At the same time, Japan can and should continue to develop nuclear power technology and safety and actively export its technology to overseas markets.
The Economist goes on to point out that as a whole, nuclear power has a better safety record than any other energy industry.
But we are talking about a nuclear power company and the government has said it is taking part in the discussions because it has a responsibility for the safety of nuclear power.
There is enough empirical research documenting the safety of nuclear power plants to fill several small libraries.
While nuclear power here has a proven safety record, the public must be assured that its officials have considered all the contingencies.
The meltdown of three reactors at a single generating station in Japan in March rekindled old concerns about the safety of nuclear power.
FORBES: In Switzerland's Decision to Phase Out Nuclear Power, a Glimpse of the Future?
The disaster, caused by an earthquake and resulting tsunami in March, led many countries to postpone building nuclear power until new regulations on safety were put in place.
As part of my job, I reported alarming inadequacies: in one case high-grade equipment (ASME III, class 1) was operated in nuclear power reactors with no accepted safety file, regardless of a previous accident and a half-dozen failures in achieving acceptable design results.
That event propelled the movie into a box office hit, and the coincidence of a well-made fictional film with a real-life event with a very similar plot line led to a huge increase of public fears around the safety of nuclear power, and likely set the nuclear power industry back by decades.
Is anyone surprised that politics is confusing the technical and safety issues of nuclear power?
FORBES: Fukushima Slugfest -- Japan's New Nuclear Regulation Authority
That outraged residents who questioned why regulators rely on nuclear power companies to self-report safety problems in the first place.
It should be noted that the primary reason for the high cost of nuclear power is the great amount of safety and regulation surrounding it.
FORBES: What Are The Most Important Things To Know/Understand About Nuclear Energy?
Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said Tuesday that Lithuania is considering asking the European Union to impose restrictions on electricity trading by third parties that generate electric power without complying with nuclear safety requirements.
And still they allowed their enthusiasm for nuclear power to shelter weak regulation, safety systems that failed to work and a culpable ignorance of the tectonic risks the reactors faced, all the while blithely promulgating a myth of nuclear safety.
China froze all new nuclear power plant approvals on Wednesday so that safety standards can be reviewed following the explosions that leaked radioactive steam from Fukushima.
FORBES: China, India Dominate List of World's New Nuke Power Projects
Now, Chinese officials appear to be preparing to restart the country's multibillion-dollar effort to become one of the world's largest producers of nuclear power, with a new emphasis on safety.
Russian nuclear disaster experts from Rosenergoatom and the Nuclear Safety Institute who gained their experience from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in 1986 Ukraine will also be going to Japan, Ria Novosti reported.
Then there were the international worries about nuclear plant safety that pulled down the entire power sector.
FORBES: Public Service Enterprise: A Little Darkness Before The Dawn
As with all alternatives, nuclear power development should be held to very high safety standards and ability to compete in the marketplace solely on merit.
The monopolies' habit of hushing up safety problems erodes public trust in nuclear power, which for all its troubles must surely be part of the future energy mix.
In January 2003 the Microsoft SQL Server worm, known as Slammer, infected a private computer network at David-Besse nuclear power plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio, disabling a safety monitoring system for nearly five hours, says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Leape did turn up extensive safety literature from cognitive psychology, aviation and nuclear power, gleaning lessons--reducing reliance on memory, standardizing processes, promoting teamwork--that might apply well to medicine.
But given that nuclear power invariably involves great risks, not just in terms of safety but in terms of politics and economics too, there are good reasons to expect further complications in the months and years ahead.
The NRC launched a widespread review of U.S. nuclear safety after the meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011 caused by that nation's devastating tsunami.
The operator (TEPCO), the regulatory bodies (NISA and NSC) and the government body promoting the nuclear power industry (METI), all failed to correctly develop the most basic safety requirements such as assessing the probability of damage, preparing for containing collateral damage from such a disaster, and developing evacuation plans for the public in the case of a serious radiation release.
FORBES: BP Deepwater Horizon Arraignments: A Culture That "Forgot to be Afraid"
An unfailing commitment to protect public health and safety, security, and the environment is essential to ensuring that nuclear power remains part of our diversified clean-energy portfolio.
FORBES: U.S. Launches 35-Year Quest For A New Yucca Mountain
Japanese officials have said the plutonium would strictly be used for power generation, even as just two of Japan's 50 power reactors are running because of the safety concerns raised by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.
Several other nuclear power plants in the area have lost external power and are relying on backup generators, said a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) at a press conference currently in progress.
FORBES: New Earthquake in Japan, But Tsunami Alerts Cancelled
David Lochbaum, the director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Nuclear Safety Program, during a conference call Monday, questioned the safety of U.S. nuclear plants that rely on batteries to back up the power supplies for cooling systems.
The high temperature is especially troublesome at a power plant with a long history of rigging safety tests to produce desired outcomes, falsifying safety records, and lacking even a minimal sense of the catastrophic possibilities associated with nuclear power production.
应用推荐