nuclear-news

Never mind Fukushima. Japan’s Prime Minister Abe is all for more nuclear power

Japanese premier defends nuclear power’s necessity on eve of Fukushima anniversary, DW, 10 Mar 16 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said Japan “cannot do without” nuclear power ahead of the fifth anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami. Japan’s leader also pledged to bolster decontamination efforts in irradiated areas. Abe pledged Thursday to accelerate reconstruction efforts in tsunami-hit northern Japan and the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games.

But in the wake of an unprecedented court ruling that ordered two reactors to remain offline due to safety fears, he argued that Japan needed nuclear power to feed its energy needs…….

Public anger over the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor and skepticism in general toward authorities in the wake of the 9.0 earthquake that struck March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami – remains intense……

The institutionally cozy ties between politicians, bureaucrats and the nuclear industry has left unresolved calls for reform and widespread distrust among members of the public who continue to be told that nuclear power is safe.

“Ties between the bureaucracy and industry are still very strong – it’s a legacy of government-led development when the country was underdeveloped (after World War II),” Muneyuki Shindo, an honorary politics professor at Chiba University, told the AFP news agency………

A national ceremony will be held Friday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the disaster to be attended by Abe, the emperor and empress and other dignitaries.

Official investigations laid the blame on plant operator Tokyo Electric Power – three former executives are facing a criminal trial – and Fukushima has been labeled a “man-made” disaster.

Already some changes are evident; a number of tsunami-struck communities have been moved to higher ground, while bigger seawalls are going up along the coast and higher barriers are being erected to protect at-risk reactors.

Scientists note that timing is important as the country experiences about 20 percent of the world’s biggest quakes annually, and recently has been more seismically active than usual. http://www.dw.com/en/japanese-premier-defends-nuclear-powers-necessity-on-eve-of-fukushima-anniversary/a-19106430

March 11, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general