RE: Japan Revokes Nuclear Plant License - AP Article

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>]

 On Tuesday March 28, 2000 11:55 AM you wrote :

<snip>
> Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who signed the letter to the company, called
> JCO's responsibility for the accident "extremely serious" and that it
> deserved to be stripped of the license. 
> 
> The penalty was effective immediately. 
<snip>
> --- 
> 
Comment: Its interesting to compare this stripping of an operating license
with the continued operation of other industries such as mines, refineries,
chemical plants, airlines, railways, etc. etc., where fatal accidents have
previously occurred.

FOR EXAMPLE, from today's news :

> http://www.southam.com/montrealgazette/newsnow/cpfs/world/000328/w032822.h
> tml
> Cause unknown in deadly Texas blast 
> MEGAN K. STACK
> PASADENA, Tex., (AP) - Authorities have turned their attention to finding
> the cause of a deadly blast at a Phillips Petroleum chemical plant, the
> third major explosion at the factory in the past 11 years. 
> One worker was killed and at least 71 others injured in Monday's explosion
> near the Houston Ship Channel. An ensuing fire sent thick smoke over the
> area. "I was in the main shop area when I heard a loud explosion," said
> Tim Williams, a plant worker who estimated he was more than 200 metres
> from the explosion. "My ears hurt, and I took off running. I looked back
> and saw flames, and kept going." 
> Search crews discovered the body of a missing employee five hours after
> the early afternoon blast. Plant general manager Jim Ross said 32
> employees and 39 contract employees were taken to hospitals with injuries
> that included burns, smoke inhalation and anxiety-related disorders. 
> Spokesman Norm Berkley said the plant employs about 850 people, and said
> about 600 would have been there at the time of the blast. 
> Workers in neighbouring plants and residents in the area were urged to
> remain indoors while schoolchildren were kept inside after the bell rang.
> Smoke continued to rise two hours after the blast, and was visible across
> Houston. 
> The Phillips complex was the site of a 1989 series of explosions and fires
> in a polyethylene reactor that killed 23 and injured 130. 
> Last June, two people were killed and four were injured in an explosion at
> the complex. Afterward, federal officials fined Phillips $204,000 US for
> 13 alleged safety violations. 
> "We have worked tremendously hard to make sure a situation like that
> never, ever occurred again," Berkley said. "Obviously, it has." 
> 
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