I guess my cynicism comes from a feeling that we're a few years past the point where gestures alone are laudable. The world is going to hell and everyone is just wringing their hands


keep to the Fen Causeway

"A private company puts mainly its priorities on the high risks it could be involved in. At FANC-AFCN all risks, even the smallest ones need to be addressed because otherwise parliamentary questions will push you to do something about those smaller risk items. Perception that people might have is also an element to be considered by the FANC-AFCN."

Then recent events have also caused him to reassess his views and his comments come as a major report by the FANC-AFCN is about to be published:

"Design was made sometimes 30 or 40 years ago, when the conditions were quite different from now. Thinking about the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, we will now have a lot of conditions for new plants and also for the existing plants related to the required robustness against terrorist attacks. After the Fukushima event, we try to add extra protections not taking into account probabilities anymore. Initial design was mainly linked to probabilities. If the probability of an occurrence was low, then nothing was required about protecting against that. Nowadays, after the Fukushima event or the Twin Towers attack, the philosophy has changed. We assume a probability equal to one, we focus on what could happen to the plant and see whether we will be able to sustain cooling and avoid a big problem impacting people and the environment."

...
Fukushima was a consequence of electricity grid and cooling losses. As a result, the purpose of the Stress Tests is not to look at the damages done at a nuclear power station by an aircraft crash but is more focused on the effect of such events (natural or man-made) on the internal electricity grid or cooling systems. In other terms, the purpose is to keep cooling systems operational even if the reactor building has been significantly damaged. The Stress Tests report was given by the operators to the FANC-AFCN on 28st of October and the agency will comment and make the report definitive on December 31st of this year. There will finally be a Peer Review process at the European level during the first four months of 2012."

http://www.bnsorg.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=147:willy-deroovere&ca tid=37:interviews&Itemid=109

I can never work out how why people think the media is accurate outside their realm of expertise when they know how crap it is on matters they have knowledge of.

The second set of three songs set it all in motion.

And then there's another geezer's music, a few months ago.

"finding my religion, i might be a pagan"
"i used to dig picasso, then the big tech giant turned him into wallpaper."

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin