nuclear-news

Nuclear dilemma facing Japan

Japan’s nuclear energy dilemma Alex Thomson, 17 July 13 Everything about nuclear power is divisive…..

(at left – Japan- solar-powered radiation monitor)       ….even as they continue to pour tonnes of water daily into the reactor fuel rods at Fukushima to stop a full-scale meltdown; even as they struggle to isolate why the place is leaking radioactive water into the Pacific; even as they cannot explain why caesium levels near to Reactor 2 are now higher than at any time since the earthquake struck the plant – even as all this is gong on, the Japanese nuclear industry is rousing itself from idling offline and looking to generate power once again.

Ten nuclear power plants are actively lobbying to restart full operations, and most are sited at or near the coast, as is the Japanese way. Many – like Fukushima – are old plants now and desperate to get back into the game after sitting offline for this long period of national Japanese soul-searching.

Yet a recent demonstration against the nuclear industry brought more than 30,000 onto the streets of Tokyo. That is a big number in Japan…… Even as they struggle to contain what is going on in the plant (and nobody really knows the full extent of that) debate rages across Japan and beyond……

For now though, they are still crisis-managing at the stricken plant itself. Indeed whether they really are managing it at all is another level altogether of raging debate. Meanwhile, there are permanent-looking radiation monitors which have spring up for miles around the plant itself, displaying to the public the background radiation levels twenty-four seven.

Nobody much notices them nowadays. But I cannot help seeing they are powered by solar panels. http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/japans-nuclear-energy-dilemma/5381

July 18, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics