My Experiences as Prime Minister during the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

[graywarrior]

#!

[graywarrior]

1. "My conclusion is that the safest nuclear power plant means not having nuclear power plants at all"

[RobertEarl]

4. This from a man right in the middle of the disaster

As PM he was privy to all the information flowing in about Fukushima. So he was very educated, probably more than anyone.

He must be heartbroken that all he can do now to save his country is talk from the sidelines. And saving Japan is a real question. Not only has radiated water been flowing into the sea for two years now, there are still traces of nuclear reaction isotopes landing on people's houses, their heads and their farm lands.

He is dead right, the only safe nuclear reactor is no reactor. But there on his homeland sits three out of control reactors too dangerous for even robots.

Fukushima will be making news, and spewing radiation, for more than 40 years. That is sad.

[siligut]

2. This needs repeated sharing.

Once a proponent of building more reactors, Prime Minister Naoto Kan took an increasingly anti-nuclear stance in the months following the Fukushima disaster. In May, he ordered the aging Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant be closed over earthquake and tsunami fears, and said he would freeze plans to build new reactors. In July 2011, Mr. Kan said that "Japan should reduce and eventually eliminate its dependence on nuclear energy ... saying that the Fukushima accident had demonstrated the dangers of the technology".[8] In August 2011, the Japanese Government passed a bill to subsidize electricity from renewable energy sources.[9] An energy white paper, approved by the Japanese Cabinet in October 2011, says "public confidence in safety of nuclear power was greatly damaged" by the Fukushima disaster, and calls for a reduction in the nation’s reliance on nuclear power.[10]
As of August 2011, the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is still leaking low levels of radioactivity and areas surrounding it could remain uninhabitable for decades due to high radiation.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_reaction_to_Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster

The excuse is that Japan is different and it won't happen here. Where have we heard this before?

[madokie]

3. No doubt in my mind

and haven't been for a long long time that nuclear energy is neither clean, safe, cheap nor a sane way to make our electricity.
We stopped PSO from building a nuclear power plant upwind of me here. It was a long hard fight but in the end we won.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Fox_Nuclear_Power_Plant