Shunning Nuclear Plants at Home, Japan Pursues Building Them Overseas

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

Even as Japan plans to phase out nuclear power as too risky for domestic use, the government is supporting a new push by Japanese industry to sell nuclear power technology to other countries.

Japanese industrial conglomerates, with the cooperation of the government in Tokyo, are renewing their pursuit of multibillion-dollar projects, particularly in smaller energy-hungry countries like Vietnam and Turkey. The effort comes despite criticism within Japan by environment groups and opposition politicians.

It may seem a stretch for Japan to acclaim its nuclear technology overseas while struggling at home to contain the nuclear meltdowns that displaced more than 100,000 people. But Japan argues that its latest technology includes safeguards not present at the decades-old reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, which continues to leak radiation.

While Fukushima Daiichi could not withstand the magnitude 9 quake and the tsunami that ravaged much of Japan’s northeast coast in March, Japanese officials argue, their nation has learned valuable lessons — and has good nuclear track record withstanding most earlier earthquakes.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/business/global/shunning-nuclear-plants-at-home-japan-pursues-building-them-overseas.html?pagewanted=all

[valerief]

1. They'll probably build them in the United-States-For-Sale- All-Bids-Considered. nt

[Cool Logic]

2. Well, they do have to eat.

[Muskypundit]

3. Japan has a good track record overall with nuclear power.... jesus christ.

This isn't a football season, where you win if you don't lose a lot. This is nuclear fucking power. If you lose once, you are fucked. This isn't even god damned oil drilling in the ocean. You lose once at nukes and say goodbye to a good chunk of your country for the rest of your life. Ignorance, pure unfiltered ignorance. Leave it to capitalist governments to not learn the lesson when there is money involved.