IAEA meets to discuss Fukushima and nuclear safety

I felt a lot better when I gave up hope - Woody Allen

A macabre piece of theatre is taking place at the HQ of the IAEA here in Vienna. The organization is having a "ministerial" conference on nuclear "safety".

Today, Monday, there will be an "assessment" of the Fukushima accident and a discussion regarding "actions" for "safety" improvements.

Tomorrow and over the next few days this will be followed by subjects like future "actions" for "safety" improvements, emergency preparedness and "response", "lessons" identified and "learned" in "response" to the Fukushima accident and of course the inevitable "Way Forward" will be found . . . and so on and so on . . . including in conclusion "possible" ways for strengthening the nuclear "safety" framework.

And there you have it. Or rather you don't. For the officials who will be talking shop and taking extended luncheons at the IAEA's "ministerial" conference are handicapped by the fact, as nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says, that they cannot think outside the box.

It's an illusion. It's an old three card trick designed to fool the public who have long ago left the auditorium. It's a true theatre of the macabre where a moth eaten curtain has fallen and the spotlights won't work any more. They perform to our ghosts.

The plain fact of the matter is that nuclear energy is not safe.

There are hundreds of nuclear reactors include fast-breeder reactors, which are even more dangerous than Fukushima and Chernobyl, situated on earthquake fault lines, in tsunami areas, on flood plains, in coastal areas subject to heavy erosion, in areas where typhoons and hurricanes occur; not to mention other likely hazards such as human error, component failure, computer malfunction, corrupt politicians, madmen, blackmailers, terrorists, sand storms, wildfires, plague, aircraft accidents, etc., etc, etc..

The unhealthy alliance of silence, between the IAEA and the WHO, which has existed since 1959, must NOW be ended. I suggest that this "ministerial" conference take an emergency vote to recommend to the UN that this is done without delay.

At least then they can report that something positive has been achieved.