Nuclear power plants have been around for many years and of people living near them never think about them until something happens to bring them to the top of mind. The crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ich plant in Japan has focused attention like a laser around the world on existing nuclear power plants and their safety.
How will this affect the future of nuclear power around the world? In general nuclear power has been far safer in terms of deaths than coal mining and oil drilling, but the nature of nuclear incidents are harrowing. Unlike a worksite based coal mine or oilfield accident, radiation from a nuclear core meltdown can spread for miles contaminating the ground and people. Radiation damage can be instant and delayed. Short term radiation sickness from high doses of exposure and long term illnesses like cancer are both possible.
It is the invisible nature of radiation that strikes fear into the hearts of men. How does someone know they are exposed and that is the driver of fears of mortality?
The United States probably leads the world in one area of manufacturing and that is the fabrication of celebrities out of previously unknown individuals. When it comes to manufacturing other items on our soil we have lost considerable steam. We made Snooki, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian stars, but can we make a cell phone.
Even Senator John McCain though we made some products in the United States because the company is headquartered here. An article titled “McCain flunks Made in America 101” by Rebecca Stewart March 6, 2011 and published on the CNN website discusses how Senator McCain thought the iPhone and iPad were made in the United States when they are assembled in China. Senator McCain can’t really be faulted to think that two of the hottest products on the planet from a decidedly American company would also be built here.
Of course we still manufacture some products in the United States, but the shift to outsourcing manufacturing to lower cost, lower regulation locales around has devastated the heart of “made in America.” The relaxing of trade laws allowed the labor force to become a worldwide pool and in most cases the lowest cost workers won. Everything can be taken to an extreme and the extreme in this case is we may have outsourced the ability of this nation to support itself by send too many wages elsewhere. People can’t buy much without jobs and everyone can’t work in service, retail or become a reality TV star. There are only so many of The Real Housewives and Jersey Shore television shows to go around, we have plenty of people that can assemble iPads, iPhones and refrigerators.
An article by Gary Reeves titled “Dallas family empties home of foreign-made goods” March 1, 2011 and published on the WFAA website states that in 1950 10% of the goods purchased in the United States were foreign, now over 50% of what Amercans purchase is foreign made. Some have become so jaded as to say if some of these products were built here they would be too expensive. With that thinking the cause is lost because we have given up on ourselves.
