Second Fukushima plant unlikely to reopen: Edano

a great big DUH?!?!?!?!

“I do not believe that we can obtain local approval,”

hahahahahahahaha

Still keeping quiet on what happened at Daini. Please remember that the govt and industry has said nuke power plants are earthquake proof. But Niigata was closed from an earthquake, Fukushima Daichi melted down because of one, and Daini mysteriously shutdown without many details other than "it was slightly damaged". Wake up Japan. Don't build nukes on fault lines.

Seems that when the locals act collectively they can influence decisions that may have an adverse effect on their community.Power to the people, well done

You KNOW corruption and money grubbing are absolutely rampant when they are even CONSIDERING the possibility. If they're saying they might not be able to operate it it really REALLY must be in horrible shape!

And is it me, or has Edano gained quite a bit of weight since we saw him constantly apologizing and saying 'it poses no health hazard' twice a day when this disaster occurred?

The "complex is about 12 km from the stricken daiichi plant" and by definition within the mandatory exclusion zone.

Seriously, how could the government allow any workers to remain in area even they acknowledge is inherently unsafe because of excessive radiation, and will expose workers to more milllisieverts annually than they ever should have? In fact, what about those workers there now? It is unconscionable to ask them to continue to remain at the other plant (also damaged!) just to make electricity no one needs. 11 of 54 reactors are running and no shortages in sight.

Smithinjapan@ I agree! I mean this guy was part of the govt that lied to us and said everything was safe even when they knew on march 12 there were full meltdowns. He's a pr spokesman, a job that has nothing to do with honesty. Anyone putting faith in him should examine what Arnie Gunderson, Michio Kako etc have been saying, not to mention professor Busby and dr. Robert Jacobs. I'm quoting some of them, for some of them are on the record saying the govt knew on March 12th.

“I do not believe that we can obtain local approval,” from Planet Earth!!!

Actually we do not know IF it was a steam explosion or a nuclear one. Dr. Busby was giving some interviews on Russian Today and later held a conference in Japan to discuss this topic, in part. TEPCO says it's this or that, but they have no credibility.

Now in terms of him being anti nuclear or not, such is irrelevant. The fact remains HE we telling people things were safe when they were not. He could oppose nukes and give a hundred conferences a day, but international criticism is and was directed at him too for failing to disclose necessary data he should have given.

You KNOW corruption and money grubbing are absolutely rampant

Yes, it is unfortunate that politics and corruption always seem to go hand-in-hand. Which is why I just can't bring myself to trust any politician anywhere, whatsoever. They kind of rank up there with lawyers as people you can't trust at all. Every politician seems to only put their own agenda ahead of others. And whenever a President, Prime Minister, Governor, etc. seems to do something good, it's only because they are trying to put on a good appearance, or boost their declining approval ratings. Appointing Edano as yet another industry minister is simply a weak way to appease the public's disappointment in the long line of terrible industry ministers before him.

Thank god! Thank the gods !!!

Nope. Not so. And until independent scientists can get there to check it, other well respected scientists will continue to have doubts and question TEPCO.

Btw, France can't take the fuel out because nobody has developed the technology to do so. We dont even know if the fuel is in the reactor or if it melted through to the concrete below, which would explain the decrease in temperature.

Any honest nuclear scientist will tell you they don't know how to fix it, it's as they say "without precedent". France can't swoop in and scoop it out. No human or machine can even approach the reactor because the radiation is off the scale.

You can't get local approval because no one in living there, it is inside the 20 km zone is it not?

Anyone putting faith in him should examine what Arnie Gunderson, Michio Kako etc have been saying, not to mention professor Busby and dr. Robert Jacobs.

Nobody should examine what any of those people are saying. Really, that group? They are just fabricators with a different agenda, the flip side of TEPCO with just as little credibility.

Don't believe what any of the agenda-types say, be it from TEPCO, the government, OR the other side of the coin. We need to hear from independent, unbiased sources.

"I do not believe that we can obtain local approval,"

Uhh, since when did anyone in Japan's nuclear industry or govt truly care about local approval when it comes to siting or operating plants? What about the few plants that are being used to support Japan's supposed secret nuclear weapons program, centered supposedly in Fukushima Pref.? Perhaps those in control don't want any public scrutiny of what's going on down at No. 2?

There's probably a lot more going on here than this article says.

zichi,

as we all know, the stated law is one thing, and the desires of the nuclear industry (in Japan or anywhere else) is quite another. The "local support" in Japan, for all its talk of being democratic, tends to fall pretty far behind both of these. We'll see if your constant faith (since it is like a religion) in the nuclear powers that be in Japan turn out to be true. Only time will tell. I think the sooner all the nuke plants in Japan are shut down and start decommissioning, the better.

Yes, it is unfortunate that politics and corruption always seem to go hand-in-hand.

It does take two to tango. TEPCO is a private enterprise, after all, and corruption even within the business community is not entirely unheard of. Public or private is irrelevant; money corrupts.

It is enough to have some deformation or small structural damage at or near the pressure vessel to make people think twice (or more often) before they restart a nuclear reactor without any kind of release of radioactivity. Just take a minute and imagine the cost for bringing a slightly damaged nuclear plant back into shape, when You suddenly have real safety requirements! This is probably just so expensive that TEPCO doesn't want to take the risk if they know that the plant could be shut down very soon, if public opinion turns against it. The financial risk due to volatile public opinion has changed since March.

@beangry:

I'm nuclear scientist (particle physicisit with minor in nuclear chemistry) and I tell You that it is a f**cking difficult piece of work to make a nuclear explosion happen. There is enough fissile material in the reactors or the spent fuel pools for a criticality, but You'd have to compress it quite a bit to get a nuclear explosion. In a common nuclear bomb, You do this with a conventional bomb. In an H bomb, You do this with a common nuke.

I don't like nuclear plants at all because the main arguments for their use are based on wrong assumptions and the usual argument "cheap power" is pure nonsense. Cheapness is created by subsidiaries and negligence of the true cost factors. Also by bad technological and safety standards. A nuclear plant, which is up to date cost around 4.5 billions of euro, as You can see in Finland. This plant would need about 25 years before it becomes profitable. Calling that cheap is just insane.

@pawatan:

The truth is mostly out there. If You take enough different sources of information and get Yourself some nuclear science education, then it is rather clear which statements are mostly blatant lies and which statements are mostly credible.

@zichi:

TEPCO is too big to fail. Like banks in the US or Europe, the system would suffer on an unknown scale if one of the big banks went bankrupt. Which is the main reasons why they can speculate at high risks, because they know that the taxpayers bear the majority of the risks.