June 15, 2021
People Sometimes Refer to Covid-19 as China's Chernobyl
Unfortunately, a developing situation in Guandong Province may be a better candidate for that dubious title.
It appears that a nuclear plant, partially owned by a French company, has, possibly, started leaking radioactivity. The French company, Framatome, has warned of an "imminent radiological threat†and their people seem to be....rather anxious.
China, on the other hand, says that nothing is wrong and that"Two reactors have since the start of commercial operations been operating according to nuclear safety rules and regulations… currently, regular monitoring data shows the Taishan station and its surrounding environment meet normal parameters,†as reported and translated by the Asahi Shinbun.
OTOH, another part of the CCP's response, according to EDF (Framatome's French parent company), has been to raise the allowed radiation readings so as not to cause any distressing alarms to go off.
But we don't really know WHAT is actually happening.
China is notoriously opaque in such matters and it is easy to believe in any sort of coverup. After all, it's not like a Chinese reactor issue is without precedent.
It's still possible that all these reports represent an over-reaction. The French are saying that there is no melt-down or anything of that nature, and, in any event, news reports of anything nuclear tend to be rather breathless.
However, the French (who are involved) and the Japanese (who are potentially downwind if it gets bad) seem to be quite concerned about the situation.
In any event, this situation bears watching.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
03:41 AM
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If the communist government is in its late stages, local workers at foreign organized facilities may not be behaving in strictly sane ways. For the foreign company, a release is bad for their reputation and further earnings, and fixing it before it gets worse may mitigate some of the reputational damage. But, for the communist government, the incentives are different. Local deaths, now or later, are not a problem for them. Admitting to a problem is itself a real problem for them. That said, late stage communist regimes are too noisy to take any information too seriously.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Tue Jun 15 13:34:59 2021 (6y7dz)
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An interesting story that has been going around Taiwanese media over the last week is that the open arrival and departure of a USAF C-17 (At a military airbase, but in daylight and in public.) was for the purpose of extracting a high level defector from the mainland back to CONUS. While I doubt that is the case, the close timing of the C-17 and the French report (Which, it must be remembered, the US only knows because the French government heard it first from the company and approve it to be passed on.).
Posted by: cxt217 at Wed Jun 16 17:48:09 2021 (4i7w0)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Jun 18 14:15:41 2021 (5iiQK)
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