Reveries-and harsh political realities-as reminisced by Japan's first graduating class of nuclear engineers
Not only is this sad and wistful, but there is a political warning here, too, about what happened (happens?) to those who oppose(d) nuclear power.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20110626p2a00m0na015000c.html


Seems more of a warning
Excerpts from the piece:
"I should have been more vocal about the importance of anti-tsunami
measures," Michio Yamawaki, now a professor emeritus at University of
Tokyo, said with regret.
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Looking back on radioactive materials, Konishi said: "In theory, I thought
that we could control it."
_________________
It wasn't that he was opposed to nuclear power from the very beginning. "It was a new department, and appeared to be cutting-edge." Anzai's specialty is in the protection of human beings from the effects of radiation. He spoke about an experiment he conducted as a student.
"We exposed rats to massive amounts of radiation and observed them. Over several hours, the rats went into spasms and eventually died. They didn't look any different in appearance, but when we dissected them, we found that their organs had become enlarged...It was shocking," Anzai said. "I thought to myself, can humankind tame something as dangerous as this?"
Anzai published paper after paper on radiation protection and became an assistant at the University of Tokyo's medical school in 1969.
He eventually became wary of the government's nuclear policy, citing its lack of safety guarantees while continuing to promote nuclear power. When he publicly criticized the national government, his colleagues at the lab began to give him the cold shoulder. Later, a sympathetic colleague informed Anzai that they had been given instructions to bring him down. A doctor from a power company who came for training at the lab and sat next to Anzai for several years later revealed that he had been "spying" on him. A pro-nuclear energy advocate offered Anzai an opportunity to do research abroad, which he took to be Japanese academia's attempt to be rid of him without looking bad.
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The moral of this story is decades old. The Nuclear Industry says whatever
it needs to say to get to the next 60 seconds of 'ignoring it's own safe
process protocol and control standards', championed by it's own Nuclear
Scientists/Engineers. As this editorial piece illustrates, officials knew
of the 'designed failure' as regards Tsunami Generators 'designed and
approved' to be housed in a basement.
Nepotism and Groupthink in conjunction with 'owned and made to order
science' has in 2011, exposed the Nuclear Industry to the entire world
as a 'reckless Frankenstein', 'frantically waving about documents', such as
the 'NRC Prepared BEHR VII Study Brief', in hopes of maintaining some
vestige of 'respect' or 'authority'. (Such a Frankenstein certainly
deserves neither if it's existence depends upon such reckless behavior)
I wonder what that 'Frankenstein Monster' is going to look and sound like
as it is 'clawing and scratching away' at the walls, (which it will surely do), as
Fukushima continues to drag it down the hallway into reality?
Observing such a vast 'spectacle of failure' reminds me of this interesting
video which illustrates what an immensely powerful 'bubble' proponents of
the 'Airplane Analogy' must live within: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY
My bet is that some of those
My bet is that some of those "harsh political realities" may soon be giving way to FAR harsher medical, economic / logistical, and perhaps even cultural realities. To be followed, in turn, by (contradictory) political realities again. Pendulums, like politics, swing -- and cut -- BOTH ways.