Rob Kall is on the Mark--America needs to get ready for a typhoon of propaganda on nuclear power by corporate giants
Rob Kall is on the mark, we are going to be swept by a Tsunami of Pro-Nuke Corporate Propaganda. The fact is that we need short networks of energy. We need alternative sun and wind and bio-energy sources, America–not tornadoes of spin from Madison Avenue and Corporate Bullies.–KAS
Get Ready for The Nuclear Energy Spin Assault
By Rob Kall
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Get-Ready-for-The-Nuclear-by-Rob-Kall-110313-77.html
The tragedy in Japan will quickly produce an army of PR flacks, fighting to protect the interests of those who have a stake in the building and maintaining of nuclear reactors and related nuclear energy facilities.
We know, from Wendell Potter’s book, Deadly Spin, that there is a pattern of reaction that major industries engage in when they consider themselves under attack. The industry’s primary corporations will work together to establish teams assigned to minimize damage and control message.
A Wall Street Journal article, Japan Nuclear Crisis Could Cause Reassessment in U.S. reports “The U.S. nuclear power industry believed it was poised for a renaissance.” The industry had been “chipping away” at US citizens’ concerns about nuclear power that developed in response to the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters.
Further, President Obama’s proposed budget has $35 billion in loan guarantees to fund new Nuclear reactors. Obama has political capital invested in Nuclear energy, just as he had foolhardily invested political capital in offshore drilling– a mistake made painfully evident when BP’s Macondo well exploded.
it is becoming clear that the Japanese were lied to, at least at first, about just how bad things were.
Already, the spin has begun. The Wall Street Journal article reports,
Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group said the explosion should reassure Americans that their own plants will be prepared for any emergency, because the industry will disseminate lessons learned in Japan around the globe, helping other reactors shore up their defenses against even devastating natural disasters, like the quake and the tsunami that followed.
“At this point,” Mr. Singer said, “I don’t think we’re going to see a major impact on the U.S. nuclear industry.”
I think we can assume that Singer’s statement is what the Nuclear Energy industry WANTS.
A New York Times article, Crisis Underscores Fears About Safety of Nuclear Energy, gives an indication of the kinds of PR flacking that can be expected. The NY Times quotes Nils J. Diaz, former head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2003-2006 under George W. Bush. We might assume that as a Bush appointee his role was most like deregulation rather than regulation. Not surprisingly, the NY Times, quotes Diaz criticizing Japan, suggesting that the disasters occurred because of too many regulations. The Times article reports,
Mr. Diaz suggested that the Japanese might have acted too slowly to prevent overheating, including procedures that might have required the venting of small amounts of steam and radiation, rather than risk a wholesale meltdown. Fear among Japanese regulators over public reaction to such small releases may have delayed plant operators from acting as quickly as they might have, he said — a problem arising in part from the country’s larger nuclear regulatory culture.
“They would rather wait and do things in a perfect manner instead of doing it as good as it needs to be now,” Mr. Diaz said. “And this search for perfection has often led to people sometimes hiding things or waiting too long to do things.”
What the New York Times fails to do is report what is easily Googled, that Diaz is now chief strategic officer for Blue Castle Holdings, a Utah Nuclear Energy company. It’s not hard to guess how the senators from Utah will lean in dealing with nuclear regulations.
Perhaps most important, we see the NY Times first report that people have had concerns, followed by citing of experts who say there is nothing to worry about. later in the article, the writers pass onto readers this unattributed statement that could easily be a PR operatives perfect plant, “In the case of Saturday’s blast, experts said that problem was avoidable.” It is followed by a closing assurance, “Mr. Diaz said that a comprehensive nuclear power plant safety program developed in the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks would have prevented a similar accident at any of the nation’s nuclear facilities.”
Ha’aretz reports, in an article, Japan nuclear blast could be more deadly than Chernobyl, experts fear. Have we heard this from the US media?
No. We get this kind of message: Nothing to worry about. Don’t interfere with the building of eight more US nuclear reactors before 2020. Don’t increase the regulations and safety assessments of the existing 104 nuclear reactors in 31 states producing 20% of the USA’s electricity.
And with Obama so heavily politically invested in nuclear energy, we can expect to see a slow, weak response, with obscure information from government officials, exactly as we saw during the BP disaster. It doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a chance there are people of integrity working in the Nuclear Energy field. Will they risk losing their jobs?
The American media are owned by major corporations. Will they follow in the footsteps of the NY Times, which already failed to do its job, simply informing readers who it was using as expert sources?
Wendell Potter has reported that there are far more people working as PR flacks than there are journalists, and the PR people are paid a lot more. We can expect a major investment in putting spin on nuclear safety and regulations and not much push-back from most of the mainstream media. It will take a bottom-up, grass-roots, alternative media, blogosphere, twitter, Facebook uprising to get the word out and counter the messaging that has already begun.
Author’s Bio:
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com
With his experience as architect and founder of a technorati top 100 blog, he is also a new media / social media consultant and trainer for corporations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and authors.
Rob is a frequent Speaker on the bottom up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero’s journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates, and optimizing tapping the power of new media. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
To learn more about me and OpEdNews.com, check out this article.
And there are Rob’s quotes, here.
To Watch me on youtube, having a lively conversation with John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here Now, wouldn’t you like to see me on the political news shows, representing progressives. If so, tell your favorite shows to bring me on and refer them to this youtube video
My radio show, The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, runs 9-10 PM EST Wednesday evenings, on AM 1360, WNJC and is archived at www.opednews.com/podcasts Or listen to it streaming, live at www.wnjc1360.com
Rob also host a health/mind/body/heart/spirit radio show– the Rob Kall Futurehealth radio show. Check out podcasts from it at futurehealth.org/podcasts
Follow me on Twitter
A few declarations.
-While I’m registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
Get Ready for The Nuclear Energy Spin Assault
By Rob Kall
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Get-Ready-for-The-Nuclear-by-Rob-Kall-110313-77.html
The tragedy in Japan will quickly produce an army of PR flacks, fighting to protect the interests of those who have a stake in the building and maintaining of nuclear reactors and related nuclear energy facilities.
We know, from Wendell Potter’s book, Deadly Spin, that there is a pattern of reaction that major industries engage in when they consider themselves under attack. The industry’s primary corporations will work together to establish teams assigned to minimize damage and control message.
A Wall Street Journal article, Japan Nuclear Crisis Could Cause Reassessment in U.S. reports “The U.S. nuclear power industry believed it was poised for a renaissance.” The industry had been “chipping away” at US citizens’ concerns about nuclear power that developed in response to the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters.
Further, President Obama’s proposed budget has $35 billion in loan guarantees to fund new Nuclear reactors. Obama has political capital invested in Nuclear energy, just as he had foolhardily invested political capital in offshore drilling– a mistake made painfully evident when BP’s Macondo well exploded.
it is becoming clear that the Japanese were lied to, at least at first, about just how bad things were.
Already, the spin has begun. The Wall Street Journal article reports,
Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group said the explosion should reassure Americans that their own plants will be prepared for any emergency, because the industry will disseminate lessons learned in Japan around the globe, helping other reactors shore up their defenses against even devastating natural disasters, like the quake and the tsunami that followed.
“At this point,” Mr. Singer said, “I don’t think we’re going to see a major impact on the U.S. nuclear industry.”
I think we can assume that Singer’s statement is what the Nuclear Energy industry WANTS.
A New York Times article, Crisis Underscores Fears About Safety of Nuclear Energy, gives an indication of the kinds of PR flacking that can be expected. The NY Times quotes Nils J. Diaz, former head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2003-2006 under George W. Bush. We might assume that as a Bush appointee his role was most like deregulation rather than regulation. Not surprisingly, the NY Times, quotes Diaz criticizing Japan, suggesting that the disasters occurred because of too many regulations. The Times article reports,
Mr. Diaz suggested that the Japanese might have acted too slowly to prevent overheating, including procedures that might have required the venting of small amounts of steam and radiation, rather than risk a wholesale meltdown. Fear among Japanese regulators over public reaction to such small releases may have delayed plant operators from acting as quickly as they might have, he said — a problem arising in part from the country’s larger nuclear regulatory culture.
“They would rather wait and do things in a perfect manner instead of doing it as good as it needs to be now,” Mr. Diaz said. “And this search for perfection has often led to people sometimes hiding things or waiting too long to do things.”
What the New York Times fails to do is report what is easily Googled, that Diaz is now chief strategic officer for Blue Castle Holdings, a Utah Nuclear Energy company. It’s not hard to guess how the senators from Utah will lean in dealing with nuclear regulations.
Perhaps most important, we see the NY Times first report that people have had concerns, followed by citing of experts who say there is nothing to worry about. later in the article, the writers pass onto readers this unattributed statement that could easily be a PR operatives perfect plant, “In the case of Saturday’s blast, experts said that problem was avoidable.” It is followed by a closing assurance, “Mr. Diaz said that a comprehensive nuclear power plant safety program developed in the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks would have prevented a similar accident at any of the nation’s nuclear facilities.”
Ha’aretz reports, in an article, Japan nuclear blast could be more deadly than Chernobyl, experts fear. Have we heard this from the US media?
No. We get this kind of message: Nothing to worry about. Don’t interfere with the building of eight more US nuclear reactors before 2020. Don’t increase the regulations and safety assessments of the existing 104 nuclear reactors in 31 states producing 20% of the USA’s electricity.
And with Obama so heavily politically invested in nuclear energy, we can expect to see a slow, weak response, with obscure information from government officials, exactly as we saw during the BP disaster. It doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a chance there are people of integrity working in the Nuclear Energy field. Will they risk losing their jobs?
The American media are owned by major corporations. Will they follow in the footsteps of the NY Times, which already failed to do its job, simply informing readers who it was using as expert sources?
Wendell Potter has reported that there are far more people working as PR flacks than there are journalists, and the PR people are paid a lot more. We can expect a major investment in putting spin on nuclear safety and regulations and not much push-back from most of the mainstream media. It will take a bottom-up, grass-roots, alternative media, blogosphere, twitter, Facebook uprising to get the word out and counter the messaging that has already begun.
Author’s Bio:
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com
With his experience as architect and founder of a technorati top 100 blog, he is also a new media / social media consultant and trainer for corporations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and authors.
Rob is a frequent Speaker on the bottom up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero’s journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates, and optimizing tapping the power of new media. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
To learn more about me and OpEdNews.com, check out this article.
And there are Rob’s quotes, here.
To Watch me on youtube, having a lively conversation with John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here Now, wouldn’t you like to see me on the political news shows, representing progressives. If so, tell your favorite shows to bring me on and refer them to this youtube video
My radio show, The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, runs 9-10 PM EST Wednesday evenings, on AM 1360, WNJC and is archived at www.opednews.com/podcasts Or listen to it streaming, live at www.wnjc1360.com
Rob also host a health/mind/body/heart/spirit radio show– the Rob Kall Futurehealth radio show. Check out podcasts from it at futurehealth.org/podcasts
Follow me on Twitter
A few declarations.
-While I’m registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 7:42 AM
7 Comments:
President Obama: Reverse your support of risky nuclear power.
No nukes. Not now.
President Obama: Reverse your support of risky nuclear power.
Dear Kevin,
First came the earthquake. Then the tsunami. Then multiple explosions at nuclear reactors. Several Japanese nuclear reactors are at risk of melting down with unthinkable release of radiation.
The crisis in Japan is heartwrenching. The latest reports suggest at least 10,000 dead from one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history followed by a devastating tsunami. And that number is likely to rise.
But perhaps the worst is yet to come as multiple nuclear reactors in Japan are redlining and officials frantically release radioactive steam into the atmosphere in hopes of averting a total nuclear meltdown.
Tell President Obama: No more nukes. Not now. Clicking here will automatically sign the petition.
Even now, politicians of both parties are so beholden to the nuclear industry, that they are racing to microphones to say that the U.S. must EXPAND its taxpayer support of building even more nuclear reactors.
President Obama's 2012 budget includes $36 billion in loan guarantees to the nuclear energy industry. With Congressional leaders competing to cut public spending, we face a spectacle where senators in both parties were quick to defend nuclear power in the days following earthquake. Sen. Chuck Schumer, vice chair of the Democratic Senate caucus, has joined with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, in refusing to support a moratorium on building new nuclear reactors in seismically active areas in the U.S.1
Nuclear power generation is so financially risky that it requires government intervention to obtain sufficient financing for development. Even nuclear power proponents admit the stakes. According to John Rowe, the CEO of the nation's largest nuclear operator Exelon, said "Except with massive subsidies, there's really nothing one can do to make a whole lot of nuclear plants economic right now."2
Tell President Obama: We need investment in clean, renewable energy, not more nuclear time bombs. Clicking here will automatically sign the petition.
What does it take for Congress and President Obama to get the message? In just the last year, we have suffered massive disasters as a result of declining and risky energy technologies. Coal, oil, and now nuclear power have been the center of soul searching crises in the past 12 months. First came the massive coal mine collapse in West Virginia courtesy of the rapacious Massey Energy. Then came the massive BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico which failed to slow significant advances by the oil companies in drilling offshore of the United States. And now comes a massive nuclear crisis in Japan, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Yet nothing has been done.
It's time to stand up and defend the planet. Tell President Obama: Enough is enough: No new nukes.
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
P.S. If you want to help fund relief efforts in Japan through progressive organizations, Doctors Without Borders, a group CREDO members have long supported with their phone bills, is on the ground with medical teams. Find our more here. Another CREDO supported organization, Mercy Corps, is directing donations to its local partner Peace Winds Japan. You can get updates from Peace Winds Japan and find donation information here.
1 "Will nuclear industry feel the fallout from Japan?," Politico, March 13, 2011.
2 ibid.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Post-Nuclear-Japan-Pre-Di-by-Michael-Collins-110314-252.html
http://allthingsnuclear.org/tagged/Japan_nuclear
Fukushima Radiation Release Exceeds NRC Design-Basis Limit| by Ed Lyman | nuclear power | nuclear power safety | Japan nuclear |
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations require nuclear license applicants to show that their plants can withstand a series of design-basis accidents without releasing radiation that would exceed a given level. In particular, the whole-body dose for someone standing at the site boundary for the worst two hours of the accident cannot exceed 25 rem, or 250 milli-Sieverts (mSv).
The dose rate for such a design-basis accident would be 125 mSv per hour.
In comparison, the dose rate near reactor Unit 3 at Fukushima Dai-Ichi has reportedly reached 400 mSv per hour. The Fukushima accident is therefore now a beyond-design-basis accident, at least in NRC terms.
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March 15, 2011 • 5 notes • 0 Comments
Monday Update on Fukushima Reactors| by David Wright | nuclear power | nuclear power safety | Japan nuclear |
As of 11:30 pm EDT Monday 3/14/11
Three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear facility were operating at the time of the earthquake—Units 1, 2, and 3. The reactors shut down when the earthquake hit, but even after they stopped producing power, the reactor cores were very hot and required cooling systems to circulate water around the fuel to carry heat away.
In this case the cooling systems failed at all three reactors shortly after the reactors shut down. Once the cooling stopped, the water surrounding the fuel heated up and began to boil away. The water level dropped and for at least a period of time, the fuel in all three reactors was partially uncovered.
The part of the fuel that was uncovered became very hot. Several things can happen at that point.
As the fuel heats up, the hot cladding of the fuel rods can react with the steam around them and produce hydrogen. This is probably the source of hydrogen that caused explosions in Units 1 and Unit 3. That would indicate that the surface of the fuel rods is damaged.
Damage to the fuel rods can also release radioactive cesium-137 and iodine-131, which build up inside the fuel rods during the normal operation of the reactor. The detection of trace amounts of these elements outside the plant is also evidence that the fuel rods have been damaged, but not necessarily that the fuel inside them has melted.
If the rods, or parts of them, are uncovered for a matter of hours they can heat up enough that the fuel will start to melt. That is called a partial meltdown.
Because of the lack of cooling systems, over the weekend workers were forced to start pumping sea water into the reactor vessels to attempt to cool the cores and keep the fuel rods covered with water. However, for all three reactors, parts of the fuel rods were uncovered long enough that some fuel melting has occurred. The amount of melting, which is currently unknown, will affect the severity of the accident.
Early Monday (U.S. time), reports suggested that efforts to pump sea water into the cores of Units 1 and 3 were successfully keeping the rods covered with water. If this is true and they can continue to pump in sufficient water, the core will keep cooling. The goal is to reach “cold shutdown,” which means the core has cooled below the boiling point of water, so it is no longer boiling off the cooling water.
If that can be done, the situation will be more stable and the reactors will have a larger margin of safety in case something else happens.
However, by Monday night there were reports that efforts to continue cooling Units 1 and 3 might be running into problems. The situation at those two reactors is currently unclear.
Unfortunately, reports on Unit 2 suggest the situation is more serious. After the cooling systems for this reactor failed over the weekend, workers were unable to fill the reactor vessel with sea water. This appears to have been caused in part by human error, and the plant owner, TEPCO, has stated that the fuel in the core of Unit 2 was completely uncovered for a matter of hours. This could lead to very serious melting of the fuel. If that condition continues long enough, it could lead to a total melting of the fuel, which is called a meltdown.
If that occurs, the molten fuel can drop to the bottom of the reactor vessel, burn through the reactor vessel, and drop onto the floor of the primary containment. There is currently no indication this has happened at Unit 2, but if they are unable to get cooling water into the reactor vessel it is likely only a matter of time until this happens.
Even if this happens, as long as the primary containment structures surrounding the reactor remain intact, the release of radiation into the atmosphere may be relatively small.
However, there are two serious concerns:
The first is that Monday night TEPCO confirmed there is damage to the Unit 2 containment and that it may be leaking gases and or liquids. Normally the reactor building is intended to act as a secondary containment and capture radiation leaking from the primary containment so that filters can remove the radioactivity before it is released to the atmosphere. But the reactor buildings for all three reactors have been damaged by explosions and no longer provide this secondary containment.
So if the primary containment is leaking, then a core meltdown could lead to a very large release of radioactivity to the environment.
The second concern is that even if the primary containment is currently intact, the Mark I containment system used in these reactors has a known vulnerability to meltdowns. Molten fuel that enters the primary containment area can melt through the wall of the primary containment—a situation called liner melt-through—which would also allow the release of large amounts of radioactivity to the environment.
By late Monday (U.S. time), the situation is getting much worse. Larger radiation releases have occurred. And the New York Times is reporting that the radiation levels around the plants have gotten so high that TEPCO may withdraw workers from the plants. If this stops efforts to cool the reactors, the result may be meltdowns of the fuel in all three reactors.
March 14, 2011 • 15 notes • 17 Comments
Reactor Core Cooling| by Dave Lochbaum | nuclear power | nuclear power safety | Japan nuclear |
Days after a severe earthquake and tsunami affected the nuclear power reactors at the Fukushimi Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in Japan, there continue to be problems cooling the reactor cores.
The reactors operating at the time of the earthquake shut down very shortly afterward. However, heat in the reactor cores continues to be a problem after shut-down. In addition to the tremendous amount of heat contained in the fuel rods when the reactors shut down, the reactor cores continue to generate heat that must be removed in order to prevent damage to the nuclear fuel caused by overheating.
Figure 1
Thermal energy (heat) is produced in the reactor core of an operating reactor by the fissioning, or splitting, of uranium and plutonium atoms. When these atoms are hit by a neutron, they may split into two smaller atoms—and not always the same two types of smaller atoms—and in the process release energy and more neutrons.
Many of the smaller atoms formed by this process are unstable and as a result release radioactivity in the form of gamma rays, alpha particles, or beta particles. These radioactive emissions create heat: they carry energy with them, and when they are absorbed by material around the atom, that energy heats the material up.
Atoms release radioactivity at different rates ranging from fractions of a second to hundreds of thousands of years. Long after a reactor has been shut down, the reactor core continues to emit radioactivity and continues to generate heat. Nuclear power plants have cooling systems designed to circulate water through the reactor core after a reactor is shut down to carry away this heat.
In the Fukushima Dai-Ichi reactors, the pumps that circulate this cooling water are not working. In that case, the water sitting in the reactor vessel surrounding the core will heat up and then start to turn to steam and boil away. Emergency workers have been attempting to pump sea water into the reactors to replace the water that boils off. This additional water is needed both to help cool the reactor and to keep the fuel rods from being uncovered.
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