WSJ: In Japan, Resistance Rises To Nuclear-Power Plans

[bananas]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121554213823836415.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

In Japan, Resistance Rises To Nuclear-Power Plans
By YUKA HAYASHI
July 9, 2008; Page A8

KARIWA VILLAGE, Japan -- As global interest in nuclear power grows, Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s struggle with the world's largest nuclear plant -- shut down after an earthquake a year ago -- illustrates how tricky and expensive operating such facilities can be.

<snip>


Last July's earthquake damaged a road to Tokyo Electric Power's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power plant.

"I thought I had made peace with the power plant, but now I can't keep it out of my mind," says Yonin Kondo, a 59-year-old fishmonger and village assembly member who lives about a mile from the plant.

Public opinion hasn't been helped by a series of other incidents at Japan's nuclear facilities. In 2006, Tokyo Electric's internal investigation found 23 cases of data manipulation at nuclear facilities to cover up problems, both minor and serious. The company says it has since undertaken steps to increase transparency and improve ethical standards.

Recent findings that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant lies close to active earthquake faults have raised questions about safety. While two new plants are under construction and a third was approved recently, safety concerns have all but scuttled Japan's goal of adding 13 nuclear reactors to its array of 55 over the next decade or so.

<snip>


Protesters against the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant held a rally in Kashiwazaki City in late June.

[chknltl]

1. Anti-nuke? Gets an automatic recommend from me!

No hiding from it, I am AGAINST nuke plants. Too dangerous and produce waste equally dangerous. I am not buying into the propaganda that the plants can be built in such a way as to render them perfectly safe from natural disaster...this story illuminates but one example of where the environment has not been considered ENOUGH prior to the building of a plant.

Not that they want us to worry about such details and I would not be astonished to hear them assure us that we have nothing to worry about but: Global warming suggests more frequent and even more stronger hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico..... and yet these same nuke proponents are eager to see nuke plants built in the areas that could be affected by those very hurricanes.

[ladjf]

2. It's encouraging to see that Japan is beginning to realize that

nuclear power generation is not worth the risks.

[phantom power]

3. I wonder what they plan to use instead.

[Nihil]

4. Who cares?

The anti-nuke knee-jerkers upthread certainly don't.

When the nuclear plants have been offline in the past, the shortfall
has been made up by coal-fired stations with assistance from gas-fired
ones ... but if anyone bothers to point this out they are accused of
putting a false dichotomy in place instead of playing the "maybe" game
in the fluffy-bunny world ...
:shrug:

[DCKit]

5. Geothermal, wave, tide and ocean current generators, offshore windmills....

Oh wait, they're on volcanic islands. Never mind.