Greed and corruption blew up South Korea’s nuclear industry

Nuclear power presents the perfect storm for negative public image:<p>- Environmental movement went anti-nuclear in the &#x27;70s for no particular reason.<p>- <i>Fear Sells</i> in the media. Nothing strikes fear like the invisible killer of radiation. Nuclear disasters get media attention like nothing else.<p>- Nuclear weapons are scary, and rightfully so. And they share a word in common with &quot;nuclear power,&quot; so there you go.<p>Being tightly regulated and controlled by government makes an industry ripe for &quot;corruption and greed&quot; since it takes political connection and maneuvering to get things done.<p>It really is amazing, though, how much public image and politics can completely stall forward progress on a power source with so much promise.

Okay, I’m a South Korean citizen. That, is one aspect. Consider another aspect. Nuclear reactors are dangerous. That doesn’t change. We get the Fukushima accident much more prominently because Japan is so close th Korea and everyone (literally everyone) had to worry about eating Fukushima fish. Nuclear reactors are dangerously close to so many cities, and that can’t change, because our country is too small, and there are so many mountains (which take up space). It’s different from saying ‘Hey, it’s failure rate is super small, it’s gonna be safe.’ and living close to the reactors and worrying about the tiny failure rate. And, I was Science High School student which studied nuclear reactors in detail. What would usual people feel?

Another reason for the &quot;country’s shrinking appetite for nuclear&quot; that I can cite is the North Korean terrorist threat.<p>Rationally, there is little reason for the North Korean state to cause long term damage to a soil that they claim belongs to them, and also the number of such attacks is now close to zero, but as we all know this kind of fear will not go away.<p>Renewables could work as a replacement, but this may only further weaken South Korea&#x27;s position in the energy sector in the 21st century. They have a large petroleum and natural gas refining sector, which as we know needs to be phased out. What will be their trajectory in this context?

Yeah there was greed and corruption but as the article says other countries have stopped too:<p>&gt;A similar reversal is beginning in China, until recently seen as nuclear energy’s biggest champion. There, as in South Korea, Fukushima awakened public fears and forced the government to adopt tougher safety standards, which now threaten to push the cost of nuclear power out of reach. Of the world’s other major producers of nuclear power, only Russia is still aggressively building more reactors...<p>I hope renewables and batteries play out.

Of all the words you could use to describe the nuclear industry, blew up should not be in the list

&quot;Blew up&quot; in the context of the nuclear industry could be not the best choice of words...

What they didn&#x27;t explain was that this crazy APR1400 is the same design is the one of most dangerous and experimental US reactors, South Texas and Palo Verde, with vessels of double size and half the security measures. The only ones matching them in size and dangerousness were the experimental Korean 1400 ones.

it&#x27;s one industry where you must assume the worst of the companies that run it because the consequences of mistakes are so terrible

I thought greed and corruption were good for industry...

Scott Adams just interviewed Michael Shellenberger on his podcast. Michael explains nuclear power and how it compares to the competition.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.dilbert.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;04&#x2F;30&#x2F;episode-512-scott-adams-part-1-pro-nuclear-environmentalist-and-expert-michael-shellenberger&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.dilbert.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;04&#x2F;30&#x2F;episode-512-scott-adams-...</a>