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Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama says that the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant should be nationalized.
Hatoyama made the remarks in an article he co-wrote for British science journal Nature. He criticized Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for its inadequate and late provision of information regarding efforts to bring the power plant under control.
Hatoyama said the public cannot be sure what is going on at the nuclear power plant and called for a wide-ranging probe into the March 11 disaster and TEPCO's handling of the crisis.
As such, he writes, the Daiichi plant must be nationalized so that information can be gathered openly.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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tomatoflight
Of course we "cannot be sure", don't want to cause mass panic huh?
hatsoff
Horses and stable doors, I'm afraid. Nationalizing the NPP would give the government access to records of wrongdoing (assuming they can't demand them), but the government would be saddled with a dead donkey and trillions of yen in compensation obligations. Hatoyama sounds like he has the public interest at heart, but I suspect TEPCO would like nothing more than to be shot of this mill stone.
But hey, I'm not saying there's any collusion going on behind closed doors. I have no evidence to suggest Hatoyama is friendly with TEPCO bosses...LOL
warnerbro
Hatoyama's main points, which Japan Today and every other Japanese media source are ignoring, are that there was likely a nuclear explosion at #3 reactor and the threat of continuing fission and recriticality. The English version of the article is not open but the Japanese is and here is a retranslation from that by a popular blogger "From two observed facts, we believe a nuclear explosion is more likely. First, several transuranic elements have been detected several tens of kilometers away from the plant. Second, the steel trusses in the upper part of the reactor building of Reactor 3 are twisted as if they had been melted."http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/search/label/Yukio%20Hatoyama
vctokyo
this guy is so much out of touch ...japan was so lucky to get rid of him...now he wants to nationalise tepco so he can give cushy amakudari jobs to his mates...no one listen to this loser
issa1
He's a guy totally clueless and if he really wants to help Japan,keep your mouth shut . Trust me obama !
smithinjapan
Ummm... what good would nationalizing this trash can be? If it means the government going in to work on it what difference will it make? they'll have to hire the people on the ground as it is. It would be nice to see the TEPCO management replaced, but only as whole, not solely in regards to the Fukushima plant. What's more, wouldn't relieving TEPCO of control of the plant really only be giving them a break? It's not like the plant can go back into operation and make money or anything. They made the mess, let them clean it up, THEN nationalize TEPCO (not just Fukushima).
warnerbro
Like I said earlier, the most important thing he said was that Japan has nuked itself, without needing Dear Leader Kim's help. There was a nuclear explosion, not merely a hydrogen explosion. The nationalisation issue is almost an aside. The man's a poor political leader but he does have a doctorate in engineering from Stanford and a group of knowledgeable people working with him. Japan Today and Japanese media sources are playing up this nationalisation bit and ignoring the meat of the story.
issa1
To warnerbro
"The man's a poor political leader but he does have a doctorate in engineering from Stanford and a group of knowledgeable people working with him."
Is hard to believe that he has graduated from a university of prestigious as stanford, he's too stupid to have done such a feat. Stanford may have been too much for his intellectual capacity,perhaps that explains the fact that it became a huge idiot.