SOLARWINDPRONET

SOLARWINDPRONET

About me

My photo
Teacher, activist, interested in energy technology, climate change, environmental issues and global security.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The HMS Titanic and Nuclear Power

In its editorial the Japan Times compared Titanic and the nuclear disaster in Japan.

Link: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ed20120415a1.html

That article and the theme was deeply analyzed by professor Karl Grossman in his blog:

http://karlgrossman.blogspot.com/

I warmly recommend both of those stories to all!

JPS

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Politician: Mass-Suicide of Japan If No Nuclear Reactors Running - Familiar Speak also in Finland among Pro-Nuke Politicians

A leading Japanese DPJ -politician Yoshito Sengoku warns that "No nuke plant restart would mean mass suicide of Japan".

Links: EX-SKF:  http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/04/japans-djp-politician-no-nuke-plant.html

In a situation where all but one of the Japanese nuclear reactors are already out of service and the economic growth is still positive for Japan, threathening with a national catastrophe when closing down the last reactor seems quite odd to me. But the similar "Danger" for the whole economy collapsing without nuclear power is painted on the political canvas of Finland when someone suggests closing down our nuclear power plants or demands changes to our policy of building new reactors.

Fear-mongering is often connected to anti-nuke activists when they warn about the dangers of nuclear accidents or low level radiation but I feel that term to be more relevant when speaking about cheer leaders of nuclear industry, like Mr. Sengoku in Japan or  Mr. Mika Seitovirta of Outokumpu Steel Company in Finland.

Most propably nothing catastrophical will happen when the last of Japanese nuclear reactors goes idling in the beginning of May this year. And no crisis will occur when Olkiluoto3 and Fennovoima -nuclear plants will not be built or finished in Finland. The electrical capacity needed will be built in alternative - and better - ways. We'll see!
By the way:
The japanese Government made 2011 some calculations how the nation would survive without nuclear power - and it will! The study made for the government showed 6 % overproduction of electricity in worst case scenario (summer 2012 would be the hottiest summer of history, record many conventional power plants would be halted for service at the same time - and no nuclear power would be available!)

Link: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120123p2a00m0na007000c.html

(Sorry about the source - Mainichi web page - had been made unavailable recently. So I can't provide a working link for this study any more!)

JPS

US SENATOR RON WYDEN: SPENT FUEL POOL OF FD REACTOR 4 VERY DANGEROUS - SENT A LETTER TO WARN POLITICIANS AND NRC

According to US Senator Ron Wyden the unit 4's spent fuel pool may collapse if a major seismic event occurs and the consequences could be worse than the March 11th 2011 earthquake-tsunami -related meltdown accident fallout.

Japan is not moving fast enough in removing the nuclear fuel rods from the units and the U.S. should offer help for speeding things up. Wyden sent letters to Ambassador Ischiro Fujisaki, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko.

TEPCO and Japan's Foreign Ministry haven't commented the issue.

Link: The Wall Street Journal - Japan: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/04/17/fukushima-daiichis-achilles-heel-unit-4s-spent-fuel/

JPS

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal Mitsuhei Murata Wrote a Letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon To Warn of World-Wide Nuclear Fallout If SFP-4 Collapses

Akio Matsumura, a former Japanese UN-official and a well known negotiator, shares Mitsuhei Murata's  concern about the risk of Fukushima Daichi reactor -4 spent fuel pool to collapse due a possible strong eathquake. The loosing of cooling water in such a situation would cause a nuclear catastrophe far more severe than Chernobyl - the SFP-4 and the common SFP situated 50m away from SFP-4 would get out of control burning, melting down and releasing freely radiation 85 times the amount of Chernobyl  during the next 50 years. Containing the accident would be impossible, Tokyo and Central Japan would have to be evacuated and abandonned. The radioactive fallout would be severe around the world.

According to Akio Matsumura and Mitsuhei Murata it is needed now to collect all available human knowledge to avoid a catastrophe of SFP-4.

Read the letter to Ban Ki-moon published by Akio Matsumura here: http://akiomatsumura.com/2012/04/682.html

The video-interview  of Akio Matsumura can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KwCfAY4iyPQ

JPS