Safe to go nuclear

There was a CNA programme last night on how safe to go nuclear in Southeast Asia. After an hour, the panel over came initial reservations and seemed quite agreeable to the idea that nuclear power is safe and necessary. Fossil fuel will just run out and countries wanting growth and growth and growth just have to rely on nuclear. All the concerns about radioactive fallouts were summarily dismissed. No 911 on any power plant is possible. You would need a nuclear bomb to blow up a nuclear power plant to really cause damage and widespread radiation.

In the Three Mile Island no one died. In Chernobyl, just about a hundred. In Fukushima no one died too, or maybe a handful. Nuclear power stations are safe. There are more people being killed on the road than by a nuclear accident.

The Chairman did try diplomatically to raise the concerns of expertise and discipline of the people manning the plant and also the inconsistency of governance with regular regime changes and change of leadership personalities. These were discussed but should not be an issue. The system of operating a nuclear power plant is so carefully and meticulously designed to take care of everything. Nothing will be allowed to go wrong.

Our SMRT was running perfectly for at least 20 years under the best governance and best trained personnel with all the safety and maintenance procedures observed. We know the story. Equipment ages, people slack, management oversight, over confidence and getting into a routine, could all contribute in their small little ways to build into a crisis.



All it needs is a confluence of little events. A poor quality cable, a technician having a bad day, a computer or system glitch, management having a hangover after a party, no one is assumed to be able to break into a highly secured installation.

When things want to go wrong, it will go wrong according to Murphy. Don’t believe in Murphy. Can a senior technician in the plant be converted by a cause, bought over or blackmailed? I think all eventualities have been thought through and taken care of. Even if Nature wants to take a pee or a fart would have gone into the equation to build a 100% safe plant.

The no choice option is the main thrust for nations going nuclear. They need the growth, and the power, not today, maybe tomorrow. The world’s population must grow for growth’s sake. It is 6 billion today and could go to 10 billion or 20 billion, for whatever reason, I dunno. But grow it must, for economic growth and prosperity. And consumption of all things, resources and energy must go on and on and on. Why there is a need to keep changing mobile phones and add new little games is a complex issue. Once whatever is consumed, next frontier, Mars.

Human beings will just grow and consume for the sake of growing and growing. There is no other option but to grow. And nuclear is the next alternative to support the growth that is needed, for what?

China and Russia : The Growing Alliance that won't be intimidated by US Global Aspirations.

China and Russia: The Growing Alliance That Won't Be Intimidated by America's Global Aspirations


The U.S. government lurches from one war to another and nothing really changes. After a succession of totally misguided wars with relatively small nations, none of which it has "won", the U.S. has now decided that China, a giant among all other nations, is to be its next target. The question is; Have those currently in charge of this government taken leave of their senses since China is the one nation on the face of the earth that, because of its economic and military power, will not be intimidated by the U.S?

The U.S. has made it known that it is proceeding with a new strategy by which to establish control of the Asia-Pacific region, including the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. This is an area over which China has maintained a significant influence for many years; we might call it China's backyard. To think that China will allow the U.S. to move into this region and take control is delusional thinking. China will not accept such an encroachment into its territory without finding some way to oppose it and that could result in a very dangerous military confrontation.

At the same time that the U.S. is setting up this potential confrontation with China, it is also confronting Russia in several regions of the world. It continues to attempt to surround and suffocate Russia by erecting a missile defense system close to Russia's borders; it's known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star Wars", that President Reagan proposed in 1983. This system will never work because Russia has clearly warned that, if it ever nears completion, swift and powerful countermeasures will be taken to completely nullify its operational capabilities.

Anyone who thinks that Russia and China are powerless against the might of the U.S. military needs to think again. Both of these nations possess nuclear arsenals that could bring massive, unimaginable destruction to America should some ill-advised, out of control regional confrontation get completely out of hand. In reality, there are three superpowers in this world, not just one, and we better hope that it never, ever comes to such a horrific confrontation. But try to warn those bloodthirsty facilitators of war in our nation's capitol to back off and you will get absolutely nowhere.

While China and Russia can't currently be described as extremely close allies I see these two countries as allies of necessity. The more that they are threatened by U.S. militarism and expansion the more closely aligned they will become. In recent times the alliance between these two powers has been strengthening as both have significant interests in Iran, Syria and other parts of the Middle East, and they are not going to let America assume total power over this region.

Russia and China, obviously, still view the U.S. as a very formidable military power but one that is has already entered into an almost reversible state of decline. They see a nation that is literally spending itself into bankruptcy by using its dwindling wealth on perpetual war. They see a nation whose economy is tanking as the purchasing power of an increasingly unemployed workforce is being diluted. They are watching this rapid decline take place and they are well aware that all they have to do is to patiently wait and let America's military spending eventually force it into bankruptcy.

While China continues to rapidly grow its economy, America is doing exactly the opposite; it's selling out its manufacturing sector, piece by piece to China which, in turn, has been given free access to the world's largest consumer market. For every billion dollars that the corporations of America invest in Chinese labor for the manufacture and assembly of American consumer products, that's a billion that cannot be used to help revitalize the U.S. consumer-driven economy.

In this scenario it seems like the American government and the nation's business sector have completely opposite objectives. It makes no sense to be stirring up trouble and posing a threat to China, the nation that has become the prime manufacturer of U.S. consumer products. If this strategy of military aggressiveness leads to a situation that causes a massive disruption in the manufacture and distribution of products from China then the U.S. economy could take a crushing, devastating blow that would send this country into a recession of monumental proportions. That's because many thousands of America's former manufacturing facilities are non-existent and would be difficult to start up again.

China currently does not pose a direct military threat to America. It has not been engaged in wars and military confrontations across the regions of the world and it does not have a network of bases. Its actions show no indication that is has aspirations of becoming the next military empire. China is working with many nations to make agreements to acquire oil and other critical resources it needs to continue to maintain a strong economy; it invests billions in other nations to help them develop their resources; it has not used force to achieve its objectives.

China concentrates on its domestic needs and developing its manufacturing base and economy. And you know what? That's what America used to do decades ago, before it adopted its aggressive military agenda. That's not to say that China or Russia will never pose any threat to the U.S. Without a doubt, the U.S. must be very vigilant and maintain a strong military to deter any serious imminent threat; but it seems like this government has gone completely overboard in entering into the affairs of nations across the world, quite often with military force, when there is no rational, justifiable reason to do so.

China is using its rapidly increasing wealth, thanks to the generosity of U.S. corporations, not on a military empire but, rather, on building many new cities, airports, bullet trains and vastly improving its national infrastructure. As long as China shows no evidence of aggressive intentions, the U.S. government should not continue to antagonize and threaten it lest its government reaches a point where it will have had enough and it shifts its objectives toward a substantial buildup of its military and highly sophisticated weaponry. The last thing that we and the world need is another Cold War and arms race that benefits only the profit-crazed defense industry corporations.

So, in reality, what exactly is going on here? If China does not pose a distinct immediate threat to the security of America, then why has it become the next target for Washington's hegemony? If we dig a little deeper into the mindset of those who lead this nation we will find that the threat that China poses for the U.S. is that it, in the near future, will become the world's #1 economic power; and that fact does not sit well with this government. But this is a dilemma that the government itself has allowed to develop over the past several decades as it has, basically, looked the other way as Corporate America has sold this nation's manufacturing industry to China.

Beneath the surface there is something else, something very troubling that may be fueling this hubristic agenda. Perhaps we can explain it this way; it's becoming quite evident that many of those in this government who have, for the past several decades operated the levers of war are at least borderline, if not full-blown, paranoid schizophrenics; those whose symptoms include "extreme anxiety, exaggerated suspiciousness, aggressiveness, anger, argumentativeness, and hostility, which may lead to violence." This overly aggressive, often uncontrollable demeanor, characterized by a pronounced obsession with the proliferation of war can in no way be judged as normal human behavior.

While it's rarely if ever discussed in any of the media, Washington is largely controlled by bureaucrats who have, for many years, operated at the highest levels of this government and who are dedicated to the expansion of this nation's military outreach across the world. They are an integral part of the Military-Industrial Complex. Therefore, in reality, no matter who becomes president, the direction of this nation will remain in the hands of these embedded individuals who possess the reigning, absolute power.

We the people of this nation are living in what has to be termed one of the most radicalized, dangerous times in its history. Those at the highest levels of leadership of this country, from the government to the masters of Corporatism, with very few exceptions, seem to have lost the ability to judge right from wrong;   rational thinking, and judgments based on a sense of morality have no place in the decision-making of those who worship the gods of war and profit.


The people of America must not allow this government to continue to try to dominate the nations of the world; that has not worked and will not work except to lead this nation further down the road to a financial implosion. The people of America must think deeply to somehow, some way determine the ways by which to remove these disciples of war, that are so obsessed with military power, from this government. They must no longer be allowed to continue their agenda of hubris and empire building that threatens the future of our nation.

The hand of reason and logic has been replaced by the fist of military power and, unless that condition is reversed, it will be the eventual undoing of this nation; one that will have squandered it's potential for greatness.




Michael Payne is an independent progressive activist. His articles concentrate on social, economic and political matters as well as American foreign policy. He is a U.S. Army veteran and a graduate of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. His (more...)






 

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Nuclear power dream or nightmare?

Anyone remembers the report on Malaysia’s plan for nuclear power plants in the ST recently? It seems that among the gungho Asean countries, those thinking too big with their swollen heads and those who think they need to keep growing their populations to achieve economic growth at all cost, there is no other option than nuclear. Oil is going too be too expensive in times to come and the growing demand for more energy with bigger population and bigger appetite means nuclear and nothing else.

What is so beautiful about the Malaysian nuclear plan is the location of their nuclear power plants, one near Penang and one near Sinkieland. Obviously these have nothing to do with the concentration of Chinese population in Penang, Sinkieland and Southern Johore. The main reason for the choice of locations is simply to get them as far away from KL as possible. A nuclear mishap is going to neutralise a sizable area for a long time as can be seen in Fukushima , Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in the US. And the heroes who are brave enough to resettle in the radioactive zone must be praying to have godzilla or ultraman as their offsprings.

Sinkieland is equally deadset on the nuclear option I think. What to do when population growth is a must or cannot be slowed down without affecting economic growth? They must be planning for 10m or 20m population in the future and are seriously investing in research and development of nuclear plants here. And the snake oil sellers would never tell you the whole truth about the risk involved. Even a 0.0001% risk is too high a risk in the context of Sinkieland. We can never think of locating our nuclear plants in KL or Penang for sure. So how far and how safe would it be in Tuas, Changi or Tekong?

If the nuclear madness becomes a reality, one can safely predict that sometime in 2050, 2150 or 2250 Sinkieland could be a declared nuclear hazard zone with no inhabitants. Mathematically the numbers generated must still look good and safe and the snake oil sellers must still be mesmerising their listeners on how safe nuclear plants are in this piece of rock. Technology is so advanced that nuclear power stations are absolutely safe. Have no fear. So lucky that we would not be around to say I told you so or to face the consequences.