However, in a discussion about responsibility versus liability, there has been news coverage in recent days discussing the fact that the pressure suppression methods for containing radiation in the event of a meltdown - methods used in the design of General Electric's Mark I and Mark II reactors - were under consideration to be banned in the 1970s.
According to the March 15th article at Huffingtonpost.com, “Reactors At Heart Of Japanese Nuclear Crisis Raised Concerns As Early As 1972, Memos Show”, in the early 1970s, at the same time several reactors were undergoing licensing, Stephen Hanauer, a senior member of the Atomic Energy Commission staff, suggested banning said ''pressure suppression'' methods. However, his opinions were disregarded.
According to the same article, Joseph Hendrie, a deputy director with the AEC, wrote in a September 25th, 1972 memo that banning these methods “would generally create more turmoil than I can stand.'' As of this writing, with half of the GE reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan facing a seemingly imminent meltdown, Hendrie's statement seems to smack eerily of the same fateful illogic as was perpetrated aboard the Titanic, when tragically, the number of lifeboats was reduced below capacity because it was thought “the deck would be too cluttered”.
According to the same article, Jim Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst with Greenpeace, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision 40 years ago to essentially put economics and politics ahead of more vigilant safety standards, came down to money. The pressure suppression containment systems use water or extreme cold to keep radiation from leaking into the environment. This type of construction was cheaper than dry systems, which involve building enormous domes or towers. However, according to Riccio, “they were inherently less safe” and “they were designed to withstand a pipe break, not a meltdown.”
Michael Tetuan, a spokesman for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, told The Wall Street Journal that: ''The BWR Mark 1 reactor is the industry's workhorse with a proven track record of safety and reliability for more than 40 years. Today, there are 32 BWR Mark 1 reactors operating as designed worldwide. There has never been a breach of a Mark 1 containment system.''
Though the issues with the reactors are believed to be due to power failures caused by the epic natural disasters in recent days, and not the design of the reactors, in the dire events that are unfolding hour by hour, and that could result in an apocalyptic radiation leak with permanent, horrific effects on not only Japan, but the globe, the liability, or not, of GE seems to wither in comparison.
