Present State of Nuclear Japan
Every Friday in Tokyo, anti-nuclear citizens gather on the streets running in front of the Prime Minister Office.
The police are protecting the PM Office, but more than 10,000 people are expressing their opinions against restart of nuclear power generation though all the nuclear power plants in Japan were halted till this July.
As the summer has started and people are expected to use more electricity for air-conditioning, the Noda Cabinet decided to resume operation of a nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture situated north of Osaka and Kyoto. This power plant is to provide additional electricity for the second largest metropolitan area in Japan that includes Osaka and Kyoto. So, now one nuclear reactor of one nuclear power plant is under operation. Another reactor of the plant, called Oi Nuclear Power Plant, is also planned to start full operation by August.
However, TEPCO, the utility company providing electricity for Tokyo and the Kanto area, has yet no plan to resume nuclear power generation, since its Fukushima Daiichi plant got crippled by the M9.0 earthquake and the big tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011.
If Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) should decide resumption of its nuclear power generation in its nuclear plants, such as Fukushima Daini and Kashiwazaki/Kariha, and the Japanese Government should authorize it, more protesters would gather in front of the PM Office in Tokyo.
Generally speaking, the Japanese nuclear power community, consisting of utility companies, nuclear facility makers, related bureaucrats, etc., does not change their policy to promote nuclear power generation in Japan, though the 3/11 Disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi accident gave a great shock to parties concerned. Especially, Prime Minister Mr. Noda has recently taken a clear step toward restart of nuclear power generation in Japan.
Anyway, the Japanese people experienced living without nuclear power since this May till this July. About 50 nuclear power reactors in Japan were all halted as the public requested more critical testing and assessment for restart of nuclear power plants that were halted for periodic overhauls after March 2011.
One key issue is that PM Mr. Noda had decided to resume nuclear power operation before the investigative committees set up by the government and the parliament did not yet release their final reports. The parliament investigative committee made its report public yesterday. But its recommendations are yet to be implemented by the Japanese Government.
Parties, business leaders, bureaucrats, and politicians promoting the nuclear power operation in Japan claim that Japanese industry and economy would be badly influenced by restriction on supply of electricity. So, for prosperity of Japan, they claim, nuclear power generation is necessary. Otherwise, they assert, Japan will have to purchase crude oil and natural gas at higher prices and the unemployment rate in Japan will increase.
But, from the beginning, it is crazy to build nuclear power plants in Japan that suffers 20% of earthquakes with Magnitude 6.0 or more that occur in the world per year.
Japan should start to forget about nuclear power generation or invent a new technology to make it completely safe.
http://earth.o-oi.net/Category/16/
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Mar 7:6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.