TEPCO to build nuclear power plants in the US

You know, TEPCO, who built the Fukushima plants in trouble and is covering up what's really going on at those plants?

The article is from Greg Palast, a great journalist.

Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear Plants

I need to speak to you, not as a reporter, but in my former capacity as lead investigator in several government nuclear plant fraud and racketeering investigations.

I don't know the law in Japan, so I can't tell you if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.

But what will Obama plead? The Administration, just months ago, asked Congress to provide a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors to be built and operated on the Gulf Coast of Texas — by Tokyo Electric Power and local partners. As if the Gulf hasn't suffered enough.

Here are the facts about Tokyo Electric and the industry you haven't heard on CNN:

The failure of emergency systems at Japan's nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.

Nuclear plants the world over must be certified for what is called "SQ" or "Seismic Qualification." That is, the owners swear that all components are designed for the maximum conceivable shaking event, be it from an earthquake or an exploding Christmas card from Al Qaeda.

The most inexpensive way to meet your SQ is to lie. The industry does it all the time. The government team I worked with caught them once, in 1988, at the Shoreham plant in New York. Correcting the SQ problem at Shoreham would have cost a cool billion, so engineers were told to change the tests from 'failed' to 'passed.'

The company that put in the false safety report? Stone & Webster, now the nuclear unit of Shaw Construction which will work with Tokyo Electric to build the Texas plant, Lord help us.

There's more.

Last night I heard CNN reporters repeat the official line that the tsunami disabled the pumps needed to cool the reactors, implying that water unexpectedly got into the diesel generators that run the pumps.

These safety back-up systems are the 'EDGs' in nuke-speak: Emergency Diesel Generators. That they didn't work in an emergency is like a fire department telling us they couldn't save a building because "it was on fire."

What dim bulbs designed this system? One of the reactors dancing with death at Fukushima Station 1 was built by Toshiba. Toshiba was also an architect of the emergency diesel system.

Now be afraid. Obama's $4 billion bail-out-in-the-making is called the South Texas Project. It's been sold as a red-white-and-blue way to make power domestically with a reactor from Westinghouse, a great American brand. However, the reactor will be made substantially in Japan by the company that bought the US brand name, Westinghouse — Toshiba.

Nice job Congress, again screwing the US people for money.

i quit...

Im gonna s+f for two reasons..

1) debunkers to see it

2) to find out if the info posted is true, if true, this is just unacceptable

Yeah you're right, lets just build coal fire plants that pollute our atmosphere. Tell me, how many people have died from the Japanese plant incident?

I agree with your concern.
Though it's not the plants fault of this incident happened, they were built to withstand earthquakes/tsunamis. This was a freak of nature disaster! There is only so much you can do, I wouldn't expect a power industry to max out on safety, do you? Overall, not enough has happened to start bashing on the company. They met the standards, the standards just should of been higher.

reply to post by Fitch303


as of right now, something like 20?

Its a little too early to tell how many will die because of the plants disaster.

That being said, I think you are missing the point by about, 340 miles. Its the fact that shortcuts were made in the name of the all mighty dollar by the very same companies (foreign) that will now be getting american taxdollars to build nuclear plants on our soil. In terms maybe you will understand caveman.. this bad, very bad.

This is just so China will have a spot to aim at with their version of HAARP...

...Some how I don't think they will be aiming it at our coal power plants...

Originally posted by Vitchilo
You know, TEPCO, who built the Fukushima plants in trouble and is covering up what's really going on at those plants?

The article is from Greg Palast, a great journalist.

Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear Plants

Nuclear plants the world over must be certified for what is called "SQ" or "Seismic Qualification." That is, the owners swear that all components are designed for the maximum conceivable shaking event,

The Tokyo electric plants survived the earthquake.
What got them in trouble was the tsunami.

And when was the last time they had earthquake damage in Texas.

What dim bulbs designed this system? One of the reactors dancing with death at Fukushima Station 1 was built by Toshiba.

Wrong they were designed by General Electric a US company.
The reactors for Units 1, 2, and 6 were supplied by General Electric, those for Units 3 and 5 by Toshiba, and Unit 4 by Hitachi. All six reactors were designed by General Electric.[1] Architectural design for General Electric's units was done by Ebasco. All construction was done by Kajima.[2] Since September 2010, Unit 3 has been fueled by mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, rather than the low enriched uranium (LEU) used in the other reactors.[3][4] Units 1–5 were built with Mark I type (light bulb torus) containment structures, Unit 6 has a Mark II type (over/under) containment structure.[5][6][7]
en.wikipedia.org...
www.rdmag.com...

Now be afraid. Obama's $4 billion bail-out-in-the-making is called the South Texas Project. It's been sold as a red-white-and-blue way to make power domestically with a reactor from Westinghouse, a great American brand. However, the reactor will be made substantially in Japan by the company that bought the US brand name, Westinghouse — Toshiba.

They have to be made in Japan,
because for the last 30+ years no one in the US wanted a reactor vessel Westinghouse sold there giant lathe and milling machines for building one piece reactor vessels because they no longer could use them and they were obsolete in the US.
Toshiba bought the old Westinghouse equipment before it could be scraped.

There is also no steel casting companies in the US with the ability to cast the ONE piece blanks for a reactor vessel.
Japan has a number of companies can pour the casting.

And by the way Toshiba bought Westinghouse from British Nuclear Fuels Limited that had bought out Westinghouse nuclear years before because they needed it to build reactors in Europe.

No one build these old generation 1 and 2 reactors any more,

Now its generation 3+ or 4 reactors that are planned. and a lot has been learned and more will be after the damage to these reactors is studied and improvements made to newer designs to strop this type damage.

Maybe the ETHICS of TEPCO should be examined, shall we...

Fukushima nuclear plant owner falsified inspection records

THE Japanese owner of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant falsified safety data and "dishonestly" tried to cover up problems there.

Tokyo Electric Power Co injected air into the containment vessel of Fukushima reactor No 1 to artificially “lower the leak rate”. When caught, the company expressed its “sincere apologies for conducting dishonest practices”.

Seriously... you want THOSE GUYS building nuclear reactors in the US?