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TEPCO hires nuclear safety advocate

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Good news, assuming she has the authority to make the necessary changes, bang heads together when necessary, and not be fired if she discloses examples of spectacular negligence. The only obstacles could now be unpredictable earthquakes and tsunami... .

1 ( +3 / -2 )

She holds positions on many boards and governing bodies, and is staunchly pro-nuclear power, so I wonder just how effective she can be in reining in some of TEPCO's worst practices (never mind that she's a foreigner, and a woman--not exactly familiar territory for TEPCO).

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Slightly biased interests if you ask me......Chairman of Nuclear Energy Startup Hyperion!.....anyway hope she does get the safety levels up to ABOVE standard because Japan does need nuclear power stations. And if anyone can, this lady probably can....she would kick any man into place! One tough cookie!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Looks like another attempt at deflection to me. "Oh look! We hired a woman! We're safer now, we swear!" Also, shouldn't safety and efficiency be part and parcel?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

She says her TEPCO team is putting together the world’s toughest safety regulations, and they will be ready “within months.”

It is not TEPCO to put together regulations. And even if they do, who will trust them? What is required of TEPCO is to implement both NRA regulations and international best practice on safety and security protocols of nuclear plants.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

When are these mullets gonna learn? There is nothing safe about nuclear power!

The fact they specifically hired a woman to do this job will backfire on them cos everyone knows that Japanese businessmen do not listen to women!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

this must be spin? Being an advocate and not an expert. She will be the face of TEPCO. And you have to trust a woman...right.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yeah, yeah, we believe you - you are completely safe now. You have this little puppet to hold out to anyone questioning you. Well...

As I just finished watching "The China Syndrome" it strikes me how such a movie never ever could have been made in Japan. Sad but true.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Good. A person who once said this becomes a person in charge of OUR safety. We really feel safe and secure. Thank you TEPCO.

"Approximately 20,000 lives were lost as a result of the earthquake and tsunami, but not one of those who died did so as a result of radiation. And radiation experts believe that no-one will die from radiation."

via CNN http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/05/business/lady-judge-fukushima-japan-nuclear/

4 ( +5 / -1 )

too little, too late. Wow a female shrill, how cute>

2 ( +2 / -0 )

ohhhh, I can smell another woodford scandal coming....

2 ( +3 / -1 )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara,_Lady_Judge -- here is her bio, you decide whether she has the qualifications. To me looks just like a cosmetic makeover. She seems to have a finger in so many pies, what is she superwoman. I would have thought, that under the circumstances they would have hired a full hands on professional with the qualifications to go with it. This is just a PR job hoping to whitewash the truth.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

TEPCO hires nuclear safety advocate

No... WE Tax payer hire a nuclear advocate for TEPCO.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I wonder if she is doing this out of the goodness of her heart and her love for the Japanese people or if if she is receiving just a little renumeration?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I wonder if Lady Judge would care to live in Fukushima or Kashiwazaki?

Nuclear power is not the best long term energy policy for Japan. No highly paid consultant is going to persuade me otherwise. But I'm just a heffalump.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

My big concern is that there is worse news to come, TEPCO/Gov are preparing an international face for media relations internationally. Why hire someone who has said the things she has, and will be lucky to participate meaningfully at a meeting. As has been pointed out this is only about gender in so far as the target demographic. I dread any story about TEPCO, costing the tax payer more than the Olimpics.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This is the updated story: <>http://m.washingtonpost.com/business/ap-interview-woman-hired-by-japan-utility-for-nuclear-safety-says-restarts-need-to-go-ahead/2013/07/05/f10403ce-e53c-11e2-bffd-37a36ddab820_story.html

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is just a TEPCO PR stunt. They hired Judge last year along with some other western nuke industry people to rehab TEPCO's image.. She is there to BS people, not change anything. She also has zero experience in nuclear engineering or anything really related to nuclear safety. She had a brief stint on one of the UK nuclear agency committees. Her appointment was heavily criticized because she had no experience at all to be on that board.

Previous comments about Judge and her earlier hire by TEPCO was that they thought she could convince women that TEPCO was now OK. That too is an old nuclear industry PR tactic. To try to use women to convince the demographic almost always against nuclear power, women. The US and UK do this heavily in their marketing and PR.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Let's back to serious question, where is the 6 billion $ TEPCO received recently from the govt ? Who is checking what they are really doing with the money ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just like LDP. Searching for woman who can make feel us better about nuclear power. This game is all about money.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This chick must be printing money!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

When are these mullets gonna learn? There is nothing safe about nuclear power!

Here we go again. But coal and oil are OK and aren't polluting our world.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

She has no direct expertise in engineering or nuclear engineer so totally useless- a political appointment to a regulatory committee doesn't count. Japan needs the best of foreign expertise. Its not true that TEPCO shouldn't (wouldn't) be allowed to operate- BP after those Texas disasters kept operating- it quite possible for them to get their act in to order.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The 'nuclear village' has just appointed one of its own...again.

More than ever, the words of the Roman poet Juvenal ring out, 'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?'

Who WILL guard the guards?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Takahiro Katsumi

And radiation experts believe that no-one will die from radiation

Do you know of Yoshida Masao, plant manager during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster?. He was the one who disobeyed TEPCO headquarters orders to stop injecting seawater into reactor No. 1. Months later, we were informed that No. 1 was already in meltdown at that time. If Yoshida Masao had stopped the seawater cooling when ordered, the disaster could have been hundreds of times worse. Just by chance, a sane man saved Japan,

Three months later, when Yoshida Masao's act was discovered by the board, he was reprimanded.

On TEPCO video tapes later released by court order, some TEPCO board members can be heard in the background saying "mottainai" (what a waste) during the decision to inject seawater in No. 1, because the seawater will corrode it and make it unusable in the future.

In December of 2011 Yoshida Masao retired from TEPCO with oesophagal cancer, which was later operated on. When asked if Yoshida Masao's cancer could have anything to do with the Fukushima disaster, their official answer was that it is impossible that the cancer could have been related to Fukushima because the incubation period was not long enough; it requires several years.

We all know that all people always have some cancer cells in their bodies. These cells are constantly being found and neutralized by white blood cells. If the white blood cells cannot keep up with the number of cancer cells, for example if someone is being irradiated every day such as was the case for Yoshida Masao, then a threshold is reached at which cancer cells reproduce exponentially and in short time you will have cancer.

TEPCO and the country are saved by Yoshida Masao, and then TEPCO stabs him in the back, because for financial reasons they cannot admit anybody could get sick from one of their reactors.

Her statement rings very hollow.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Chernobyl 2. Chernobyl 2. Chernobyl 2 Help all the displaced people Fix the radiation problems Air, water, land, contaminated materials, fish, plants, animals, people Forget about restart Burn bio waste or solar power Just say no to nuclear and human error

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Barbara Thomas was also involved with Lincoln Savings and Loan Association and American Continental Corporation, two companies whose collapse in 1989 would cause a major financial scandal. Both companies were run by Charles Keating, for whom she lobbied with the SEC in 1988. Later she was named in a resulting class action suit and settled out of court.

It's a charade to convince the japanese that nuclear energy is now safe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

TEPCO and the country are saved by Yoshida Masao, and then TEPCO stabs him in the back, because for financial reasons they cannot admit anybody could get sick from one of their reactors. Her statement rings very hollow.

So does yours - I don;t see anything in your post that suggest that you understand how biology and radiation mix. Do you want to expand on how you think the Fukushima incident might be a probable cause for his illness? The whole post could be branded "off topic" apart from the last line - in which case, "fair enough - your opinion!", if that's what you believe, but let us know "why?" when you can?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Okay, so they're hiring a woman who is clearly pro-nuclear and worked as a BANKER (ie. money) and lawyer. TEPCO is just trying to look good, when in fact they are more transparent than ever.

TEPCO: Look, people! See, we hired a safety advocate and have given her heaps of money, so it MUST be okay to restart things if she says so. So... can we PLEASE have your blessing for the reactors we already restar--I mean, we plan to restart if you say okay?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

TEPCO: Look, people! See, we hired a safety advocate and have given her heaps of money, so it MUST be okay to restart things if she says so. So... can we PLEASE have your blessing for the reactors we already restar--I mean, we plan to restart if you say okay?

I completely disagree. Lets burn fossil fuels because that makes sense. No one dies during extraction of the raw materials, and no one dies or gets sick because of pollution. What. More. Could. You. REALLY. Want??

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This judge needs a slap on her bottom and to be sent back to the kitchen. Professionally advocated unqualified comments are still only a load of BS. She being paid for these kind of comments stinks as those money came directly from me, and are pure waste.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This judge needs a slap on her bottom and to be sent back to the kitchen. Professionally advocated unqualified comments are still only a load BS. She being paid for these kind of comments stinks as those money came directly from me, and are pure waste.

You may partially and indirectly subsidise Tepco, but no where near completely. There are many paths forward, probably the best one is to make things better. Complaining at every step because you don;t agree or "think" there is a better way is not constructive and sounds similar to "Professionally advocated unqualified comments are still only a load". As for the comment about the kitchen??

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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