(WMR)—The powerful nuclear power lobby, which has the firm backing of one of its largest recipients of campaign cash donation, Barack Obama, in its corner, is conducting a full court press to mask over the seriousness of the latest nuclear disaster in Japan.
General Electric, which is a part owner of NBC and MS-NBC, is ensuring that the full dangers posed by the multiple fires and explosions at the Fukushima reactors it supplied to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) are soft-pedaled at best.
Moreover, as GE-Hitachi, the joint nuclear power venture between GE and Hitachi, evacuates its American employees from the Fukushima plant to the United States, Gary Jackzo, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), is doing his best to downplay the Japanese nuclear disaster, which is now seeing radiation levels spike as high as 40 percent over normal levels in some parts of the Tokyo region. That is because on March 9, the day before the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami resulted in a major nuclear disaster, including hydrogen gas explosions and nuclear fuel meltdowns and fires at the GE-supplied reactors, Jackzo announced the NRC’s approval for GE-Hitachi’s new Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR).
As with other federal regulatory agencies, the NRC has become a virtual rubber stamp for the industry it is mandated to regulate. The Obama administration, which puts the interests of corporations ahead of any other consideration, avidly backs the building of more nuclear power plants, with Obama asking for $38 billion in federally-guaranteed loans for the nuclear power industry in his 2012 budget request. Obama also counts GE chief executive officer Jeffrey Immelt as his competitiveness and jobs panel chairman. Immelt is also a major donor to Obama’s political coffers.
GE-Hitachi President and CEO Caroline Reda also participated in a U.S. government trade mission to India last month. Led by outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, the tyrade mission’s top priority was cementing a deal for GE-Hitachi to provide two ESBWR reactors for India’s Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat states. Obama signed a nuclear cooperation pact with India last year during his state visit to the nation.
Obama’s loan guarantees are helping in the building of a joint GE, Hitachi, and Toshiba developed Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) reactor in south Texas. TEPCO, which operates the crippled Fukushima Number 1 and 2 reactor complexes, has a significant stake in the south Texas reactor project.
With Obama hell-bent on nuclear plant expansion in the United States, he finds himself backed by the corporate-owned media, including the conflicted reporters, editors, and producers at partly GE-owned NBC and MS-NBC. Even “progressive” talking heads like Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, and others realize that they cannot go far beyond the “radical centrism” of White House policy wonk boiler room operations, like the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress, in criticizing nuclear energy. Their paychecks depend on obedience to the corporate line.
The corporate shills at The Washington Post have also weighed in Wednesday with stories cautioning against too much fear over the nuclear situation in Japan and promoting GE’s nuclear reactor designs. As one long-time Washington journalist put it, in commenting on the tripe that passes for news in the Post, “the paper has the look of The Wall Street Journal and the content of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Disney, which owns ABC News, is more concerned about seeing the turnstiles move once again at Tokyo Disneyland, even as international airlines suspend service to Tokyo, than in having its news network report on the actual nuclear emergency in Japan.
Nuclear energy supporters have also been active on the Internet, with actual and virtual posters beating the drums for nuclear energy and criticizing those who cite the dangers of the Fukushima disaster as uninformed alarmists. The same situation existed after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year, when offshore oil drilling supporters championed the process falsely citing a past relatively pristine safety record. The disaster in the Gulf was preceded by Obama’s claim that offshore drilling was safe.
As the Geiger counters register high levels of radioactivity in Tokyo and people along the Gulf continue to get sick and even die from the effects of the oil disaster, it can safely be said that anyone who puts their health and security in the hands of Obama and his cronies is making a huge mistake, an error in judgment that could cost them their very lives. Obama will cut a deal with his corporate backers faster than it takes for him to pull down his zipper in a Chicago limousine for a “guy quickie.”
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2011 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
