Quote of the Day
He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not, but rejoices in what he has.
Epictetus
Post Quote of the Day
What the Japanese earthquake has proved is that even the oldest containment structures can withstand the impact of one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history. The problem has been with the electrical pumps required to operate the cooling system. It would be tragic if the result of the Japanese accident were to prevent development of Generation III reactors, which eliminate this design flaw. - William Tucker
I've said the same thing in earlier posts.
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update
One of the questions that occurs to me as we hear accounts of the 50 worker/heroes moving in and out as radiation levels ebb and spike respectively is to what extent robotics have improved to assist in these scenarios; I was particularly impressed with how the robots were able to work at depths where humans can't...
The information being provided is fragmentary, and the situation is opaque. [I believe that some of this may reflect cultural issues, e.g., perhaps a sense of shame or loss of face in asking for help or admitting a mistake. There is no doubt in my mind about the quality of Japanese engineering and products.] Tokyo Electric Power appears to be readying a direct temporary power line (but gave no estimated time) to the facility that will provide power to the pumps to get water to the spent fuel rod pools and reactors. Presumably this fills some gap which hasn't been met by any interim mobile or replacement generators (e.g., previously not working for reactor #5) and could explain reports of workers directly injecting coolant into the containment vessels. Some suggest that #4 spent fuel rod pool has been more problematic is because more spent rods had been transferred from that reactor (versus the remaining two containment vessels (#5 and #6) in maintenance at the time of the incident). There have reports of exposed spent fuel rods and/or related short-lived fires in the vicinity of reactor #4 (not in the spent fuel rod pool) [the refueling deck]; a white cloud was earlier believed to have come from containment vessel #3, although a later report from the Japanese government seemed to dismiss any serious damage and the MIT blog says that it may have actually be confounded with reactor #2 problems. [Another report suggests the observed cloud was water vapor from spent fuel rod pool #3.] There are more recent reports of water (with boric acid) being dropped on reactor #3 and possibly reactor #4 spent fuel rod pools. According to one source, spent fuel rods in pools #3 and #4 have remained covered [although this comes from Japanese company or government sources and is in dispute, which may explain the water drop discussed above]. There have also been reports that the police are considering the use of water cannons to replenish fuel rod pool #4. Multiple outlets report an estimated 70% of the core of reactor #1 has been damaged (but it is now being adequately cooled) and 33% at reactor #2; replenishment of water to reactor #2 is a topic of discussion. The operators have been able to work the emergency diesel generator for reactor #6 to address coolant issues for reactor #5 (i.e., fuel rods in the containment vessel although the vessel was shut down for maintenance).
One of the sources I have cited above seems particularly readable and well-informed, and I want to emphasize an important statement in his daily blog post which I don't think has been discussed by news sources:
The decay heat production at the three stricken, and now-known-to-be-fuel-damaged reactors at Fukushima, continues to drop exponentially. By the end of the day tomorrow, heat production rates at each reactor will be but a small fraction of a megawatt.
On the other hand, Shep Smith reports US inspectors are reporting no water in spent fuel rod pools #3 and/or #4. The expert he was interviewing raised issues with dumping water on the rods if all water was gone. Smith was also implying he thought the fires were coming from the spent fuel rod pools. Hannity started his hour tonight with an alarmist segment and specifically used terms like "meltdown". There are confusing elements here. The implication from the source above that decay heat of the spent fuel rods would be very modest (especially after days or longer in the pool); I would probably agree with that (otherwise one would expect much more containment in the design of the spent fuel rod pool itself). Shep Smith keeps implying TEPCO (the plant's operators) is not a reliable source and prefers what he hears from American personnel. One Fox reporter on Hannity directly stated that a fire had broken out in the spent fuel rod pool.
I do agree the discussion of water cannons and dropping coolant from helicopters has the appearance of incidents spiraling out of control, but the fact that that company had more than tripled the number of workers on site to 180 (as CNN reported) and if the rods were compromised in a manner similar to those in the containment vessels we should already have been tracking comparably large amounts of cesium, iodine, etc. released into the environment, and I haven't heard that. I'm more inclined to think the situation is finally beginning to approach a manageable state, not as Fox News appears to suggest, the start of the Apocalypse. However, I have to say I would be more comfortable about that inference if I had more complete, less conflicting information.
We're #1! We're #1! We're #1!
With a combined federal/state corporate tax rate of 39.2%, the US will have the highest rate after Japan lowers its 39.5% tax rate to 35% at the end of the month. Among the other countries that used to have higher rates than the US from 10 years ago: Canada (42.57%-29.52%), Germany (52%-30.2%), and Belgium (40.2%-33.99%). In fact, France is the only other OECD country with a tax rate over 30%. President Obama to date has only discussed lowering corporate rates in a quid pro quo for certain subsidies for companies in the "wrong" industries (e.g., domestic oil exploration and production) while if they are in the "right" industries (e.g., infrastructure plays (engineering and construction), alternative energy, etc.): well, some subsidies are "more equal" than others. Isn't it obvious why international corporations would want to invest more in the businesses and jobs where the government taxes even more of their profits? Talk about cutting off one's nose to spite his face... And PLEASE--don't try to hide behind the deficit: high tax rates aren't helping bring in more revenue. Even countries with higher social net expenditures are cutting business taxes for reasons that escape the President...
And while we're talking about cutting business taxes (well, except Illinois: there must be something in the water for politicians from Illinois like...), let's start talking about business-toxic regulations and mandates, an indirect form of taxation....
Sunday Talk Soup
Chuck Todd, political director of NBC News, substituted this week on Meet the Press for David Gregory as host. (No doubt David Gregory's hair needed a day off.) Among other things, Chuck Todd interviewed Mitch Daniels, GOP Indiana governor and one of my preferred candidates for next year's Presidential election, and sounded out the frequently repeated progressive talking point that Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) swerved voters with his decision to restrict collective bargaining. Chuck Todd doesn't seem to have done his research into Milwaukee County, where Walker had several notorious battles, on the record, with public sector unions, pointing out just under 50% of the budget went to personnel costs; the unions bucked Walker every step of the way as Walker fought to privatize, slash programs, and demand employee givebacks in order to hold the line on property taxes. The unions accused him of union busting then, and they fought Walker's election as governor every step of the way. So the idea people elected Walker not knowing of his tough stands against unions in 8 years as county executive is absurd. Unions aren't elected to serve the people: they represent workers paid by the people.
Chuck Todd was barking up the wrong tree given the fact that Mitch Daniels had himself taken collective bargaining off the table his first day as governor by executive order:
GOV. DANIELS: I don't know. But I would say that from our own experience that if you have a serious fiscal problem, which we did six years ago and don't today, that having the flexibility to manage government, not only to save money, but to serve people better--and I could illustrate this in a hundred ways--is pretty important. And before we discontinued government union collective bargaining in Indiana, you really couldn't make any of the changes.
Thumbs UP! But let's hear fair-minded Chuck Todd characterize Mitch Daniel's tenure as governor:
MR. TODD: All right, let's talk about your record as governor of Indiana. I want to put up a basic thing here on jobs. When you took office, the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent. Now it's 9.1 percent. When you took office, nearly three million Indianan--Hoosiers were employed, now it's 2.8. I say this--so it's a loss of 144,000 jobs. I say this because you have made a huge effort to pay down the state's debt, to really pinch the budget down. But that has--job creation hasn't come with it. And we've heard arguments among Republicans here in Washington and across these statehouses that you shrink government, it will create jobs. When did--we're not seeing evidence of that in Indiana.
There's more to a governor's performance than meeting a budget, and state taxes are just one cost burden for businesses; businesses grow based on specific market opportunities and general economic conditions, beyond a governor's control. A state government has influence by fostering a pro-market environment, including a competitive tax burden, favorable regulatory system and responsive, cost-effective state services, good schools for children, a well-kept infrastructure, effective public safety services, etc. Mitch Daniels also wants to point out that a more efficient government is more sustainable in the long run, and a proper analysis is intrinsically unknowable (i.e., if Democrats had instead held the governor's mansion over the past 7 years); what he can do is point out the state governments of neighboring Illinois and Michigan are facing difficult economic challenges, just starting to recognize unsustainable costs. [In essence, Mitch Daniels actually responded that his policies had working to that end, e.g., with full employment, until the economic tsunami of 2008 shocked the national economy, but Indiana was in the best shape of any state in his region precisely because of his state's business-friendly environment.]
First Nominations for 2011 Jackass of the Year
My first (unpublished) award went to Eliot Spitzer (2008), former NY governor, and the last two awards went to Alan Grayson (2009), former Florida Congressman, and Ken Salazar (2010), Secretary of the Interior. As usual, these awards of dishonor come with no stipend, certificate, or trophy--other than a few bytes in cyberspace and earn the enduring contempt of this blogger.
Never doubt for a second about the intrinsic ability of progressive Democrats to distinguish themselves with profound lapses of civility, personal ethics, or partisanship or to do or say outrageous things. And so, without further ado, our first nominees:
- the 14 Democratic state senators of Wisconsin: My first group-level nominees attempted to extort the Republican majority by holding the budget process hostage by preventing a quorum call, even though they knew that the GOP could have passed the legislation in question (as they did) outside the budget bill, not subject to a quorum call. The reason that collective bargaining was restricted was to empower elected administrators to gain more control over costs given unsustainable growth in overall compensation packages, including any deferred (retiree) compensation. This is an issue involving putting the taxpayer, not one's political supporters, first.
- Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY): Nominated last year because of his infamous July rant, Weiner gets his second nomination (like Alan Grayson) for his dishonorable personal attacks against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, trying to get him disbarred because of a failure not to disclose certain income of his wife's. (Weiner and other progressives want to derail at least one conservative jurist before the constitutionality of ObamaCare comes before the court.)
- Attorney General Eric Holder: What could I hold against him? Let me count the ways, including: a refusal to defend DOMA, the morally egregious demand of Dayton, OH that it lower the passing score to officer exams to enable the pass rate for minority candidates to accommodate DOJ's quota; and his continuing refusal to prosecute New Black Panthers for openly intimidating voters during the 2008 election.
Political Humor
A few originals:
- President Obama has been playing a lot of golf recently; the biggest problem with his game is chipping in from those moral hazards.
- Politicians are criticizing President Obama for spending time on his March Madness picks for the Final Four. Except for those from Ohio State, Duke, Pittsburgh, and Kansas.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
America, "Daisy Jane". A glorious, simple melody, great arrangement, a unique transitional chorus: soft rock doesn't get any better than this...
