There is more in life that binary. You can be for changing and improving regulation and against deregulation.
I want science and evidenced based regulation of the nuclear power industry, particularly for already existing sites. I want transparency and peer review. I want direct and constant intervention by government scientists to ensure that safety is always treated above regulations. I want the scientists and experts to make the calls, not people who don’t know what they are talking about.
We currently have regulation based partially on science and partially on public opinion which has been soured by bad science fiction and sensationalist reporting with little resemblance to facts. Almost everything “everyone” knows about nuclear anything is wrong. Facts should always triumph over unjustified fear in governance but it rarely does.
The Fukushima disaster was not caused by a Tsunami. The Tsunami didn’t breach the reactors, it didn’t cause the problems. There were a good number of other reactors in the area that were hit by the same Tsunami and were fine, resuming normal operations quickly after the event. It wasn’t caused by the generators being underwater. It wasn’t caused by not being able to be get people and equipment to the reactor quickly enough after the incident. It wasn’t caused by flooded generators or switching stations, or battery packs that gave out after a day.
The disaster was caused by the current regulatory environment and the company not upgrading safety equipment which it knew was problematic because doing so would have increased protestors and jeopardized their operating license.
They didn’t even want to change the reactor design. They just wanted to move some switching stations and build a higher sea wall. And that would have prevented the disaster.
This is the most dangerous aspect of Nuclear power. And I want it fixed.
