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The US Nuclear Power Program is Based on an Exceedingly Bad Business Model

Will Fukushima Become An Extinction Level Event? “Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization?” — The Final Chapter, The Millennium Report 13 Sept 14  “……….Bear in mind that the following quote comes from a 1986 issue of Forbes Magazine, and that the economic and financial status quo throughout the US nuclear power industry has only sunk lower since the mid 1980s.

The failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history. The utility industry has already invested $125 billion, with an additional $140 billion to come before the decade is out – and only the blind, or the biased, can now think that money has been well spent. – Forbes Magazine, February 1986

Maintenance procedures and preventative measures, plant overhauls and cold shutdown, temporary plant closures and premature decommissionings have plagued the nuclear energy industry from the very beginning. It is now experiencing a snowballing of these events, as the costs associated with them are skyrocketing. What relevance does this worsening predicament have to Earth changes and technospheric breakdown?

First, both of these major co-factors — Earth changes and technospheric breakdown — will only intensify for the foreseeable future. As they do, the business model that undergirds the nuclear energy industry will become more untenable. Not only is nuclear power generation the most cost ineffective of all the major energy-producing platforms, it is vulnerable to the greatest costs associated with required maintenance and repair, as well as failure prevention and remediation in the wake of a nuclear accident.

Clearly, because of unrealized revenue generation targets and cost overruns alone, the NEP business model is unsustainable. Global Climate Change and Technospheric Breakdown will only create an environment wherein costs will continue to escalate dramatically as the many aging plants worldwide get older and more decrepit. Ultimately, a breaking point will be reached whereby the current form of the Nuclear Energy Paradigm will no longer be a reasonable business proposition; not that it ever has been.

That Fukushima has placed such an exceptional financial burden on TEPCO validates this ubiquitous and ongoing scenario. Not only has Fukushima effectively bankrupted TEPCO, it has placed a huge cost burden on the Japanese government. It also has the potential to drag down every other business concern associated with TEPCO. The Japanese government is not immune to the extraordinary claims which may be filed in the future by the countless citizens and businesses that have legitimate grievances. These unfunded liabilities alone may end up taxing the people in ways never seen before.

The international cost ramifications have been curiously downplayed in this regard. However, given the current state of tensions between Japan and some of its neighboring countries, the current compassionate stance can easily be replaced with an understanding that Japan really screwed up, and that it ought to be held liable for damages related to all Fukushima-generated radiation damage. If damages could be proven in an international court of law, both China and North Korea might have a serious change of attitude in the not-too-distant future.

Perhaps then the politicians in Tokyo will begin to respond to this matter with prudence and foresight. The current energy policy surrounding nuclear power has been a gross failure, even when based on economics alone. Since 2011, so much has happened, and not happened, throughout the Japanese nuclear energy industry that it is a wonder any money is still allocated toward its proliferation.http://themillenniumreport.com/2014/09/will-fukushima-become-an-extinction-level-event/

September 26, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs