Could you imagine the recovery in Japan if they were to rely on windfarms or solar panels. The people are cold enough without having to put up with misinformation from Green zealots who want to fly the world, keep warm and use computers but are unable to grasp simple realities that it is either nuclear or coal that actually works.

The author shoots himself in the foot with the very line that spindoc identified: "A clear pattern is evident - those with the greatest ideological attachment to nuclear power have provided the most inaccurate commentary."

One needs look no further than Dr Green's blurb to see that he has a great ideological attachment to nuclear power. Googling him confirms this.

From his own assertions, then, it seems reasonable to draw the conclusion that he is providing us with quite an inaccurate commentary.

"This whole episode has been fascinating for the role played by so-called "expertise".

The expertise of knowledgeable pro-nuclear power people on various threads who get quite snippy and condescending to lay people relying on MSN. The expertise of the anti-nuclear lobby saying "we told you so".

Then there's the expertise we assumed would be brought into play by the authorities in Japan who, dealing with an event of a magnitude way above any anticipated, have left many of us bemused by their struggle to get control of the situation.

We have experts telling us it's dire and experts telling us it's hardly anything to worry about at all.

When all is said and done, the whole episode is beginning to take on farcical dimensions. As each day goes by and another reactor building explodes, authorities seem ever more desperate for a cobbled together solution. There was a report that at one stage a fire truck was driven up to a convenient crack in the outer housing and a fire hose pushed through. The latest is a request to the police for a "water cannon". This, after a plan to drop water using a helicopter was abandoned - apparently due to "high radiation levels around the plant"(?)

So much for expertise.

Ironic that a Muppet-sounding Friends of the Earth hero is preaching about spin. History tells us (again and again) that the author’s activist group is extremist.

Here's an Engineer and Expert who sounds quite convincing:

A hands on American engineer who has worked in power stations for 39 years http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/110314/japan-nuclear-meltdown-disaster

"GlobalPost: Officials have said the possibility of a large-scale radiation release is small. Do you agree?

Arnold Gundersen: I think that the probability of a large scale release is about 50-50, and I don’t call that small.

GlobalPost: Why do you think that?

Gundersen: For several reasons. One, you’ve got three reactors involved. Two, you’re already picking up radiation on aircraft carriers [including USS Ronald Reagan] a hundred miles away at sea, on helicopters 60 miles to the north, and in town. So clearly, as these plants become more and more difficult to control, it becomes quite likely that a containment now will have a gross failure. And a gross failure will release enormous amounts of radiation quickly."

But their is a bright side of this tragedy - at least Assange hasn't been able to steal the spotlight for about a week.

Pete

Quite so, Poirot.
If only the combined "expertise" of this broad range "experts" could be used as a fire suppressant, the problem would be resolved.

- Building a nuclear reactor on a known fault line?
- Not including multiple contingency levels on one of the fundemental requirements for a "safe" reactor - a supply of water to cool the rods?

A couple of fundememntal oversights there I think.