Comments on: BP’s crisis is no Three Mile Island

By: SpringBeck

SpringBeck — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:20:49 +0000

Just wondering if there were any fines or penalties for the management or companies responsible for the “Three Mile Island” disaster. It would be great if someone has a link they could send me respecting this information. Thank you

By: HBC

HBC — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:23:16 +0000

Estimates vary, but they’ll still be “cleaning up” Hanford until at least 2040. At TMI, “cleanup” appears to amount largely to not talking about the extent of the core meltdown or how much radioactive gas really escaped.

Exxon hasn’t paid up all the court-ordered damages it owes on the 1989 Valdez catastrophe. BP has yet to show much comprehension of the nature and extent of damage caused by it and/or its contract partners over several recent events.

Fair enough, these disasters aren’t all the same. Just, there’s too many of them involving the same sort of happy-go-lucky amateur executives with connections in high places, is all.

By: RRrrr

RRrrr — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:37:46 +0000

It’s time for corporate/business punishments to exceed the gross revenue to have been derived from the incident’s resource. If they had to give over the expected revenues from the well, they would not make mistakes. If one well would break the company, then it shouldn’t be in business. Small fry shouldn’t be in big business. No more wrist slaps. Time to reform ALL businesses/types of incorporation excess.
Financial, Energy, et al, ad nauseum. Corporate aristocracy needs be tore down, rebuilt.

By: steinin

steinin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:37:49 +0000

Of course, the BP disaster is not like Three Mile Island. Three Mile Island accident did not kill anyone; the BP accident killed eleven people. Three Mile Island did not harm anyone in any way. Radiation release was so small in the Three Mile Island accident that one gets more radiation dose from flying across the country in a jet domestic flight. Who knows today what the human adverse effects will be from the BP disaster, but it will be very large indeed. The environmental effects could be extreme in the BP disaster, not so for the Three Mile Island accident. The Three Mile Island accident was an economic disaster to the tune of $6 Billion dollars in today’s dollars (replacement cost for a plant today). The BP disaster will be considerably more than this and bring down a huge company with a lot of layoffs of mostly very good people. The utility owning the nuclear plant survives today. The similarity between the two events is that human error caused problems to be amplified leading to failure. In Three Mile Island, safety systems composed of multiple backup systems ultimately saved the situation and prevented adverse effects on the public. This was not the case for the BP disaster because there were no redundancy of diverse safety systems. Deep sea drilling could learn a lot from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the US government that places regulations on the nuclear industry and enforces such.

By: GreatRead

GreatRead — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:51:15 +0000

BP is going to pay over $50 billion when this all said and done. We just launched a Facebook competitor at story+burn.com

By: RexMax46

RexMax46 — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:53:13 +0000

This isn’t Three Mile Island, it’s worse! 3MI did not result in one confirmed human death, while the Deepwater explosion has already claimed 11 lives. It’s a shame the corresponding public opinion doesn’t have a modicrum of discernment.

By: jmils

jmils — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:43:05 +0000

Thunderhorse is a joint Exxon BP venture and it didn’t sink it listed badly and is in production today. Reuters get your facts right what about reminding the public of Ixtoc 1 flowing from Mexico for almost 10 months!!
Mexico claimed sovereign immunity for damages from the US!!!! That leak soiled 162 miles of US beaches!

By: HBC

HBC — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:37:50 +0000

People who were relatively casual about Three Mile Island are now looking at the BP fiasco, seeing the same thing all over again only with less radioactivity.

A certain Jarvis Cocker song comes to mind. You know the one.

By: drewbie

drewbie — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:49:01 +0000

I agree with the article. People were angry about 3MI enough to fight new nuclear plants because there are alternatives. People are angry at BP, but not enough to quit using oil products. The industry won’t be affected in the long term.

By: doctorjay317

doctorjay317 — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:54:03 +0000

In contrast, BP’s North American operations have been plagued by a string of accidents and scandals — including (1)the Texas City refinery explosion (which killed 15 and injured 170 others in 2005);(2) the sinking of the celebrated Thunder Horse platform (2005); and (3)leaks and corrosion on its Alaskan pipeline network. (2006).

3 strikes and still not out?

How was BP allowed to undertake such a high-risk project in the first place with this kind of track record?

Who’s getting rich behind this?