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Court battles could further delay nuclear reactor restarts

13 Comments
By Mari Saito and Kentaro Hamada

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13 Comments
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Having visited Fukui Prefecture many times when I lived in the Kansai (the area known originally as Wakasa and containing Obama City), I think the courts should hold the government and the "regulatory" authorities to the highest standards. Too much is at stake. Although losing population, the prefecture has a lot of cultural sites because of the traditional intercourse with China and the Korean Peninsula. Obama is the terminus of the saba no michi -- the mackerel road which supplied Kyoto with seafood in traditional times. It also is the terminus of omizu okuri connecting it to Nara temples.

In the aftermath of Fukushima, surveys of the reactors in Fukui revealed that many if not most if not all were designed to withstand earthquakes and tsunami thought to be "a hundred year" event (once every hundred years). Well, that is not good enough. If a Fukui reactor goes down and contaminates Biwako, not only Shiga but also Kyoto and maybe as far as Nara will no longer have water to live. There were many Kyoto University professors (the place was a bastion of pro-nuke and alternative energy factions), who have changed their minds post-Fukushima. Who can blame them?

I hope the courts judge wisely and prudently.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

In the Ohi decision last May, the Fukui court judge said protecting residents’ health from a potential nuclear accident was more important than any financial gains the country may get from restarting stalled plants.

At last someone intelligent !

4 ( +4 / -0 )

All right, but if these people lose, can we try them for Treason charges? While the best they can say is that they are stopping the relatively low probability of an accident, these delay tactics are certainly costing the power companies, and ultimately the Japanese people by the billions. Frankly, they are hurting Japan more than say a little leaked info.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Declining population, declining exports & domestic production....do they really need so many nuclear reactors?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Abe wants...judge will decide...people don't want... No objectivity, Japan is a fantasy world! Nuclear is for mature psychologically country, not for countries which power is held by a bunch of persons and who shouts louder wins. Pathetic. Compare to my country (France) in that field at least, this is just unbearable. So although being pro-nuclear, i am against it for Japan as long as independent structures are not world recognized.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

No to restarts. None.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Yes to restarts. All.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

some14some: Declining population, declining exports & domestic production....do they really need so many nuclear reactors?

If China and Japan go all out, they're just big fat targets, all you gotta do is kill the power to them and they go boom on their own after an hour or so, evac zones many kilometers in radius.

And it's not like it's a big secret we shouldn't talk about, anyone reading the news the last four years knows that, even Chinese military intelligence.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Nuclear power is the least efficient and, obviously, the most dangerous form of electricity production. Around 30% of the power produced by nuclear plants is is used in the production. Running cooling systems, monitoring stations, etc. yeah, fossil fuels produce CO2 and they use around 20% of the energy produced to run the plants. Japan has so many billions of dollars invested in nuclear power it will be nearly impossible to get the right-wing LDP to give them up. The DPJ is all for abandoning Japan's nuclear power dependecy. The other day, the world's fist ocean wave energy plant was connected to the city grid in Perth. It's not the first wave energy plant, but it is the first to be connected to a city grid, which only uses 5% of the energy produced in running the system. These stone-headed sonars and their cronies won't let go of the investment in nuclear power and will continue to do whatever they can to keep it. I get sick of hearing the same old, "Japan has no resources" argument. The truth is, the japanese government has no imagination or vision of the future and are still trying to recapture the days of old.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Nuclear power is the least efficient and, obviously, the most dangerous form of electricity production.

It's also the least polluting.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Disillusioned: Japan has so many billions of dollars invested in nuclear power it will be nearly impossible to get the right-wing LDP to give them up.

Why should they? TEPCO not punished for all their screwups at Fukushima Daaichi, in fact rewarded with absolution, bailout, and cleanup funding for next 40 years, current estimate. Won't even start pulling the melted fuel out til 2025, current estimate. Indentured yakuza-supplied workers may get shorted their pay but you can be sure the TEPCO executives won't.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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