Japan Quake Is Causing Costly Shift to Fossil Fuels

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

YOKOSUKA, Japan — The half-century-old, oil-fueled power generators here had been idle for more than a year when, a day after the nuclear accident in March, orders came from Tokyo Electric Power headquarters to fire them up.

“They asked me how long it would take,” said Masatake Koseki, head of the Yokosuka plant, which is 40 miles south of Tokyo and run by Tokyo Electric. “The facilities are old, so I told them six months. But they said, ‘No, you must ready them by summer to prepare for an energy shortage.’ ”

Now, at summer’s peak, Yokosuka’s two fuel-oil and two gas turbines are cranking out a total of 900,000 kilowatts of electricity — and an abundance of fumes.

The generators are helping to replace the 400 million kilowatt-hours of daily electricity production lost this summer because of the shutdown of all but 15 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Across the country, dozens of other fossil-fuel plants have been fired up, and Japan is importing billions of dollars worth of liquefied natural gas, coal and oil to keep them running.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/business/energy-environment/quake-in-japan-is-causing-a-costly-shift-to-fossil-fuels.html?pagewanted=all

[sense]

1. Politically charged headline belies

the truth. The stupidity and arrogance of insisting on nuclear power caused their having to shift to fossil fuels. So many years have been wasted and so much damage done by heading in the wrong direction for our energy needs.

[Devil_Fish]

2. I was not logged in when I opened this and the accompanying add was for solar panels.

Ironic that google get's it, and the Japanese don't. If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.