Has anyone taken note of this?

[Skybird]

German TV news today broadcasted the event, describing it as a serious accident and the worst and most threatening since Chernobyl, and characterizing the event as having been short of a complete and total meltdown. At the centre of examination seem to be some technical components by AEG that have failed to work as intended, causing problems in backup power supplies, and that are also used in German powerplants. As a consequence, German "AKWs" , as we call them, are also undergoing massive technical inspections currently.

[tycho102]

That's fairly hardcore for 50% of their backup generators to fail. Our reactors are required to run-test them on a monthly basis here in the US. That's part of scheduled maintenance cycles.

Sounds like either they're not getting the funding they need, or worse, they've been using their funding to bribe politicians. This is one of the main reasons, understandably, why people want idiot-proof reactor designs like the generation IV "pebble bed" reactors.

Part of the problem in the states stems from the fact that SEC violations aren't always a felony. There are crooked bastards that go from one company to another with a whole damn string of violations at each one, and pull severance packages of $10m after running the company into a $300m quarterly loss for 2 years straight. Look at Infinity Labs, for Christ's sake!



So, unfortunately, that's an issue with reactors. I have making the government larger, but in this case, it takes regulation. The problem is that we have no real deterrance for this kind of behavior, and if you start executing CEO's and CIO's and COO's, you're going to deter investment. However, if you do nothing, the good old boy network just keeps running right along like it always has.