New article by Elizabeth Douglas at InsideClimate News interviews Peter Lam who has an impressive background as a Nuclear Industry regulator. Lam changed his mind on the use of probability statistics in nuclear disaster preparations. He says:
One can plan for a lot of things, but things don’t always happen according to what you plan for. … Sure, I think everybody’s doing the right thing globally to make sure if we’re hit by a major earthquake, things don’t collapse on us, and if we’re hit by an earthquake followed by a tsunami, electrical equipment does not get wiped out.
But I also caution everybody … let us make sure we are not fighting the last war. The next time we are surprised by a major nuclear reactor accident, it may not be a tsunami. Therefore, let us go back and look, and look, and look to see what else is out there. Nuclear power is an unforgiving technology. Everybody needs to recognize that.
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