Many of the same conservatives who think the government can’t find its ass with both hands are perfectly happy to advocate increased nuclear energy dependence United States. This despite the fact that they know that in most cases the government would be running the reactors.
It is probably safe to say that they are not objectively pro-Fukushima. But I must admit I’m having little trouble replicating their thought processes, if that is indeed the proper turn of phrase.
Of course, many of them do think that that reactors should be run by private companies. Unimpeded, naturally, by onerous regulation or inspection regimens. This has the benefit of being internally self-consistent, although its consistency with reality is dubious at best. A brief thought experiment — imagine the Richmond California refinery fire was actually Fukushima — can give you a pretty good idea of what would happen in such a circumstance.
Fukushima could certainly been a lot worse. It could still be a whole lot worse. Unregulated, uninspected free enterprise destroyed an entire town with a fertilizer plant. I’m not sure I wants to know what it would do if it got its hands on a nuclear reactor.
This is not to say that I am unalterably opposed to nuclear energy. I think that some of the new reactor designs, funded adequately and overseen carefully by the government, might be a good partial answer to our energy problems. I just don’t see how it conservative could possibly think so.