On things nuclear...

I have been affiliated with nuclear power in some form or fashion since 1992. I will say right now that I DO NOT CONSIDER MYSELF AN EXPERT. I DO consider myself to be a highly trained professional. In the course of the nearly twenty years of training and operation of nuclear plants, I can say that I have worked and currently work with some of the most intelligent and genuinely concerned for the public safety folks I have ever met. I thoroughly believe that the operators and plant staff in Japan have identical attributes.

Regarding nuclear plants and their susceptibility to natural disasters, Japan has been presented with a situation that has far exceeded the worst expectations. Even in light of that fact, the consequences of this situation will be nowhere near the consequences of Chernobyl. The three units that have had accidents at Fukushima Daiichi will not operate as they were constructed ever again (if at all). However, as a testament to the courage and ability of the operators in Japan, the damage and contamination (as things stand right now) will very likely be limited to a highly localized area.

A number of human endeavors are fraught with some amount of hazard. There is a risk while driving your vehicle to and from work on a daily basis. Granted, the risk is small and if something goes wrong, the reach of the problem will be extremely limited. A very few examples of industries that have definite human benefits but larger risks follow:

Nuclear power
Natural gas (and associated pipelines, etc.)
Pesticide and other chemical manufacturing
Molasses (I include this in jest, but molasses can kill - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster)

In 1984, several thousand lives were lost in Bhopal, India due to a major leak of methyl isocyanate. The long-term effects of Bhopal are still being documented. As with Chernobyl, there were SERIOUS design flaws and human faults that led to people dying. This is emphatically not the case in Japan.

All of this gets me to my main point. I am STILL pro-nuclear power. I want to see the nuclear industry grow and evolve. My current sense of the environment of pro-nuclear entities is that they are wanting to drive ahead with construction and licensing/operation while giving the APPEARANCE of not taking a pause to understand the implications of the disaster in Japan. I know that this is not the case. The lessons of what has happened in Japan already and what will happen until this emergency is over are being considered even as I type this. There will be a lot more to be learned from what has happened. In general, the industry is hesitant to allow for too much delay for further study and evaluation and regulation evolution in small part due to cost and in large part because these are some of the tactics that have been used by anti-nuclear entities to stifle and hold the nuclear power industry in check since Three Mile Island. As an industry, we can't afford to give the appearance of plowing ahead without thinking. As any folks who work in my industry can repeat like a mantra - "Nuclear technology is recognized as special and unique". As an industry that I hope to see continue, we need to be straightforward with the public about what actions we are currently taking to prevent similar situations from happening in the United States and the results of the actions we take from the lessons learned from Japan.