All 17 Of TEPCO's Nuclear Reactors Now Halted

[webfact]

All 17 of TEPCO's Nuclear reactors now halted

The Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network

JAPAN - All 17 of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s nuclear reactors are now suspended after TEPCO halted its last operating reactor around midnight Sunday at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

TEPCO suspended operations of the 1.35 million-kilowatt No. 6 reactor at the power plant at around midnight Sunday for a regular checkup. Of the 54 commercial nuclear reactors in the nation, the No. 3 reactor of Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s Tomari nuclear power plant is the only one still operating.

"We expect that we can ensure a steady supply of electricity for the time being, but we would like to request people's cooperation in saving electricity whenever possible, [more...]

Full story: http://www.asiaone.c...327-335923.html

-- asiaone 2012-03-27

[Joel Barlow]

Good.

[fire and ice]

Knee jerk reaction - Fukushima resulted in one death and that person worked at the plant. Its 99% just paranoia about radiation. There wont be any massive LT problems from Fukushima apart form fear mongering from ignorant greenies(with their own neurotic agendas), and mostly paranoid people who have no understanding of any of it except to swallow media hype and greenie BS. Anti nuclear sentiment is only substantial due to the (voting)power of the huge % of numerically illiterate people in any society.

[sparebox2]

I hope they are shut forever. Evil atomic power.

[HerbalEd]

Knee jerk reaction - Fukushima resulted in one death and that person worked at the plant. Its 99% just paranoia about radiation. There wont be any massive LT problems from Fukushima apart form fear mongering from ignorant greenies(with their own neurotic agendas), and mostly paranoid people who have no understanding of any of it except to swallow media hype and greenie BS. Anti nuclear sentiment is only substantial due to the (voting)power of the huge % of numerically illiterate people in any society.

Have you watched/listened/read the news in the last year??? Fukushima .... besides killing one person (so far) ... has made a large residential area completely unlivable for many decades (centuries?) to come, and is still spreading nuclear waste into the environment .... including the west coast of America and Canada.

[mowgus]

Hey, sure, shut down all the nuclear power plants. Oh...you don't want to burn coal because it pollutes the environment?? Hmmm...uhhh...then turn off your electricity.

This is the problem. Nuclear power (if run responsibly) is a cleaner choice and actually better for the environment. The Fukushima accident occurred because they under estimated a possible tsunami of that magnitude. And, there are other nuclear power plants that are also in danger zones (not just in Japan) that should be re-examined. The plant survived the quake... it was the fact that their diesel generators were washed out to sea that screwed them. They didn't have any power to keep the core cool.

Most of todays modern plants have more contingency in place to provide power in the event of a catastrophe.

Admittedly, nuclear power is scary because it is a force we have little control over. However, how quickly we forget the BP oil disaster that killed 11 men and caused environmental damage that will last for generations. And yet we still keep pumping oil. Hypocritical. Until we figure out a way to efficiently store sustainable energy like wind and solar, we will have to deal with the waste (in one form or another).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill

[midas]

Knee jerk reaction - Fukushima resulted in one death and that person worked at the plant. Its 99% just paranoia about radiation. There wont be any massive LT problems from Fukushima apart form fear mongering from ignorant greenies(with their own neurotic agendas), and mostly paranoid people who have no understanding of any of it except to swallow media hype and greenie BS. Anti nuclear sentiment is only substantial due to the (voting)power of the huge % of numerically illiterate people in any society.

obviously you don't have a clue what you are talking about regarding the damage that was caused!

stop spreading propaganda

[ronz28]

Shutting down the Nukes is a first step but each plant still has on its site spent nuclear fuel rods that are more radioactive than when they were put into the reactors. The spent fuel must be cooled even during earthquakes and Tsunamis and if they are not, they start producing hydrogen from the water they are cooled in and then explode, contaminating the environment for centuries as in Fukushima.

Edited March 27, 2012 by ronz28

[thaibeachlovers]

What I don't understand, is how with all the nukes shut down they can still supply all Japan's electricity needs. What were they doing with all the presumably fossil fuelled power plants when the nukes were running?

There has been no mention of whether they can continue to supply all power needs, if the cost will increase, and the amount of greenhouse gases being produced. Electricity doesn't come out of thin air, there is obviously some change happening/ going to happen.

I notice that the global warming crowd has been remarkably silent about the increase in air pollution being presently caused in Japan.

[fire and ice]

Knee jerk reaction - Fukushima resulted in one death and that person worked at the plant. Its 99% just paranoia about radiation. There wont be any massive LT problems from Fukushima apart form fear mongering from ignorant greenies(with their own neurotic agendas), and mostly paranoid people who have no understanding of any of it except to swallow media hype and greenie BS. Anti nuclear sentiment is only substantial due to the (voting)power of the huge % of numerically illiterate people in any society.

obviously you don't have a clue what you are talking about regarding the damage that was caused!

stop spreading propaganda

Like I said: Numerically illiterate people.

This is where such 'propaganda' comes from, I rarely see pro-nuclear 'propaganda', mostly articulate properly researched points of view. The 'propaganda' is always from the anti-nuclear crowd who are vague & emotive, and ignore all the data in favour of anecdotes. Whenever a factual argument is presented they ignore it and reply with something unrelated to the point made.

[fire and ice]

Knee jerk reaction - Fukushima resulted in one death and that person worked at the plant. Its 99% just paranoia about radiation. There wont be any massive LT problems from Fukushima apart form fear mongering from ignorant greenies(with their own neurotic agendas), and mostly paranoid people who have no understanding of any of it except to swallow media hype and greenie BS. Anti nuclear sentiment is only substantial due to the (voting)power of the huge % of numerically illiterate people in any society.

Have you watched/listened/read the news in the last year??? Fukushima .... besides killing one person (so far) ... has made a large residential area completely unlivable for many decades (centuries?) to come, and is still spreading nuclear waste into the environment .... including the west coast of America and Canada.

Whilst there is long term damage from nuclear accidents, it pales into insignificance when compared to the vast damage to the environment other sources of power cause and in terms of human life, gas, coal, hydro construction etc results in countless deaths which rarely make world news, but when one person dies in a nuclear accident its suddenly more dangerous than all the others. Additionally the paranoia about radiation has "safe levels" set at absurdly low levels that are extremely excessive when compared to daily risks one is exposed to in everyday life. If the "safe levels" were set to be actually comparable to other 'acceptable risk levels; in society you would find only a small fraction of the "unliveable" areas would actually really be "unliveable".

Its akin to people avoiding a holiday Thailand because there was a Govt terrorist warning, but otherwise not being phased by the 1000 times more likelihood you will get killed in a road accident whilst holidaying in Thailand. To the media & public sentiment road accidents are relatively mundane, but a terrorist risk so there is a lot of media frenzy about it. But the reality is that road accidents kill more tourists. Likewise: Coal, gas kill many but nuclear is a media frenzy swallowed all-too-whole by people's emotions and lack of real insight.

[midas]

Knee jerk reaction - Fukushima resulted in one death and that person worked at the plant. Its 99% just paranoia about radiation. There wont be any massive LT problems from Fukushima apart form fear mongering from ignorant greenies(with their own neurotic agendas), and mostly paranoid people who have no understanding of any of it except to swallow media hype and greenie BS. Anti nuclear sentiment is only substantial due to the (voting)power of the huge % of numerically illiterate people in any society.

obviously you don't have a clue what you are talking about regarding the damage that was caused!

stop spreading propaganda

Like I said: Numerically illiterate people.

This is where such 'propaganda' comes from, I rarely see pro-nuclear 'propaganda', mostly articulate properly researched points of view. The 'propaganda' is always from the anti-nuclear crowd who are vague & emotive, and ignore all the data in favour of anecdotes. Whenever a factual argument is presented they ignore it and reply with something unrelated to the point made.

can you please advise how is it possible to be " numerically literate " regarding this matter

when those in charge deliberately concealed data?

Escobar on Fukushima email leak: ‘Deleting data a cover-up’

It’s emerged that at the height of Japan’s nuclear crisis last March, the authorities in Fukushima concealed radiation data vital to safely evacuate people from that area. Japan has a computer system designed to predict the spread of radioactive releases. But local media reports say the prefecture’s government deleted the e-mails detailing it. RT talks to Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar.

http://www.infowars....ata-a-cover-up/

Edited March 30, 2012 by midas

[thaibeachlovers]

Well, if going "fossil" fuel causes an increase in electricity prices, we'll see how committed to being anti nuclear the Japanese are!

[ronz28]

Earth to Japan- get off your rear-end and deal with your radiation mess before you contaminate the world and wipe out life on the planet. You brag that you have 11,421 nuclear power plant fuel rods exposed to open air in a Tsunami, earthquake prone area, not in a sufficiently cooled and protected containment vessel!!! These are spent fuel rods whose contamination potential is worse than before they are used. http://enenews.com/former-japan-ambassador-warns-govt-committee-a-global-catastrophe-like-we-have-never-before-experienced-if-no-4-collapses-common-spent-fuel-pool-with-6375-fuel-rods-in-jeopardy-would

[metisdead]

A reply to a troll post has been removed, stop with the posturing, eh.

[ronz28]

Responsible nuclear power is fine...just not cost effective when total potential cleanup costs are considered, but this is totally irresponsible. US has a bunch of them too that should be shut down and the spent nuclear rods moved to a safe area in a mountain not subject to earthquakes, etc., but that's off topic.

Edited April 6, 2012 by ronz28

[maidu]

It's sad when you think of all the efforts and money put towards nuclear in Japan. It's also sad when you see that much of the boosterism for nuclear was over-amped. Much of that hyped promotion was sincerely believed by the promoters, whereas much was known to be devious at the time. Now Japan can start the process of dusting itself off and moving onward with renewables. It already has a wealth of thermal potential, and they're aware of the attributes of solar and wind and tidal. Good luck to the Japanese people. Sorry, it had to take such a disaster to compel them to change to more sensible sources of power.

As for Thailand: Because of Fukushima disaster, Egat has been laying low with its hopes to get Thailand to go nuclear. Egat is hoping people will soon forget, because some moneyed VIP Thais are still eager to get some Nuke power plants built. I hope they don't succeed. Thai engineers need to wake up, test, research, and find out what's going on in the vanguard of alternatives - then choose what's best for Thailand's future. There are some exciting and viable developments going on at the vanguard of renewables and alternative power generation.

Edited April 9, 2012 by maidu