has turned the dangerous mission over to the Self-Defense Forces (SDF).
Read More: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110317p2a00m0na005000c.html
Is there anyway we can figure out ways to compel companies (especially the bad ones) to ask for help and admit they have a serious problem before it turns into a full blown national disaster?
In the case of this particular Nuclear Power Plant, I do not see how the folks in charge could have ever anticipated what would happen after a 9.0 Earthquake....and really, as evidenced everywhere surrounding the powerplant, the outcome as HORRIBLE as it presently is , COULD HAVE been much worse..
What I would fault them for is not being forthcoming... on the other hand, if they were, this would simply add to the terror that the people of this region of Japan have no doubt endured.
I think even with the best design in the world of a Nuclear Power plant, still there is the very real possibility that a violent enough earthquake would damage it. and what then? We are witnessing what then, in this instance.
I do not know ANYTHING about nuclear power plants... Some people are of the opinion that it is safe and efficient energy.. Not sure I concur with that ,at least in terms of it being safe, when one considers Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and now this Facility in Japan... Surely when they built this one, they took in consideration the possibility of earthquakes...at least one would reason so , when the buildings in Tokyo, though they swayed for quite some time, never collapsed. ..Well apparently there is no such thing as fail-safe when it comes to a Nuclear Reactor., and I am sad to feel this but I do feel that many more will suffer illnesses and death as a result of this , and this area COULD possibly end up being another Chernobyl ...an area that in non-inhabitable.. not to mention that the radioactive material could end up God knows where.
I don't know about their sense of urgency.. IMO a scenario occurred that they were NOT (clearly) ready for .. I would hope the world would learn from this...
QuoteRadiological Contamination
* 17 people (9 TEPCO employees, 8 subcontractor employees) suffered from deposition of radioactive material to their faces, but were not taken to the hospital because of low levels of exposure
* One worker suffered from significant exposure during 'vent work,' and was transported to an offsite center
* 2 policemen who were exposed to radiation were decontaminated
* Firemen who were exposed to radiation are under investigation
The IAEA continues to seek information from Japanese authorities about all aspects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html
Don't commit suicide to avoid radiation poisoning... just yet.