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Japan Still Pushing Nuclear Power
New plan changes 40-year limit to 60 years; nuclear opponents outraged
The Japanese government's decision to allow nuclear reactors to run as long as 60 years has anti-nuclear activists worried that lessons of Fukushima have not been learned.
photo: SandoCap
The Japan Times reports:
The central government announced its plan Tuesday, the 17th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe. Under the proposal, once a reactor hits its 40th year, its operator could apply for a one-time extension of up to 20 years under certain conditions.
The plan had been to shut down reactors after 40 years.
Yesterday a group of citizens protested at a nuclear hearing on two reactors. Reuters reports:
In a rare protest, a group of citizen observers delayed for hours a hearing at the trade ministry on Wednesday, at which the nuclear watchdog presented to experts its first completed review of stress test results for two reactors from Fukui prefecture's Ohi nuclear power plant.
The watchdog, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said in a draft report the tests showed the reactors were capable of withstanding a severe shock similar to the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant. But the report's review by a panel of experts is set to continue after observers demanded access to the deliberations and questioned the expert panel's impartiality.
The Japan Times notes that nuclear experts believe the extension decision came from political and profit motivations.
"Deciding to extend the life of the plants to up to 60 years was a purely political decision made due to pressure from the nuclear power lobby. It wasn't based on scientific data. And it was made despite the fact we don't know the exact cause of the meltdowns at Fukushima," said Hiroaki Koide, a nuclear physicist at Kyoto University Reactor Research Institute who turned against nuclear power years ago and wrote extensively before March 11 on the dangers of aging plants in quake-prone Japan. [...]
Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Kyoto-based Green Action, warned that operating reactors for six decades runs a high risk of another Fukushima-like accident occurring and is unnecessary, given that even with about 90 percent of the nation's nuclear plants currently shut down, there is enough electricity.
"The decision is a clear indication that the Japanese government has trashed safety concerns in order not just to protect the utilities from their investments but also to allow them to make even more money on decrepit nuclear plants," she said.
41 Comments so far
Show AllIn the CD Views section... Wednesday, January 4, 2012... Article titled, (2012 Is the Year to Finally Bury Nuke Power),,, by Harvey Wasserman.
Posted by Rfinston,, January 6, 9:58pm… (“I never said a single isotope will not radiate internal body cells, I said that it would have no risk of causing cancer.”)…. And then Finston went on and explained why that is so.
But RFinston is 100% wrong... If Finston replies, he will say I am taking his words “out of context“,, but those are his (exact) words, no matter why or for what reason he wrote them and he has written many similar nonsense comments about the radiation hazards of nuclear power.
Thomas Jefferson, or TJ, recently posted the following on another thread here.,,, > (“ The world of the invisible: Radioisotopes can shorten you life considerably. A new video by Nuclear expert Arnold Gundersen at Fairewinds associates has new evidence from the National Academy of Sciences that shows that continuous low-level radiation is actually more dangerous than high radiation from a nuke bomb. Apparently bomb survivors don't kick off like nuke power plant workers do.”).
http://fairewinds.com/
It's the video at the top of the site. Enjoy. ~TJ~.
There; we fed a troll,,, he's gotta be eating this up..
Putting human workers into irradiated areas to fix broken equipment is problematic, because no level of added radiation is completely safe. One particular radioactive particle or one gamma ray can set off a group of cancer cells.
The real problem is, you can't wait for a nuke to break and then go in and repair it.
As usual, hello to the nuclear industry's low-paid boiler room bloggers.
Pretty depressing - to see the same old same old actually underway.
Manysummits
======The waste CAN be dealt with.
But that doesn't change the equation, really.
Nuke power is still way to expensive using current technics.
Let me give you an archaeological view of the problem. Radioactive waste lasts for thousands of years, some for many tens of thousands of years. Almost every day archaeologists find new major ruins of human structures buried for thousands of years. For example, in Gobekli Tepe (potbelly hill) Turkey, we recently found major ruins dating back at least 10,000 years that no one knew existed until after major digging for years.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html
How can humans store nuclear waste for even 1000 years without losing track of where we stored it? After 5,000 years? After 10,000 years? It still remains lethal to all life, but now it lies buried, waiting for unsuspecting children or villagers to open it and destroy them.
This in plants where inspections have found corroded pipes, ragged wiring and worn out pumps, not to mention leaking various contaminants into the soil and groundwater in the vicinity of many of them.
Remember, the buck stops in the pockets of the rich.
As I've said several times in the past, there is no such thing as commercial nuclear power. It is a cover for military capability - period.
One might argue this is necessary for detente, or as it is more realistically termed - MAD (mutually assured destruction)
I imagine Yogi Berra might have been able to comment on this in his usual way?
Manysummits
========or
Let's be friends - together, we can mutually assure destruction
======Not all reactors are useful for military purposes.
Reactors designed for pure power-generation purposes may well prove commercially viable given the right social conditions.
You're dreaming matti - but that's democracy, isn't it - one person - one vote.
But then democracy is on the ropes - like nuclear power.
Luck to all of us
Mike
=====The Fukushina One power plant disaster is just one of more to follow,,, any country where nuclear power plants' are located.
I was going to say Japan is also the Land of the Emperor, but then look how well democracy has made out.
If a person looked and saw - I think one might conclude all hierarchies are a bad idea.
It might well be that hierarchy itself is the human response to - "too many people".
Getting mighty tired of all this. With ~ 440 nuclear power plants and no known way of getting rid of them and their spent fuel, and no intention by anybody with nuclear weapons of dismantling them or paying more than lip service to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, or any idea which actually makes sense -
Maybe it's time to revisit JFK's speech to the UN General Assembly in 1961, if only to remember that once upon a time, there was "the best pilot anybody had ever seen"
"...the problem is the life of this organization. It will either grow to meet the challenges of our age, or it will be gone with the wind, without influence, without force, without respect. Were we to let it die, to enfeeble its vigor, to cripple its powers, we would condemn our future.
For in the development of this organization rests the only true alternative to war -- and war appeals no longer as a rational alternative. Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer concern the Great Powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by wind and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war -- or war will put an end to mankind."
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkunitednations.htm
========Even just building new nukes of the same stupid design would be better than prolonging the life of the old reactors.
But as Wayne points out, Nippon has much better alternatives available.
This could be seen as a sign of general social stagnation cum collapse.
Just dumb on top of dumb. ;(
In esence; the scientists were saying that it would be mass suicide to continue testing atomic bombs... The scientists words were taken very, very seriously by world leaders and the atmospheric tests stopped,,, well finally,, France had to test a few more.
Of course that didn't stop nations from bulding massive arsenals of nuclear weapons and see who could accumulate the most and threaten one another with nuclear war, where thousands of atomic bombs would be detonated.
After time cooler heads prevailed and the "Cold War" ended... Or did it? __ No, it didn't end, it's just not as noticable since the United States stopped flying a dozen Chrome Dome missions with fully armed B-52s 24/7 = 365 days a year, the Berlin Wall was knocked down and Russian leaders visited the United States and American presidents visited Russia,,, peace at last.
Peace at last? ,,, Nucler submarines armed with dozens of nuclear tipped, multiple war head ICBMs, replaced the nuclear armed B-52s and hundreds of ICBMs in silos are still manned 24/7 = 365. The "cold war" is just as hot as ever,, it just has a lot less publicity... Nuclear subs are very stealthy...They just have more trouble hiding under the Arctic's ice now... Global warming does trouble the wizards at the Pentagon.
Then of course we always have the threat of a nuclear war starting becaue the Arabs and Jews are still fighing their war which began 5,000 or so years ago and of coursr there is North Korea with paranoid leaders and Pakistan and India staring at each other and China still wants Taiwan... Funny too, no coal or oil on Taiwan.
Nuclear war? /// That actually is not very likely, but it is always possible... World leaders are aware it would be mass suicide, but it's always nice to have the nuclear weapons handy,,, kinda like,, "I have my gun loaded and I carry, so don't mess with me",,, that type of a macho attitude.
What most people are totally unawre of however, is nuclear power, splitting atoms in controlled nuclear reactors to boil water, to make steam, to drive turbines and produce electrical power, is far more dangerous than nuclear bombs and "Cold Wars". That is becaue when uranium is used for fuel in a nuclear reactor, plutonium is produced in the reactor and plutonium is the most deadly man made poison there is.
At the Fukushima nuclear power plant, there is enough plutonium in the still loaded spent fuel rod ponds to produce more than 12,000,,, 20 megaton hydrogen bombs... If another earthquake or heavy aftershock hits in that area, it could insure the release of all of that plutonium into the atmosphere... Would that kill everyone on Earth? __ I don't know... We'll have to wait and see and just hope no more aftershocks or eathquakes hit near there.
But it isn't just Fukushia that is a ticking time bomb... 20% of the 400+ nuclear reacots on Earth are located very near earthquake fault lines, more thant 20 here in the United States... So there is the real danger of nuclear power, not just a TMI or a Chernobyl, but the real danger of a really nasty Fukushima, one far worse than what has occurred in Japan... And of course the Fuku disaster is far from over, it still could be 12,000 hydrogen bombs going off.
(*12,000*)... And nuclear scientists and radiation experts warned us that maybe only 50 more exploded could end life on Earth.
Why did I write this? _ Because I'm sick, a crazy old fear monger and l like to scare people... Wanna hear about the Arctic (methane) threat? /// That's actually even scarier,, ya got ten more years, maybe 20,,, so eat some chili cheeze dogs, pizza and beer and enjoy the Super Bowl.
You only live once, so live it up and don't worry about nuclear energy and global warming, and cancer is cureable, saw that on a TV ad for cancer treatment centers.
I too was around during atmospheric weapons testing, Wayne, and I opposed both that, building fallout shelters, and the preparation for Nuclear War. But I don't remember that any "nuclear scientists warned that atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs must cease, or it woud cause the end of life on Earth..." I know we believed that a full blown nuclear war might do that, but not the testing of such weapons, much less that as few as 50 more would do so..
So your belief that a nuclear power plant accident, such as at Fukushima, might kill everyone on earth due to the release into the atmosphere of all the plutonium at the plant is totally implausible. I share your concern, but you are indeed a self-described "crazy old fear monger and l like to scare people..."
It seems as if you once stated you were in your 50s... Yes; you did write that once.. So in the1960s when you were protesting atmospheric atomic bomb testing, you would have been at the age of perhaps 5 or 6? .... 2?
You also say a full blown nuclear war could kill all life, but 12,000 hydrogen bombs going off couldn't possibly do that.. How do you know that? ... Uhh,,, I do believr you just posted your comments in a reply to me for the sake of argument, or are you a pro nuker,lying idiot? __ Just askin. And you say you share my concerns.... No RFinston ,,, you don't... That clearly is not true... so you definently are a liar and therefore you cannot be trusted... No reply is necessary, we can just ignore one another... Yeah; I'm a crazy old fool, you have often called me, I remember you now,,, but I don't tell lies.
People worship their kings and queens, their princess Dianas snorting coke in the back of a $200000 chauffeur-driven cars in solidarity with the working class. Bertrand Russell described this beautifully in his long essay/book "Power."
~ tomcarberry ~
We seem to have been caught in one of Ronald Wright's "progress traps."
What originally developed to protect 'the nest' now threatens all of us, both inside and outside of our fortifications.
This, I believe, is what JFK saw so clearly - and we have yet to.
There is a new look at "The Limits to Growth" (1972) in the January New Scientist. The article, "Doomsday Book", points out in the clearest language that the delayed response of the public and politicians is a primary reason why the curves do not stabilize, but collapse.
In this we are consistent. We do not react in time, either to JFK's warnings and solutions, or to the admonitions of the writers of the original "Limits to Growth".
--------"Humanity's use of energy and materials is now so far above the globe's long-term, sustainable capacity that collapse of some sort is inevitable. Thus I do not pay much attention these days to discussions about how one or another technology will "save" us. It is nevertheless very gratifying to see our message succinctly and accurately conveyed." (Dennis Meadows - recent - see link)
.http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328480.500-doomsday.html
It is this slow response time that is crucial - and that the mountaineer (all old mountaineers), have learned to avoid, but hierarchial civilizations and their citizens have not. The seemingly built in inertia is thus a killer. Can this be addressed in the age of the Internet - or is human nature inside civilizations doomed to prevaricate?
I would explore this further?
Mike
=====Nor does it seem to me that "history has rewarded", it's that the rapists, pillagers, looters, and arsonists have rewarded themselves by killing those who might stand in their way, making it illegal for anyone to threaten them, and by demanding that we worship them (which triggers cognitive dissonance, and we wind up believing that, since we worship them, they must be worthy of worship).
There was a very nice ('60s-cheesy, but well worth watching) film made in South Africa in the '60s, Dingaka (Witch Doctor). The dingaka of the title (a minor but pivotal character in the whole film) is a psychopath, ruling his tribe by superstition and terror. He protects himself by convincing the people that the gods will punish anyone who so much as touches him, and will destroy the whole tribe if he's harmed in any way. It's not at all hard to see parallels between his behavior and that of our own political ruling class --if we want to look. Whether it's the terror he instills or the worship he demands, there are stomach-turningly-clear parallels.
If we want to get rid of nukes and similar, we must reduce the human population to a size Earth can support, keep it there, and get rid of the psychopaths. And there's no way to do pop-reduction in time, humanely, other than post-partum sterilisation. It will be interesting to see whether enough of us wise up in time to accept reality.
Actually most readers here have likely heard all they wish to hear or need to know about Fukushima and or the Arctic methane threat and if you are tryig to make a point, you are as usual wasting your time.
Where were you...it's been a day since you last posted? It's long-time off the home page, man. I knew you couldn't let someone who sees through all your exaggerated blabbering have the last word...you never can. Blabber on!
Do you really believe someone else will read this? LOL
Hey RF, if or when another nuker thread is posted here, I have some really great stuff to post that shoots all of your and Johnny's lying crap about radiation poisoning down in flames... Scary stuff too and factual medical info... Happy, happy, can hardly wait.
Now next Thurdsay we're flying back to Alaska for a few days, so hope one doesn't show Wednesday afternoon or during that time frame.... I'll be busy Wednesday.