Now that the Chinese are "good Communists" we have to be the bad guys and act like our government stereotypes of the old Soviets. What role is their left for us to play when they are building all of the great cities and connecting them with high speed transportation. Meanwhile we write in our little cubicles about their lack of openness. Sounds like England needs another William Blake!
REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of D and N Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 3:46 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: [Futurework] Nuclear collusion More on this from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/30/british-government-plan-pl ay-down-fukushima Revealed: British government's plan to play down Fukushima Government officials launched a PR campaign to ensure the accident at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan did not derail plans for new nuclear power stations in the UK. Photograph: AP British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/japan> and before the extent of the radiation leak was known. Internal emails seen by the Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/jun/30/email-nuclear -uk-government-fukushima> show how the business and energy <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/energy> departments worked closely behind the scenes with the multinational companies EDF Energy <http://www.edfenergy.com/> , Areva <http://www.areva.com/> and Westinghouse <http://www.westinghousenuclear.com/> to try to ensure the accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the UK. "This has the potential to set the nuclear industry back globally," wrote one official at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) <http://www.bis.gov.uk/> , whose name has been redacted. "We need to ensure the anti-nuclear chaps and chapesses do not gain ground on this. We need to occupy the territory and hold it. We really need to show the safety of nuclear." Officials stressed the importance of preventing the incident from undermining public support for nuclear power <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/nuclearpower> . The Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith <http://www.zacgoldsmith.com/> , who sits on the Commons environmental audit committee, condemned the extent of co-ordination between the government and nuclear companies that the emails appear to reveal. "The government has no business doing PR for the industry and it would be appalling if its departments have played down the impact of Fukushima," he said. Louise Hutchins, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, said the emails looked like "scandalous collusion". "This highlights the government's blind obsession with nuclear power and shows neither they, nor the industry, can be trusted when it comes to nuclear," she said. The Fukushima accident, triggered by the Japan earthquake and tsunami on 11 March <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami> , has forced 80,000 people from their homes. Opinion polls suggest it has dented public support <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jun/23/nu clearpower-nuclear-waste> for nuclear power in Britain and around the world <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/nuclear-power-loses-appea l-japan> , with the governments of Germany <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/30/germany-pledges-nuclear-shutdow n-2022> , Italy <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/berlusconi-nuclear-power> , Switzerland, Thailand and Malaysia cancelling planned nuclear power stations in the wake of the accident. The business department emailed the nuclear firms and their representative body, the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) <http://www.niauk.org/> , on 13 March, two days after the disaster knocked out nuclear plants and their backup safety systems at Fukushima. The department argued it was not as bad as the "dramatic" TV pictures made it look, even though the consequences of the accident were still unfolding <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/16/japan-nuclear-emergency-timelin e> and two major explosions at reactors on the site <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/15/japan-nuclear-plant-third-explo sion> were yet to happen. "Radiation released has been controlled - the reactor has been protected," said the BIS official, whose name has been blacked out. "It is all part of the safety systems to control and manage a situation like this." The official suggested that if companies sent in their comments, they could be incorporated into briefs to ministers and government statements. "We need to all be working from the same material to get the message through to the media and the public. "Anti-nuclear people across Europe have wasted no time blurring this all into Chernobyl and the works," the official told Areva. "We need to quash any stories trying to compare this to Chernobyl." Japanese officials initially rated the Fukushima accident as level four on the international nuclear event scale, meaning it had "local consequences". But it was raised to level seven <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/12/japan-nuclear-crisis-chernobyl- severity-level1> on 11 April, officially making it a major accident <http://www-ns.iaea.org/tech-areas/emergency/ines.asp> " and putting it on a par with Chernobyl in 1986.
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