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Japan Trade Min: Tepco Should Share Cost Of Cesium-Tainted Beef
Japan's trade minister said on Saturday that Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc (9501.TO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, should share with the government the cost of purchasing beef containing radioactive cesium, public broadcaster NHK reported.
More: www.foxbusiness.com

Oh they're so tough.

@joniver (Actually, it's a pretty typical review of this particular product. But it is an actual product. ;)

The reviews, perhaps, not so legit, ;)

Nuclear Power Is Extremely Safe -- That's the Truth About What We Learned From Japan
In the midst of a still struggling and fragile global economy, Germany has announced that it will shut down seven nuclear plants by the end of the year--which means that Germans will be left to run their factories, heat their homes, and power their economy with 10% less electrical generating capacity. Nine more plants will be shut down over the next decade and tens of billions of dollars in investment will be lost.

The grounds for this move, and similar proposals in Switzerland, Italy, and other countries, is safety. As the Swiss energy minister put it, “Fukushima showed that the risk of nuclear power is too high.”
In fact, Fukushima showed just the opposite. How’s that? Well for starters, ask yourself what the death toll was at Fukushima. 100? 200? 10? Not true. Try zero.

More: www.foxnews.com
Where did I put my barf bag.

@joniver "Try zero"??? What total, unabashed crap. Tell that to the lethally exposed workers, who simply aren't dead YET. Not only does this story minimize a critical danger, it renders meaningless the sacrifices of all those human-sponge workers who have been taking the "oh-so-safe" nuclear hit for the rest of the world.

Shameless is too good a word. If I believed in hell, I'd hope there were a special nuclear circle of hell just for greedy, power-hungry, energy executives.

we can all go home now.

So the "steam from the common pool area" guess turned out to be true...

Utility execs are major LDP donors
Chugoku Electric Power Co. executives donated ¥6.80 million. The figure was ¥6.15 million for Chubu Electric Power Co., ¥6.12 million for Shikoku Electric Power Co., ¥3.13 million for Hokuriku Electric Power Co., ¥3.04 million for Hokkaido Electric Power Co., ¥2.75 million for Kyushu Electric Power Co., ¥2.63 million for Tohoku Electric Power Co. and ¥1.86 million for Kansai Electric Power Co. Okinawa Electric Power Co. executives didn't make any donations.

Among other findings, 141 of the 153 executives at the nine power companies made donations in 2009 to the LDP's political fund management body.

Donations by power executives to the LDP's association amounted to ¥56.69 million in 2007, or 63.5 percent of total contributions by individuals, and ¥58.66 million in 2008, accounting for 70.1 percent of the total.

In 1974, the electric power industry declared an end to corporate political donations amid strong criticism of the cozy relations between the utilities and politicians.

However, the donations appear to have begun in 1976, according to reports in past government gazettes and securities filings'

While the donations were made by individual executives in their own name, it is suspected that they in effect constituted corporate donations.

Executives of five utilities — Tepco, Chubu Electric, Kansai Electric, Shikoku Electric and Kyushu Electric — donated a combined ¥17.58 million to the LDP's fund management body in 1976.

The amounts donated are strikingly similar among the five companies, with each president donating about ¥360,000 and each executive vice president around ¥240,000. Other executives donated roughly ¥100,000 each.

The combined amount of donations has increased on an annual basis, rising from ¥17.88 million in 1979 to ¥23.03 million in 1989 and ¥37.59 million in 1999.

In the early 1990s, executives from four other utilities — Chugoku Electric, Hokuriku Electric, Hokkaido Electric and Tohoku Electric — appear to have also started giving political donations to the LDP.
More: search.japantimes.co.jp
PU

But TEPCO doesn't seem to think ahead. It's all response.

Sorry for my dripping cynicism, but watching all the players set up their excuses and alibis and rationalizations and blame-fixing is just getting uglier by the day.

And it's not even news yet...

@joniver Did you notice that 31,542 people like this article ???? "OpinionNuclear Power Is Extremely Safe -- That's the Truth About What We Learned From Japan"
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@dean, yesterday I found out that the rate at which a RPV can be cooled down slows with age because of radiation embrittlement and other wear. The operators at Fukushima switched the isolation condenser of unit 1 off after the quake, because the RPV was cooling down too fast and they feared damage from cold shock. I am wondering what the difference in rate might be between a new RPV and 40-year old one. Would you know where to look?

The internet needs a Hate button, for balance.