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by big_chungus 2337 days ago
Horror story from a friend who worked in China as a consultant on the power grid back in the mid-aughts. Basically the guy who was leading construction on the plants was working with another who was to supply the concrete for the walls. Problem was, the concrete guy was behind on his "five year plan", so plant guy didn't have enough concrete. Plant guy still has to meet _his_ targets, so he just builds the plants with thinner walls.

Sure it's an anecdote, but the point is China has very loose safety standards and cuts a lot of corners. She's much more okay with losing a few people here and there.

1 comments

Horror story from my stepfather at Bruce Nuclear Power Plant in Ontario Canada: At least twice a year there was a "secret leak" where he had to come home early but no media was alerted and they had to hire racialized folks from the city to go in and make repairs. He also stole reactor sealer to seal our basement from spring leaks and our basement leaked. And on and on. Canada has very loose safety standards and cuts lots of corners.
> At least twice a year there was a "secret leak" where he had to come home early but no media was alerted...

Uh, [citation needed].

> ... they had to hire racialized folks from the city to go in and make repairs...

Racialized... folks?

> He also stole reactor sealer to seal our basement from spring leaks and our basement leaked.

That might be because, and I'm speculating here, your basement isn't a reactor. I've heard that a sealant for a specific kind of material may not work on literally any other kind of material.

> Canada has very loose safety standards and cuts lots of corners.

That's just pretty objectively false.

>> Canada has very loose safety standards and cuts lots of corners.

> That's just pretty objectively false.

Don't they still mine asbestos in Canada?

While a fair point, no, the last mine stopped operating in 2011 in Thetford Mines, and a total ban was brought in around 2018. The government is investing in some technologies to extract magnesium from the left-overs while neutralizing the remaining fibers [1].

[1] https://business.financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/canada-b...