So I think I dont understand. Japan suffers a nuclear catastrophe, so the US consequently want to weaken regulation on its’ nuclear plants.
the current korporate philosophy seems to be wait till it blows up or collapses and then we will deal with the wristslaps from the government.

The thrust of the article is that the leaking tritium is not a significant health threat. That could be spin or an outright lie. But it could also be true. Wikipedia says “The American limit [for tritium] is calculated to yield a dose of 4.0 millirems (or 40 microsieverts in SI units) per year. This is about 1.3% of the natural background radiation (roughly 3000 microsieverts).”

I really don’t want to get panicked about nuclear power, because it is our only politically realistic alternative to the fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases. Renewables may get there someday, but they aren’t there yet.

Interesting mishegoss this nuclear business. Good morning to us all. How ya doing this fine American morning? Little squishy feeling under the toes when you first stepped out of bed, eh? Almost as if something sprung a leak overnight, carpet soaked with puddles forming over at the opposing corners of our ideological nation, where the entrenched sit trying to put their elbows in their ears to show us all that they are actually doing something when really they are busy considering which way the political wind blows.

Here we have this soon-come article just a few days after reports of leakage at the flooded nuke in Nebraska and the TVA ‘mini’ me plant proposal raucously disputed by the right(eous) suave set in the ‘Six Nuclear Reactors’ thread. Channelling Johnny Cash this morning. ‘ I hear the train a comin’, it’s rolling ‘round the bend’. But, that train ain’t a-rolin’ on down to San Antone, it is bringing the usual suspect response that all this nuke titter is some left conspiracy designed to do something they dreamed up while sitting in their damp corner.

Interesting thing about Folsom. It is not too far as the crow flies, 300 miles or so, from the Diablo Canyon nuke that has been in operation since 1984. This devil of a plant rests near several geological faults in that once Golden State, now showing a wee patina thanks to our lovely fiscal crisis. Despite this unfortunate geography it has about a 1 in 24,000 chance of core damage from an earthquake according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Down in Tennessee, eastern TN, not far from Johnny’s last home, and down the regional block from the TVA plot, the Sequoyah Plant towers the hills. It has been controlling rods, heating water and making waste since 1980 and according to the same US agency has a 1 in 19,000 chase of core damage from a quake. What is that? More of a quake damage chance in the land of the Grand Ole Opry than in that of the Golden Bear Grateful Dead? Yep. In fact, oops, the last quake in the ‘Eastern TN’ region was on 21 June 2011 at 08:56:44. A tiny roller. No worries for mortals of the ‘let’s keep doing the same shite and expect different results’, capitalist mode of production, lineage unless your concerns are congruent with the USGS who look to Eastern TN as a harbinger area for the rather massive New Madrid Seismic Region just to the west along the mighty Miss.

By all means, let’s build more. Don’t worry that containment technology has not changed since 1972. The tried and true technique, currently in use in Japan, of flooding to cool then concrete entombment seems to be working well. Look at Chernobyl where I hear property values are rising steadily despite the gloopy, glowing, squishy carpets left from the last time one of our toilets overflowed.